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Releases: Enumber/deskctl

v2.2.0 — updates itself now

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@Enumber Enumber released this 21 Jul 12:12

Auto-update / 自动升级

deskctl can now update itself in place — no re-cloning. It checks GitHub for a newer release at startup and tells you if there is one; it never downloads or changes anything on its own, and any failure to check is silent (no network, timeout, rate-limit — all skipped without a word). Turn the startup check off in settings or during install; the manual check now button still works either way. Replaced files are backed up first, and your recorded original desktop settings (~/.config/deskctl/) are never touched.

自动升级:启动时静默查一次 GitHub 有没有新版并告诉你,绝不自作主张下载或改动;查询失败(没网/超时/限流)一律安静跳过。可在设置或安装时关掉启动检查,手动检查按钮照常可用。被替换的文件会先备份,你那份"原始桌面设置备份"(~/.config/deskctl/)一概不动。

Everything else / 其余不变

The v2.1 taskbar controls (transparency, size, flattening) and desktop right-click menu settings are unchanged, as is the rule that everything goes through gsettings: no system file is modified, nothing needs root, and no extension is ever installed automatically. Restore Defaults still puts back your own values, not GNOME's.

v2.1 的任务栏控制(透明度、大小、展平)与桌面右键菜单设置保持不变;依旧全部通过 gsettings 完成——不改系统文件、不需要 root、不自动装任何扩展。「恢复默认」恢复的仍是你自己原来的值

Install / 安装

git clone https://github.com/Enumber/deskctl.git
cd deskctl
bash install.sh

Already on v2.x? Just git pull — or let the new update check tell you.

Full documentation: README · 中文说明

v2.1.0 — taskbar transparency & flattening, desktop menu settings

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@Enumber Enumber released this 21 Jul 08:52

Taskbar controls filled out, and the desktop right-click menu is now wired into the app.

任务栏补齐了控制项,桌面右键菜单也接进了设置界面。

Taskbar / 任务栏

  • Transparency — pick how the dock decides its background (follow theme / fixed / dynamic) and set the opacity when it is fixed.
    A gotcha worth knowing: the opacity value is only read when the mode is Fixed. Left on the default mode, dragging an opacity slider writes the value correctly and changes nothing on screen — so dragging it here switches the mode for you (and that switch is recorded too, so Restore Defaults undoes both).
    透明度 —— 选择背景模式(跟随主题 / 固定 / 动态)并在固定模式下调不透明度。有个坑:不透明度只有在固定模式下才会被读取,停在默认模式上怎么拖都没有视觉变化,所以拖滑块时会自动帮你切到固定模式(这次切换也进备份,能一起还原)。
  • Size — the existing icon-size control now states the allowed 16–64 range and that it is an upper bound, not a fixed size.
    大小 —— 图标大小项补上了 16–64 的允许范围说明,并说清它是上限而不是固定值。
  • Flattening — three separate switches, because they are three different things: extend to the full screen edge, square off the rounded corners, and shrink the padding.
    展平 —— 拆成三个开关,因为它们本来就是三件事:顶满整条屏幕边、去掉圆角、收紧内边距。

Desktop right-click menu / 桌面右键菜单

The menu items that are genuinely backed by settings — arrangement order, keep arranged, keep stacked, sort special folders, starting corner, and the show/hide group for home, trash, volumes, network, link emblems and drop position — are now in the app. The desktop's own menu binds to these same settings, so the two stay in sync instead of fighting each other.

菜单里真正有设置项支撑的部分——排列顺序、保持排列、保持堆叠、特殊文件夹排序、起始角落,以及主目录/回收站/磁盘/网络/链接角标/放置位置的显示开关——都进了界面。桌面自带的右键菜单绑的就是同一批设置,所以两边实时同步,不会各写各的。

What is deliberately absent: "New Folder", "New Document", "Open in Terminal" and "Show Desktop in Files" are added to the menu unconditionally by the desktop-icons extension — there is no setting anywhere to show or hide them. Rather than offer switches that quietly do nothing, the app and the READMEs say so outright.

故意没做的:「新建文件夹」「新建文档」「在终端中打开」「在文件管理器中显示桌面」是桌面图标扩展无条件加进菜单的,代码里没有任何开关能控制它们。与其摆几个按了没反应的开关,不如在界面和文档里直说。

Unchanged / 不变

Everything still goes through gsettings — no system file is modified, nothing needs root, and no extension is ever installed automatically. Restore Defaults still puts back your values, recorded the first time each setting is touched; all the new settings are covered by it too.

依旧全部通过 gsettings 完成——不改系统文件、不需要 root、不自动安装任何扩展。「恢复默认」恢复的仍是你自己原来的值(每项第一次被改动时记下),新加的项也一样纳入。

Install / 安装

git clone https://github.com/Enumber/deskctl.git
cd deskctl
bash install.sh

Already on v2.0? Just git pull.

Tested on / 实测环境

Ubuntu 24.04 / GNOME 46 / Xorg, with Desktop Icons NG (DING) and Ubuntu Dock. Other extension combinations are detected through the same mechanism but have not been tested on real hardware.

Full documentation: README · 中文说明

v2.0.0 — desktop & taskbar console (Dropdesk is now deskctl)

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@Enumber Enumber released this 21 Jul 07:38

Dropdesk is now deskctl (桌面控制台). It started out as "put an app on the desktop"; it now controls desktop icons and the taskbar too, so the old name had stopped describing it. The old GitHub URL redirects here — existing links and clones keep working.
Dropdesk 更名为 deskctl(桌面控制台):它一开始只是"把应用放到桌面",现在还管桌面图标和任务栏,旧名字已经名不副实。旧的 GitHub 地址会自动跳转到这里,原有链接和克隆都不受影响。

GNOME dropped the ability to drag an app onto the desktop, and scatters icon size, icon visibility and taskbar layout across extension preference dialogs — or offers them nowhere at all. deskctl puts them in one window.

GNOME 删掉了"把应用拖到桌面",又把图标大小、图标显示、任务栏布局散落在各个扩展的设置里、甚至根本没有入口。deskctl 把它们收进一个窗口。

What's new in v2.0

  • Desktop page — drop apps on the desktop (as before, with shortcuts pre-marked trusted so they launch on double-click), set icon size Tiny / Small / Medium / Large, and hide or show all desktop icons with one switch.
    桌面页:把应用放到桌面(和以前一样,快捷方式预先标记受信任,双击直接启动)、图标大小四档(极小/小/中/大)、一个开关显示或隐藏全部桌面图标。
  • Taskbar page — position, icon size, auto-hide, intelligent hide, extend to full height, and whether trash and mounted drives appear.
    任务栏页:位置、图标大小、自动隐藏、智能隐藏、延伸到整屏高度、是否显示回收站与已挂载磁盘。
  • Restore Defaults puts back your settings, not GNOME's. Original values are recorded the first time each key is touched, so any number of round-trips still rolls back to exactly where you started.
    「恢复默认」恢复的是你自己原来的设置,不是 GNOME 的出厂值:每个键第一次被改动时就记下原值,来回折腾多少次都能回到起点。
  • Sorting is intentionally not duplicated — the desktop's own right-click menu already sorts by name, type, size and modification time. deskctl points you at it instead of adding a second, competing control.
    排序没有重复造:桌面右键菜单本来就能按名称/类型/大小/修改时间排序,deskctl 只在界面上指出来。

Everything is done through gsettings. No system file is modified and nothing needs root. Extensions are never installed automatically — if a supported dock is not present, the taskbar page tells you what to install rather than doing it behind your back.

全部通过 gsettings 完成,不改任何系统文件、不需要 root。也不会自动帮你装扩展:没检测到支持的 dock 时,任务栏页会告诉你要装什么,而不是背着你动手。

Upgrading from v1 (Dropdesk)

Re-run install.sh. The menu entry is now deskctl.desktop, so the old dropdesk.desktop entry lingers until you run bash install.sh --uninstall from a v1 checkout (or delete it by hand).

从 v1(Dropdesk)升级:重新跑一次 install.sh。菜单项现在叫 deskctl.desktop,旧的 dropdesk.desktop 需要在 v1 的目录里跑 bash install.sh --uninstall 才会清掉(也可以手动删)。

Install

git clone https://github.com/Enumber/deskctl.git
cd deskctl
bash install.sh

Choose where it goes (home directory, a custom path, or system-wide /opt via sudo) and whether you want a desktop icon. No sudo needed for the default user-level install.

Tested on

Ubuntu 24.04 / GNOME 46 / Xorg, with Desktop Icons NG (DING) and Ubuntu Dock. Other extension combinations are detected through the same mechanism but have not been tested on real hardware.

Full documentation: README · 中文说明

v1.0.0

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@Enumber Enumber released this 20 Jul 04:29

First public release.

Dropdesk puts any installed app back on your GNOME desktop — the feature GNOME removed. Pick apps from a searchable list and it drops ready-to-run .desktop shortcuts on your desktop, already marked trusted, so double-clicking just works with no "Allow Launching?" prompt.

Install

git clone https://github.com/Enumber/dropdesk.git
cd dropdesk
bash install.sh

No sudo required. This puts a launcher on your desktop and in your application menu.

Run bash install.sh --help for advanced options (custom install location, system-wide install, menu entry only, uninstall).

Requirements

Python 3 and PyGObject (GTK 3), shipped by default on most desktop distributions. See the README for per-distribution package names.

Notes

The UI follows your system language (English or Chinese). Chinese documentation: README.zh-CN.md

Licence

GPL-3.0 — see LICENSE. You may use, modify and share this freely, but a
modified version you distribute has to stay open under the GPL as well.