Enabling Linux to Use Desktop.ini Files

Enabling Linux Use of Desktop.ini Files

When transferring media from Windows to Linux, you may have noticed that some files, including the desktop.ini file, are present. These files contain useful metadata, such as folder icons, that can be used to customize the appearance of your files and directories in the Linux desktop environment.

What is a desktop.ini file?

A desktop.ini file is a hidden system file used by Windows to store custom settings for a folder, such as its view settings, icon, and other attributes. These files are typically located in the root directory of a folder and have a file extension of .ini. Although these files are not natively supported by Linux, they can still be used to customize the appearance of your directories.

Using desktop.ini files in Linux

To use desktop.ini files in Linux, you will need to install the dconf-tools package. This package provides the gsettings command-line tool, which can be used to read and write settings in the GNOME desktop environment. Once installed, you can use the following steps to enable the use of desktop.ini files:

1. gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons true
2. gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.desktop desktop-is-home-dir true
3. gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme 'Windows 10'

These commands will enable the display of desktop icons, set the desktop as the home directory, and change the icon theme to the Windows 10 style. You can then place a desktop.ini file in a directory to customize its appearance. For example, to set the folder icon for a directory named "My Folder", you would create a desktop.ini file in the directory with the following contents:

This will set the folder icon to the "folder.png" image located in the same directory as the desktop.ini file. You can also use other settings in the desktop.ini file to customize the appearance of the directory, such as the view mode and background color.

Considerations

It is important to note that the use of desktop.ini files in Linux is not officially supported and may not work as expected in all desktop environments. Additionally, the format of the desktop.ini file may vary between different versions of Windows, so you may need to experiment with different settings to achieve the desired result. It is also recommended to create a backup of any important files or directories before making changes to their settings.

References

• Arch Linux Wiki: Desktop Entries
• Ask Ubuntu: How do I customize the desktop folder icon?
• Super User: How do I get the Windows 7 folder icons in Ubuntu?

This article was written using information from the above references and personal experience with using desktop.ini files in Linux.