Control Panel Guide

Control Panel Guide

Aero7 Control Panel groups desktop and system settings into a familiar category view. An enabled link or button has a real destination. A feature without a safe backend is disabled and explains why.

Opening and navigating Control Panel

Open Control Panel from the Start menu. Use the breadcrumb bar to return to a category or Control Panel Home. The view menu switches between category, large-icon, and small-icon layouts. It also opens the persistent Windows 7/KDE Plasma naming preference without changing which settings exist or their backend.

Use Search Control Panel to search by Windows 7 wording or a KDE Plasma setting name. For a complete alphabetical lookup, see the Settings Reference.

System and Security

System

• Shows the Aero7 version, processor, installed memory, system type, computer name, and operating-system details.
• Change settings validates a new computer name and changes the real hostname through hostnamectl after an administrator prompt.
• Performance Information and Tools opens the Aero7 performance benchmark and detailed component scores.

Windows Update

• Checks the configured Arch Linux and Aero7 repositories using pacman.
• Installs the complete dependency-consistent update transaction after an administrator prompt.
• Shows installed update history from /var/log/pacman.log.
• Restart Aero7 when a kernel or core desktop update says a restart is needed.

Windows Firewall

• Shows UFW state, active network context, rules, and logging level.
• Turn firewall on/off runs the corresponding ufw action after an administrator prompt.
• Allow a port or service validates and adds a UFW allow rule.
• Notification settings maps to UFW event logging from Off through Full. UFW does not provide per-program desktop popups.
• Restore defaults warns first, then resets UFW rules.
• Advanced settings opens the focused firewall administration component when it is installed.

If Control Panel reports Restart required, a kernel update has left the currently running firewall backend without matching modules. Finish Windows Update, restart Aero7, and return to the page. Firewall mutation buttons remain disabled until the backend probe succeeds.

Action Center

The security, update, account, network, backup, and troubleshooting tasks link to their corresponding Control Panel pages. Unsupported help articles remain disabled rather than opening an unrelated page.

Power Options

• Reads battery state, charging state, and remaining-time estimates through UPower.
• Changes supported power modes through power-profiles-daemon.
• Advanced lid, sleep, and session policies open the focused PowerDevil KDE module where necessary.

Backup and Restore

Backup and Restore is an optional Aero7 feature backed by Déjà Dup. When it is absent, Control Panel offers direct installation instead of opening an empty page. Control Panel does not claim that a backup exists unless the backend is installed and configured.

Aero7 Optional Features

Open Programs and Features > Turn Aero7 features on or off to launch the separate Optional Features application. Checked, unchecked, partial, disabled and restart-required states come from real package, service, hardware and restart-marker checks.

The Aero7 Optional Features reference explains what every listed feature does, the components it installs, its requirements and what is retained when it is removed. Programs Center Beta is an optional feature and is not forced onto fresh Aero7 installations.

Before a change, Aero7 lists the affected features, required packages, approximate size and any sign-out or restart requirement. Installation and removal require administrator approval. Progress covers repository checks, download/install, configuration and final verification. Aero7 never restarts automatically, and removing a feature keeps user configuration and data.

Network and Internet

Network and Sharing Center

• Reads live connection, address, gateway, and route information from NetworkManager.
• Connects saved wired, wireless, or VPN profiles through nmcli.
• Provides network diagnostics and a separate advanced connection editor.
• A missing adapter or saved profile is reported clearly; Control Panel does not create imaginary connections.

Proxy, connection, Bluetooth, and sharing options use their focused KDE modules. Hardware-specific pages can be absent when the corresponding device or optional module is not installed.

Hardware and Sound

Sound

• Lists playback and recording devices through PipeWire/PulseAudio.
• Changes default devices, volume, and mute state.
• Chooses and previews the installed Plasma notification sound theme.
• Unsupported communications-call ducking is labelled honestly rather than saving a preference that has no effect.

Devices, input, display, and printing

Mouse, keyboard, touchpad, touchscreen, tablet, controller, display, printer, removable-media, and automatic-mounting settings open the matching focused KDE module. A hardware-specific page may be unavailable when that hardware is not present.

Programs

Programs and Features

• Lists installed packages through pacman.
• Removes a selected removable package only after confirmation and an administrator prompt.
• Protects boot, kernel, hardware, package-manager, and desktop-foundation packages from casual removal.
• Repair uses the supported package transaction rather than editing files by hand.

Default Programs

Default applications, file associations, personal folder locations, device actions, search indexing, recent items, and web-search keywords open their individual KDE modules.

User Accounts

• Change password launches passwd in the configured terminal, with a KDE Users fallback.
• Change picture writes the standard ~/.face.icon account image.
• Change display name uses usermod -c after confirmation and an administrator prompt.
• Account management can create users, remove users, and change account type through authenticated Linux account tools.
• Removing an account preserves its home folder.

Parental Controls is an optional Aero7 feature backed by malcontent. If it is not installed, the applet shows a direct Install Parental Controls action and a link that opens Optional Features with the correct item selected.

Appearance and Personalization

• Applies installed color schemes and the selected desktop background.
• Opens focused modules for application style, desktop style, icons, pointers, fonts, title-bar decoration, effects, and window behavior.
• Sound configuration uses the native Aero7 Sound page.
• Lock-screen timeout and resume behavior are written to the real Plasma configuration.

Clock, Language, and Region

Date and Time

• Date, time, time zone, and Internet-time changes use authenticated system tools.
• Region, language, number, currency, keyboard-layout, and spell-check options use their corresponding focused KDE modules.
• English and Dutch dictionaries are installed by Aero7; other dictionaries depend on installed language packages.

Ease of Access

The Ease of Access page provides truthfully named links for screen reader, magnifier, virtual keyboard, contrast, keyboard, mouse, and visual assistance. Availability depends on the matching accessibility component being installed.

Getting Started

The separate Getting Started Start-menu shortcut opens an internal Control Panel page. Its setup tasks route to real pages or catalog-backed settings hubs. It is not inserted above the main Control Panel home categories.

Controls intentionally unavailable

• Generic Organize menus without page-specific commands.
• Help links whose Aero7 article has not been written.
• Speech Recognition, because no supported recognition backend is currently available from the configured official repositories.
• Windows CardSpace, because it is discontinued and has no Aero7 equivalent.

Unavailable controls are grey and include an explanation. Report an enabled control that does nothing as a bug.

Troubleshooting

1. Run Windows Update, install all pending updates, and restart Aero7.
2. Search for the setting again and read any missing-module message.
3. For networking, confirm NetworkManager is running and the device appears in Network and Sharing Center.
4. For firewall problems, open Windows Firewall and follow any restart-required notice before changing UFW manually.
5. For a hardware-specific page, confirm the device is detected and the optional KDE module is installed.
6. When filing an issue, include the Windows 7 name, KDE Plasma name, backend identifier, Aero7 version, and the exact error message.

Use the Settings Reference to find the KDE Plasma name and module identifier needed for a report.