KDE Plasma widget · 2026

tray-grid

A Windows-style hidden tray icon grid for KDE Plasma 6.

What it does

Icons only: a grid of 1 to 8 columns with no labels, and the app’s own tooltip on hover.
Clicks do what the tray does: left click activates, middle click runs the secondary action, the wheel scrolls, right click opens the app’s own menu.
Live: apps that start, quit or change their icon update the grid immediately.
A settings page lists the running tray apps with a checkbox each; column count, icon size and idle apps are configurable.
Follows the Plasma colour scheme and icon theme; the arrow points away from the screen edge the panel is on.
Works with Electron, Qt, GTK and libappindicator apps, over the same StatusNotifierItem protocol Plasma’s own tray uses.

Problem: Plasma’s tray tucks background apps behind an arrow, then shows them as a long list with a label on every row.
My role: My own project: idea, design, development.
Solution: A C++ and QML panel widget that registers as a StatusNotifierHost over D-Bus and has its own dbusmenu client for app menus. An end-to-end test runs on a private D-Bus session, so it never touches the real tray.
Result: Released as v0.1.0 under GPL-2.0-or-later; installs per user without root on Plasma 6.

A hidden tray icon grid for KDE Plasma 6, in the style of Windows. It talks to tray apps over D-Bus the way Plasma’s own tray does.

Electron, Qt and GTK apps all show up and update live. Written in C++.