KDE Applications on Windows

Updated 1,432 Days AgoPublic

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Far better applications can be had on Windows if you just install KDE ones. Luckily, they're well-written enough that they tend to be pretty native cross-platform (hence Konqueror's rendering engine conquered the browser world).

Upstream documentation and more links at: https://community.kde.org/Windows

Pre-built

• Kate (superior text editor)
• Some installers also available at https://keithzg.ca/binary
• Autobuilt binaries at https://binary-factory.kde.org/
• Windows Store link for browser view or using ms-windows-store://

Build it yourself

Also pretty easy to build things yourself, relatively speaking. See the official documentation for Craft for full details, but here's a quick walkthrough:

1. Install Python, if you haven't already., probably choosing:
   • Install launcher for all users (recommended)
   • Add Python 3.x to PATH
   • Customize Installation → Next → Advanced Options :
     • additionally check Install for all users
     • Change install location to something less weird like C:\Python38-32 or such.
   • Isn't there an option at the end to remove the path length limit? Hmm, not on the 32-bit exe maybe?
2. Enable Developer Mode so you can have symlinks like the year isn't 1977. Go Settings app → Update & Security → For developers.
3. Start a new PowerShell session (maybe in the Windows Terminal app if you have it, otherwise just open PowerShell) and run the following commands
   1. Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned to allow you to run the script
   2. iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/KDE/craft/master/setup/install_craft.ps1')) to grab and run the install script
      1. At one point it will ask you to choose a compiler. You can either:
         • Grab Visual Studio 2019 Community Edition, which is necessary for anything that uses QtWebEngine, or
         • Just choose MinGW if you want the script to download and use MinGW, which other than failing for QtWebEngine actually supports more applications. For example if you want to install KPatience you'll need to chose MinGW.

If while it's installing git you get a completely mysterious message saying

Insert the diskette that contains the batch file
and press any key when ready.

I'm sure it's fine, press ⌃+c to end the current step it's trying and it should continue just fine, with no ill effects.

Alright, now run the command it says to launch the environment (ex. C:\CraftRoot\craft\craftenv.ps1 et voila. Time to start compiling things! Basic operation is extremely easy. The first compile make take a long time, but later ones should usually take a lot less time because many of the same dependencies will already be compiled.

Some things you can try:

• craft kpat for a good oldskool-style Solitair/Freecell/etc game
• craft dolphin for a tabbed file browser (c'mon Microsoft, get with the program already and give Windows Explorer tabs, even goddamn Apple adopted tabs!)

Some further possible gotchas

You may need to also install Python 2.7 for some packages.. As of this writing you can grab that from https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-2718/, then install it to something like C:\Python27 and change the Craft settings ini accordingly, probably just uncommenting-out the line like

## Some applications may need python 2.7
#Python27 = C:\python27

changing to

## Some applications may need python 2.7
Python27 = C:\python27