DesktopFileForge

A small Qt6 GUI tool for creating and editing .desktop launcher files (the freedesktop.org Desktop Entry Specification), without hand-editing INI syntax in a text editor.

Features

• Guided form for all common .desktop fields (Name, Exec, Icon, Categories, MimeType, Keywords, ...)
• Icon picker with live preview, supporting both icon-theme names and absolute file paths
• Checkbox-based category picker using the well-known Desktop Menu Specification categories
• Built-in validator: catches missing required fields, unresolvable executables, and unknown icons/categories
• Open and edit existing .desktop files
• One-click save to ~/.local/share/applications, or save-as to any custom path

Building

Requires CMake ≥ 3.16, a C++20 compiler, and Qt6 (Widgets).

cmake -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build
./build/desktopforge

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S cmake ninja qt6-base

Debian / Ubuntu

sudo apt install cmake ninja-build g++ qt6-base-dev

Installing

sudo cmake --install build

Installing (AUR)

paru -S desktopforge

or

yay -S desktopforge

This installs the binary, a .desktop launcher entry, and an app icon.

License

GPL-3.0