Desktop Icons

Windows-style files and shortcuts on the Omarchy wallpaper.

Anchor Shell migration note

This copy is managed by Anchor Shell in modules/anchor-shell/plugins/desktop-icons/. It keeps the local plugin ID and command behavior, but stores icon positions under ~/.local/state/anchor-shell/. The icon layer owns the whole output so marquee selection can start from any edge. Empty-wallpaper right-clicks are forwarded to Labwc's root menu (A-space / wtype); right-clicking an icon still opens this plugin's item menu.

Labwc 上出现过的空白图标、框选方向、跨屏拖拽问题，以及不能改回去的约束，记在 docs/runtime-troubleshooting.md。

Upstream source and local maintenance

• Upstream repository: Henri1130/omarchy-desktop-icons
• Upstream plugin directory: repository root, originally published as desktop-icons
• Local maintained copy: modules/anchor-shell/plugins/desktop-icons/

This copy includes Anchor Shell/Labwc integration and local multi-monitor behavior. Review upstream changes manually before applying them here; the active copy is not updated with omarchy plugin update.

[!IMPORTANT] This plugin is for Omarchy 4 (Quattro), where the desktop shell uses Quickshell.

What it does

• Shows ~/Desktop as icons on every monitor, under windows and the bar
• Snapshots a folder's Dolphin color icon into a new desktop shortcut; later color changes do not alter the shortcut
• Double-click an icon to open it; single-click selects it, and dragging moves it (snaps to a grid)
• Drag on empty wallpaper to draw a selection rectangle; intersecting icons are selected together
• On multiple monitors, each icon belongs to one monitor and can be dragged across the virtual desktop; its monitor assignment and grid position are remembered
• Right-click empty wallpaper opens Labwc's native desktop menu (the layer forwards A-space); right-clicking an icon opens this plugin's item menu
• Right-click an icon: Open, Rename, Show in Files, Move to Trash
• Drag an icon onto Trash, or drop files from Files onto Trash, to delete them
• Drag files from Files onto the wallpaper to copy them there
• Untrusted .desktop launchers show a warning badge and ask before they run

.desktop launchers only run if they are trusted: they came from a real Applications directory (/usr/share/applications, ~/.local/share/applications, and other XDG application dirs), the file is marked executable, or you allow launching from the desktop (same model as GNOME). A folder merely named applications is not enough. Names and icons from launchers are treated as plain text and local theme or raster image files only. Remote URLs, inline resources, SVG/GIF icon loading, and unbounded Desktop folders are rejected.

Install

Point Omarchy at a real ~/Desktop folder first, if you do not already have one:

mkdir -p ~/Desktop

In ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs set:

XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop"

Then:

xdg-user-dirs-update

The active Anchor Shell copy is loaded from the Nix-managed repository path above. The upstream omarchy plugin add command is only for installing the standalone Omarchy version and is not part of the Anchor Shell runtime.

Dolphin context menu

The Anchor Shell NixOS integration installs a Dolphin service menu named Send to Desktop (create shortcut). It accepts files, folders, and application launchers selected in Dolphin and reuses bin/add-to-desktop.

Use

Pin application from Applications marks launchers as trusted. Send to Desktop and copies of a .desktop file only auto-trust when the source is under a real Applications directory. A .desktop file that merely appears in ~/Desktop without the executable bit does not.

Validate from source

omarchy plugin validate .
python3 tests/test_desktop_index.py

Improvements

These changes keep the plugin's security model intact (remote/SVG icons rejected, trust required, sizes bounded, no shell-out of Exec) while improving responsiveness, ordering, and accessibility:

• Instant refresh: the Desktop folder is watched via a FileView (watchChanges), so icons appear, move, or get deleted instantly when the watch fires. A short debounce coalesces bursty events, and a 30 s safety poll backs it up when the watch misses. A running-process guard prevents overlap.
• Keyboard navigation: Tab / Shift+Tab / arrow keys move the selection in visual grid order (top-to-bottom, left-to-right); Enter opens, Delete trashes, Esc cancels.
• New items at the bottom, no overlap: added shortcuts or folders are placed in the bottom-most free grid cell (just past the last icon), skipping any cell already occupied by a manually dragged icon. Existing icons keep their positions, and dragging an icon is never disturbed.
• Trust prompt by the icon: the "Untrusted launcher" dialog now opens next to the icon instead of screen-centered.
• Cleaner code: desktop_dir(), guess_icon(), and unique_dest() were extracted into bin/common.py and imported by both desktop-index and add-to-desktop.
• Correct paths: place_one returns the real created path (capturing the helper's stdout), and add-to-desktop prints the created path.
• Trust from real Applications dirs only: pinning or copying a .desktop file no longer auto-trusts just because a parent folder is named applications (for example ~/Downloads/applications).
• Rename: right-click Rename or press F2 to rename folders, files, and shortcuts in place. The icon stays on its grid cell.
• New Shortcut: the hyperlink dialog ships in bin/create-hyperlink, so published installs can paste a web address without a separate ~/.local/bin copy.