Right-click the desktop and choose “Enter Edit Mode”. Then right-click the desktop again and choose “Configure Desktop and Wallpaper”.
You will right away see a setting called “Layout:”, which is set to Desktop. Change that to Folder View and click Apply. It should now show you the contents of the ~/Desktop folder. If it doesn’t, or if it shows another folder, click on “Location” in the column on the left and change it to whatever you wish.
When you’re done, click OK. Don’t forget to then also right-click the desktop again and choose “Exit Edit Mode”, so that you don’t accidentally move or remove widgets.
P.S.: I do not believe that Plasma has a Computer icon ─ that’s a Microsoft thing. It does however have a Trashcan icon.
The equivalent is probably just Dolphin or Home Folder.
And I guess you could also use a custom icon and/or .desktop file if you want the “My Computer” look.
Trash(can) can also be added to desktop as a widget with associated edit’able properties. This may be easiest, especially for those coming from a GUI environment…
Right click in lower panel area to Enter Edit Mode and select Add Widgets. Then search for “trash” in the searchbar, select the Trashcan widget and drop it anywhere you want on your desktop. It’s easily resizeable by dragging borders.
Guys, the Trash and Home icons should already be there on the OP’s system. They come supplied out-of-the-box in a fresh Plasma install. But if the desktop is set to the “Desktop” view instead of Folder View", then you won’t see those icons unless you change the view.
Surprisingly nothing was on desktop when I installed this OS & before installing it, I installed on virtual box too & there were no icons too & even if I change those views I still don’t see any icons, however if I change to one of them & in location I choose “home”, it puts all folders from home to desktop.
What’s so weird that, before trying Manjaro, I tried Garuda distro in virtual box with same environment - KDE plasma & it didn’t have icons on desktop either, so I started thinking that KDE plasma devs decided that icons on desktop aren’t needed anymore & by default they removed it or they never had them?
By the way, I will try suggestions mentioned by others when I get home today & will let you know how it goes.
Is it something new? KDE desktop never had icons on it as far as I know. You need to add what you want on your desktop. By default it is just a blank desktop.
PS: also the Kate instructions here to add the icons are OK, but I think in localized installation (other than English language), the user folders are also localized (to be verified) so the path could be wrong.
You can just drag and drop the “Home” and “Trash” icons form the side bar in Dolphin (the file manager) onto the desktop. This will show a context menu, where you can choose “Link Here” so they can be accessed directly from the desktop.
If they should be there, then the manjaro-kde-21.2.0-211220-linux515.iso has an error. I tried a new installation and they not there. OP is correct stating that they are missing.
SomeGuy’s method worked too, but only for trash. Also it opens with one click and it also counts how many items are inside the trash, so I think I’ll leave this widget.