File Extension DESKTOP

File type: Desktop Entry File

About the DESKTOP file type:

If Windows cannot find the appropriate program associated with .DESKTOP files, then your registry may have errors. Check your Windows registry for errors (includes file association errors).

The Desktop Entry file under the UNIX-based Operating System platforms uses the default DESKTOP file extension. This data file type provides the information regarding a particular item included in the program's menu set. It delivers specific details like icon file, name, and command to run among others. Some of the Operating Systems to benefit from the functionality delivered by this feature are the Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu, and the CentOS. The DESKTOP format file has also been adopted by both the GNOME and the KDE desktop environments for their desktop entries including configuration files. This particular file type describes the way how a program would be launched and its specific appearance in the program menu. These programs are responsible for delivering Graphical User Interfaces to the Linux Operating System platform. The DESKTOP file extension is also associated with the DIRECTORY file extension with a similar structure but differentiated mostly by the extension they use. The desktop entry files usually take on the UTF-8 encoding format. This file is read as a series of instruction lines which are delimited by linefeed characters and is case sensitive.


Detailed information for file extension DESKTOP

Category: Miscellaneous File
File format: Open-Source
Open with Windows: N/A
Open with Linux: Referenced by various programs
Based on the file specifications of the DESKTOP format, compliant implementation are required to maintain the fields contained within the file regardless whether the entry is supported. The files are likewise rewritten in such a way that all fields are incorporated. This process is observed to make sure that all desktop specific formats are preserved even in instances wherein the file is accessed and changed by another system. The comments in the DESKTOP file extension are marked with the # symbol at the beginning of the line with blank lines being treated as comments as well and subsequently ignored by the system. These spaces however must be preserved and not deleted because they serve a purpose in the context of the read and write access of the desktop entry file. Often uninterpreted, the comment lines can contain virtually every type of character except for the linefeed. The group headers using groupnames can contain all the ASCII characters except for the control characters. For multiple groups, the groupnames must remain unique otherwise an error may occur.