On Friday 26 Aug 2011 Michael D. Berger wrote:

On my old CentOS 5 KDE, if I add a link to ~/Desktop, it appears on the desktop as an icon. But on my new CentOS 6 KDE, this does not work.

The reason is that Desktop is quite simply a directory - remember how it fits into the file system tree. KDE 3.x made a special case of that directory, making everything in it visible on your workspace. The default in KDE 4.x is not so.

How can I make it work?

Two things you can do, depending on how you like to work.

a) Right-click on an open space on your desktop. You will see that it is set to Type: Desktop. This is intended to stay a clean, empty desktop, apart from any widgets that you choose to add. If you change the type to Folderview it will in fact show the contents of ~/Desktop - looking exactly like your old view.

b) If you like a clean desktop, but miss the easy access to shortcuts, etc., you can add a Folderview widget. Initially it is rather big and points to ~/ If you hover over a folderview you will see a 'handle' or 'toolbox' appear. The top icon allows you to resize it - you can also resize the icons within it by mouse-scrolling. The second icon is for rotation - most people don't use that. The next icon opens the Settings menu - and there you can change the directory that the folderview points to - if you use remote directories that is very useful.

You will find many changes explained in UserBase, but I'd recommend that you start with http://userbase.kde.org/Plasma - and the other section I'd really recommend that you read early is the Dolphin pages, particularly http://userbase.kde.org/Dolphin/File_Management

HTH

Anne