How-To: Use Profiles in Konqueror 3.5.9

Konqueror is the default file manager in KDE 3.x and most KDE-based distributions still use it over KDE 4.x since at the current date it's more feature-complete and more stable. Another powerful file manager for KDE is Krusader, and the new default in KDE 4.x is Dolphin, which aims to provide good functionality and be only a file manager, but although I used it for a little, I only saw a file manager that lacks features with no advantage over Konqueror. That's supposed to change, but until then, Konqueror with KDE 3.5.x still remains a winning combination.

Anyway, this short tutorial will show how to add two profiles in Konqueror, one for file management with two tabs opened in two different locations, and one for web browsing.

1. Create the file management profile
Open Konqueror and eventually set the path in the current tab to your home directory. If you like, you can open another tab and set the location to another path, or split the window left/right or top/bottom. Mainly, the profile will remember any settings you did in this Konqueror session. Next, go to Settings -> Configure View Profiles... and add the name for your profile, for example Configured FM. You can tick the Save window size in profile too if you want the window size to be remembered. Click Save.

Saving a new profile in Settings -> Configure View Profiles...

Tab split left/right using the Configured FM profile

2. Create the web browsing profile
Just repeat the steps from 1, except this time use a web address in the location bar (and eventually do whatever other things you may find useful to be automatically loaded when you start Konqueror - open more tabs etc). Save it, say as Configured Web Browsing.

3. (Optional) Run Konqueror by loading any of those profiles
To run Konqueror using any of those profiles, just hit ALT+F2 and type:

konqueror --profile "PROFILE NAME"

For example, for the Configured FM profile:

konqueror --profile "Configured FM"

And for Configured Web Browsing:

konqueror --profile "Configured Web Browsing"

4. Add desktop shortcuts
In order to start it faster, just create two plain text file on the desktop with the following lines:

For the file management profile:

[Desktop Entry]
Exec=konqueror --profile "Configured FM"
Icon=konqueror
Name=Konqueror (FM)
Type=Application
Comment=File Manager

For the web browsing profile:

[Desktop Entry]
Exec=konqueror --profile "Configured Web Browsing"
Icon=konqueror
Name=Konqueror (Web Browser)
Type=Application
Comment=Web Browser

And that's it. You can now easily access Konqueror easily as file manager or web browser using those two shortcuts. And don't forget to check out the default profiles, they might be useful too.

Updated: Jul 02, 2008 (Created: Jul 02, 2008)