How do you add new application to this "All Applications" menu (and optionally to some of categories) without using GUI "Edit Applications" menu (named "KDE Menu Editor")?

It may sound like a simple task but I've already spent several hours on this with no success.

When you download an app instead of getting it from package manager, you may want to add it to Application Launcher so it will not get lost.

I have myapp.AppImage file, it's working, I've created .desktop file and tried to place it into some system directories (e.g. ~/.local/share/applications/myapp.desktop) or calling xdg-desktop-menu install myfile.desktop but to no avail. New app doesn't appear in All Applications or specified category, it appears only as a search result, when you start typing its name.

Creating new menu items with GUI "KDE Menu Editor" affects "/home/user/.config/menus/applications-kmenuedit.menu" XML file, but this file doesn't look like it should be edited manually.

Can you please try adding custom executable to this menu yourself and see if you will succeed? Am I trying to do something quirky and is wrong about expecting this task to be simple?

My system is Kubuntu 26.04, KDE Plasma 6.6.6.

did you try update-desktop-database after adding it to .local/share/applications?

That might be an arch command, not sure

or re log in

Just adding the file as you did should make it appear there right away, so make sure your .desktop follows the standard and syntax is correct.

Ok, finally I've found solution! Obviously I found it 0.0001 seconds after I publicly asked this question.

Problem is that "Games" menu in mentioned /home/user/.config/menus/applications-kmenuedit.menu XML file does not contain a <Merge type="files"/> tag, that's why KDE Kickoff Application Menu was ignoring .desktop files if they belong to this category. And every sample .desktop file I've created probably belonged to Games category.

I changed this XML file to be like this:

<Menu>
  <Name>Games</Name>
  <Include/>
  <Exclude>
   <Filename>Quake.desktop</Filename>
  </Exclude>
  <Layout>
   <Merge type="menus"/>
   <Merge type="files"/>

Now it seems like everything works as expected. I don't understand why it doesn't work by default.

Yes, I've tried quite a lot of commands and combinations, restarts etc, but seems like problem was in some obscure tag in some obscure XML file which I've never touched before. I've added a comment with solution.

Interesting. I have managed all of mine on a recent Kubuntu 26.04 install through the GUI and it does indeed seem to automatically add that information to the XML file, because I have never run into such a problem but when looking at the file you referenced I indeed see the <Merge type="files"/> a lot of places.

Also, btw, you're the best kind of question asker, because you figured out an obscure problem and then provided the answer for the rest of us. I learned something and bookmarked this thread in case I ever run into such a problem and forgot how to fix it. Cheers and thanks, mate.

I struggle with this on mint. I'll add it but then it refuses to launch.

Can you launch the original executable by itself?

So, if you run the command, that you put into the .desktop file, in a terminal, does that work?

I'll have to try that,

cp /usr/share/applications/whatever.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/your-app.desktop

Edit the file, it's a pretty obvious config.

Edit: you may delete all the translation strings.

This is still the internet, three years from now when you come back that and only that comment will have been deleted.

Possibly, but I tend to think that only happened on reddit due to corporate influence and trying to use that as a way to take a stand against a corporation. I think the same is unlikely to happen on smaller sites, more likely the whole site could be gone. Anyway, counterpoint is MetaFilter, which has been around since 1999 and you can find comments from waaaaaaaaaaay back very easily, it's all indexed for searching quite well.

xdg-desktop-menu install

I had no idea that command exists, I've just been looking up the location of desktop files until i finally remembered lol

To me it looked like this command just copies provided .desktop file to ~/.local/share/applications/ directory. Also, there's xdg-desktop-menu uninstall whatever.dekstop which is effectively the same as removing .desktop file from this directory. Probably just copying and removing files is more natural.

In Arch I just copy the . desktop application to the system directory through makepkg and it works.

You’re welcome. I myself not once and not twice stumbled upon long wanted solution in obscure corners of internet.

For appimages, I use https://github.com/mijorus/gearlever