DeskEntry

DeskEntry is a GNOME-first manager for Linux .desktop files. It discovers desktop entries from XDG data directories, Flatpak and Snap, and lets you customize them safely through user overrides instead of modifying package-managed files.

Screenshots

General editor

Advanced editor

Features

• Discover desktop entries from XDG, Flatpak, Snap and custom XDG data directories
• Search and filter entries by source and desktop entry type
• Edit standard Desktop Entry fields, optional booleans and localized values
• Create and edit Desktop Actions with localized names and icons
• Browse icons from the active GTK icon theme and import SVG or compatible PNG icons into the user hicolor theme
• Open external .desktop files and import them as user entries
• Compare a user override with the current original system, Flatpak, Snap or XDG entry
• View the original source and selectively apply individual original values to an override
• Preview the resulting raw source and edit extra or vendor-specific keys
• Adapt the editor to Application, Link and Directory entry types
• Preserve comments, unknown keys and unmanaged groups while editing
• Create user overrides without modifying package-managed files
• Reset overrides and safely delete user-owned entries with confirmation
• Validate entries with desktop-file-validate
• Use atomic writes and backups for user entries
• Protect unsaved changes when switching entries, reloading, opening files or closing the application
• Launch entries and open their file location
• Show application information, version, author and project link in the About dialog
• Work locally without network access, telemetry or privileged writes

Usage

Select a desktop entry from the sidebar, edit its fields and choose Save. Changes to system, Flatpak, Snap or other package-managed entries are written as a user override in $XDG_DATA_HOME/applications.

Use Reset Override to remove a user override and restore the next entry in XDG precedence order. Delete is available only for user-owned entries. The Source page shows the current original behind an override and lets you review or selectively reuse its values.

Keyboard shortcuts:

• Ctrl+S — Save
• Ctrl+N — New entry
• Ctrl+O — Open .desktop file
• Ctrl+R — Reload entries
• Ctrl+F — Search

Install

Download

A prebuilt x86_64 Linux binary is available from GitHub Releases:

https://github.com/h0ek/deskentry/releases

Make it executable and run it:

chmod +x deskentry-VERSION-x86_64
./deskentry-VERSION-x86_64

To install it for the current user:

install -Dm755 deskentry-VERSION-x86_64 "$HOME/.local/bin/deskentry"

Build from source

Requirements:

• Rust 1.94.1 or newer
• GTK 4.10 or newer
• libadwaita 1.5 or newer
• desktop-file-utils
• glib-compile-resources

On Fedora:

sudo dnf install gtk4-devel libadwaita-devel desktop-file-utils glib2-devel gcc git
git clone https://github.com/h0ek/deskentry.git
cd deskentry
cargo build --release

If you want to add the compiled application to your user session menu, install the binary, desktop entry and icons:

install -Dm755 target/release/deskentry "$HOME/.local/bin/deskentry"
install -Dm644 data/io.github.h0ek.DeskEntry.desktop "$HOME/.local/share/applications/io.github.h0ek.DeskEntry.desktop"
install -Dm644 data/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/io.github.h0ek.DeskEntry.png "$HOME/.local/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/io.github.h0ek.DeskEntry.png"
install -Dm644 data/icons/hicolor/96x96/apps/io.github.h0ek.DeskEntry.png "$HOME/.local/share/icons/hicolor/96x96/apps/io.github.h0ek.DeskEntry.png"

DeskEntry can then be launched from the GNOME application menu or from a terminal with:

deskentry

License

MIT