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In KDE, I use the "Layout based switcher" alt-tab task switcher, with the "Informative" layout. All the layouts that display both icons and text have the icons for all but the currently selected task grayed out.

Is there any way to have all icons displayed in color?

As the purpose of the task switcher is to switch to another task, it really makes no sense to have the icons for those tasks grayed out. All it does is to make it take longer to find the right icon as they look less familiar and much more similar to each other.

2 Answers 2

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Here's a patch that will force the use of colored icons in the "compact" and "informative" task switcher. It also changes the description font to normal, using bold only for the selected window. It's based on this change: KDE change 104187

Hope this helps!

--- /var/lib/editconf/originals//usr/share/kde4/apps/kwin/tabbox/compact.qml    2012-06-01 06:20:45.000000000 -0700
+++ /usr/share/kde4/apps/kwin/tabbox/compact.qml    2012-08-09 10:52:08.070420127 -0700
@@ -89,11 +89,11 @@
             id: delegateItem
             width: compactListView.width
             height: compactListView.rowHeight
             Image {
                 id: iconItem
-                source: "image://client/" + index + "/" + compactTabBox.imagePathPrefix + "-" + compactListView.imageId + (index == compactListView.currentIndex ? "/selected" : "/disabled")
+                source: "image://client/" + index + "/" + compactTabBox.imagePathPrefix + "-" + compactListView.imageId + (index == compactListView.currentIndex ? "/selected" : "/selected")
                 width: 16
                 height: 16
                 sourceSize {
                     width: 16
                     height: 16
@@ -107,11 +107,11 @@
             Text {
                 id: captionItem
                 horizontalAlignment: Text.AlignLeft
                 verticalAlignment: Text.AlignBottom
                 text: itemCaption(caption, minimized)
-                font.bold: true
+                font.bold: index == compactListView.currentIndex
                 font.italic: minimized
                 color: theme.textColor
                 elide: Text.ElideMiddle
                 anchors {
                     left: iconItem.right
--- /var/lib/editconf/originals//usr/share/kde4/apps/kwin/tabbox/informative.qml    2012-06-01 06:20:45.000000000 -0700
+++ /usr/share/kde4/apps/kwin/tabbox/informative.qml    2012-08-09 10:52:48.414420651 -0700
@@ -90,11 +90,11 @@
             id: delegateItem
             width: listView.width
             height: listView.rowHeight
             Image {
                 id: iconItem
-                source: "image://client/" + index + "/" + informativeTabBox.imagePathPrefix + "-" + listView.imageId + (index == listView.currentIndex ? "/selected" : "/disabled")
+                source: "image://client/" + index + "/" + informativeTabBox.imagePathPrefix + "-" + listView.imageId + (index == listView.currentIndex ? "/selected" : "/selected")
                 width: 32
                 height: 32
                 sourceSize {
                     width: 32
                     height: 32
@@ -107,11 +107,11 @@
             }
             Text {
                 id: captionItem
                 horizontalAlignment: Text.AlignHCenter
                 text: itemCaption(caption, minimized)
-                font.bold: true
+                font.bold: index == compactListView.currentIndex
                 font.italic: minimized
                 color: theme.textColor
                 elide: Text.ElideMiddle
                 anchors {
                     left: iconItem.right
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  • Awesome! This worked beautifully. I edited the file manually because applying the patch didn't work for me. Maybe because I don't have the editconf folder on my machine. I was planing on patching KDE myself to fix this and thought that I would have to recompile some part of KDE. Very cool that the look and feel of the windows is defined in QML.
    – Roger Dahl
    Aug 11, 2012 at 21:24
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The short answer is no. KDE 4.8.1 brought about this change to the task switcher, and it has really slowed me down. The system administrator at my work inquired about it, after I complained, and the response back from the developers was "works for me, so it's not a problem".

This is what happens when "cosmetic" changes are made by people who do not actually use the functionality they are breaking. It makes as much sense as graying-out all the applications in the main menu/task bar, except for the current one. Please complain to whomever you can!

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  • Yes, I had a very, very hard time keeping the expletives out of my initial question. I ended up reverting back to 10.04 for this and other reasons. I'm leaving the question open in the hopes that more people see how completely lame this change, and the attitude behind it, is.
    – Roger Dahl
    Jun 11, 2012 at 15:57

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