I go to System Settings / Desktop Effects / All Effects / Shadow. Nothing I do there seems to have any effect on the shadows. For example I can change Opacity from 25% to 90%, and there's no visible difference. Same with the offsets and so on.

The other effects, wobbling windows and so on seem to be working OK, so I know KWin is generally operational. But shadow settings do nothing.

I've seen this at least since KDE 4.4 (and maybe older even, but I can't remember), on brand new installs as well as upgrades.

Any tips to get this setting working?

Try "Workspace Appearance" - "Window Decoration" - "Configure Decoration" - "Shadows"

Try "Workspace Appearance" - "Window Decoration" - "Configure Decoration" - "Shadows"

Thanks, but there is no such thing for me in KDE 4.6.2. Under "Configure Decoration", I have only two things to change: "Border Size" and "Button Size". I don't see anything there about shadows. The only shadow setting I can find is under Desktop Effects, which in any case is where I'd expect it to be. It just doesn't do anything .

What I want to do is (A) make the shadows offset down and right so there are no shadows on the top and left - i.e so it appears the light shines from the upper left. The current shadows doesn't look good to me being on all four sides of the window. And (B) change the intensity and fuzziness of the shadows to make them a little more defined and crisp.

Another look and I see it depends on the decoration you choose and possibly version. I'm looking at oxygen in 4.7 and 4.6.5.

So does that mean shadow settings are just broken in 4.6? If so, I'll wait for a version where they work, I guess .

I see there's also a "Shadows" checkbox under Desktop Effects / General tab, but it's checked already.