Hi!
I am just switching to KDE for the first time. I normally work with virtual desktops (I placed them in the same row, with a cube animation left to right). I have been looking in this forum and other websites a configuration option by which when a program is opened, it does only in the current virtual desktop by default. I normally have one desktop with the browser, another one with the mail client, etc. This is probably very easy, but I haven't been able to do it, neither to find a solution. Any advice on this?

Thanks a lot!

David

I have not actually used this so I don't know how well it really works. Right click on a window titlebar->more actions, then choose either "Configure special window settings" or "Configure special application settings". In the "Size & Position" tab, check "Desktop", and you can force the window to a specific desktop.

Hi Section8!

Thanks a lot for the prompt reply. Unfortunately, this does not seem to make the trick. For each window, I can, however, set "manually" each of them to a specific desktop. However, the default behaviour seems to be that each window appears in every virtual desktop. What I am trying to do is to change this default behaviour, since that would do the trick.
Thanks!
David

I don't know which exact Plasma version you are using as you unfortunately didn't tell, but:

I use 4 virtual desktops since like forever, the default behavior has always been that an application is only in the desktop you open it in, unless you choose to do so otherwise, and, since I save my session and do not close any applications before logging out/quitting, those will be in the exact same place next time I log in/start up.

For my Plasma version and distribution see my signature.

Saving a session is quite easy: System Settings -> Workspace -> Start up and Shutdown -> Desktop Session.

Hello Mamarok!
Thank you for your reply! You are totally right, I forgot to mention: I am running Kubuntu 19.10 and plasma 5.16.5.
I am currently not saving sessions, I would like to have a fresh start. However, the default behaviour of applications seems to be displayed in all desktops. I did a fresh installation of kubuntu-desktop over a Ubuntu 19.10 a couple of days ago and I am just starting to get used to KDE. For example, if I login, there are no windows at all. But, if I open, let's say, Firefox, the instance is in the four desktops. What I would like is that any instances stay by default in the current desktop I am visualising.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

David

so every time you open an application it displays in all virtual desktops? That is very odd, and definitely not the default setting.

I just opened a new Firefox instance in Desktop 3 and it only displays there, and my Kubuntu 19.10 is as vanilla as it gets, the only modification I did is saving the desktop sessions (which totally makes sense as I always use the same KDE applications and don't close them on exit [which does NOT apply to non-KDE applications like Chrome or Firefox anyway]) and changed the theme to Breeze Dark.

So I wonder: what did you change that you see this odd behavior? You must have modified something, as it is definitely not the default setting.

The only thing I can imagine is that you actually did install the Plasma desktop in Ubuntu, not Kubuntu, and the underlying Gnome settings interfere.

FWIW: Kubuntu is a standalone distribution, installing Plasma in Ubuntu does not turn your installation into a Kubuntu one.

As far as I know for firefox, you can right click on the window titlebar and set which activities it should displayed into. then open new firefox window, say, for another email account and then set it to another activities. and then in "activities" setting make sure you set kde to remember firefox (or all application, if you prefer) in the activities.

Lastly and the most important, don't close the firefox windows, so that next restart kde firefox will be left as is. and yes, it will slow down the start a bit.

Oh, and make sure the behaviour of task manager widget or whatever app launcher you use, the normal (left) click is set to open new window if there's no window opened, not to open running instance or run new instance. Or maybe running new instance is okay, but I forgot why I don't use it.