# Desktop Settings

_Peios / Using Peios / Desktop Settings_

> What Desktop Settings holds — your own wallpaper, clock, dock, keyboard shortcuts and default apps, and the machine's defaults for everyone — and how a person's choice, the machine's and the built-in default stack.

Open **Desktop Settings** from the launcher (type `desktop`) to change
your wallpaper, clock, dock, keyboard shortcuts and default apps. Use
**For You** for your own choices and **All Users** for the machine's
defaults.

Settings that belong to the machine rather than the desktop live in
System Settings, and a person's own account settings, such as their
password and language, in My Settings.

## For you, and for all users

The window has two groups of sections.

| Group | Sections | Kept in |
|---|---|---|
| **For You** | Wallpaper, Clock, Dock, Keyboard Shortcuts, Default Apps | Your own part of the registry, under `CurrentUser\` |
| **All Users** | Sign-In Screen, Desktop, Keyboard Shortcuts, Default Apps, Advanced | The machine's, under `Machine\` |

Anyone may change their own settings. The machine's are, as shipped,
for Administrators to change; anyone else sees them read-only, with the
reason said once at the top of the section.

## How the choices stack

Most settings exist at three levels, and the nearest one that is set
wins:

1. **Your choice**, if you have made one.
2. **The machine's**, set under All Users, for everyone who hasn't
   chosen.
3. **The built-in default**, what Peios does when nobody has chosen.

Desktop Settings calls the second and third together the **System
Default**: choosing System Default for yourself removes your choice, so
the machine's (or the built-in) applies to you again.

## When changes take effect

For your personal settings, a switch or a choice from a list applies the
moment it is made; a typed value applies with the **Apply** button that
appears beside it once it has changed. What a change did is said along
the bottom of the window.

Some [settings for all users](/peios/using-peios/desktop-settings/for-all-users.md) take
effect later: sign-in-screen settings and a new listen address apply when
GXWI next starts, and icon themes apply to new desktop sessions.
Changes that could cut people off, such as the address GXWI listens on,
ask first, under their row.

## Where to start

- [Wallpaper, clock and dock](/peios/using-peios/desktop-settings/wallpaper-clock-and-dock.md)
- [Keyboard shortcuts](/peios/using-peios/desktop-settings/keyboard-shortcuts.md)
- [Default apps](/peios/using-peios/desktop-settings/default-apps.md)
- [Settings for all users](/peios/using-peios/desktop-settings/for-all-users.md)

## Desktop components

For troubleshooting or advanced configuration, the desktop consists of
GXWI, which serves it; Fenestra, which arranges the windows; and fenesh,
which provides the top bar, dock and launcher. Desktop Settings ships
with fenesh. The settings that select those components are under
[Advanced](/peios/using-peios/desktop-settings/for-all-users.md#advanced).

Related content:

- [Wallpaper, clock and dock](/peios/using-peios/desktop-settings/wallpaper-clock-and-dock.md)
- [Keyboard shortcuts](/peios/using-peios/desktop-settings/keyboard-shortcuts.md)
- [Default apps](/peios/using-peios/desktop-settings/default-apps.md)
- [Settings for all users](/peios/using-peios/desktop-settings/for-all-users.md)