Hello Qubes forum! I just released a brand new XFCE Win 10 look-alike theme and I’m pleased to announce that I’ve just added dedicated Qubes OS support for it! Example screenshots below:
You can choose between 5 different window border options for Qubes: Standard (no coloring), Colored 1 (tints borders on focus), Colored 2 (tints borders always), Colored 3 (tint titlebars+borders on focus), and Colored 4 (tints titlebar on focus, borders always)
The theme also contains a unique “accent color” feature, which works like Windows 10. This lets you set a single main color which gets mixed and reused in lots of places (such as the taskbar, Start menu, text highlight colors, sliders, menu items, etc). As you can probably imagine, this feature can also be put to use for differentiating VMs and complementing the window border colors.
You can find the theme here. The instructions to set it up (which are mostly copy pasted from the guide txt file) are below.
QUBES OS 4.3 GUIDED SETUP (~10-20 minutes depending on VM count)
Populate and run the following command in Dom0 to copy the theme to Dom0 [DISCOURAGED BY QUBES DEVS FOR OBVIOUS REASONS]
qvm-run --pass-io <source-vm-name> "cat ~/Downloads/Fake10-v4.tar.gz" > ~/Desktop/Fake10.tar.gz
Extract the theme by running “tar -xvzf ~/Desktop/Fake10.tar.gz”
Review reload-theme.sh to ensure there is nothing malicious inside
Review the entire install.sh file to ensure there is nothing malicious inside
Compare the installer SHA256 hash to the one the download page (check in changelogs)
Run install.sh
Answer the prompts, read, and follow instructions
The installer will list the remaining steps when it finishes
On the unlikely chance your XFCE panel breaks, run “xfconf-query -c xfce4-panel -p / -R -r” and reboot to restore the panel [TROUBLESHOOTING]
QUBES OS 4.3 MANUAL SETUP (~40-70 minutes depending on VM count)
—Dom0—
Populate and run the following command in Dom0 to copy the theme to Dom0 [DISCOURAGED BY QUBES DEVS FOR OBVIOUS REASONS]
qvm-run --pass-io <source-vm-name> "cat ~/Downloads/Fake10-v4.tar.gz" > ~/Desktop/Fake10.tar.gz
Extract the theme by running “tar -xvzf ~/Desktop/Fake10.tar.gz”
Modify the following CSS by running “nano ~/Desktop/Fake10/Theme/Fake10/gtk-3.0/gtk.css”
.xfce4-panel .tasklist button box image {
background-color: transparent;
margin-left: 5px; <----- [CHANGE TO 9PX]
}
.xfce4-panel .tasklist button:checked box image,
.xfce4-panel .tasklist button:hover box image {
margin-left: 9px; <----- [CHANGE TO 13PX]
}
This fixes the taskbar program icon alignment since they render smaller on this version of XFCE/Qubes.
Also modify the following line of CSS
#whiskermenu-window .category-button {
border: none;
background-color: transparent;
min-width: 33px; <----- [CHANGE TO 36PX]
min-height: 36px;
-gtk-icon-style: symbolic;
}
This fixes start menu category button alignment with the persistent scroll bars. Since Qubes has a ton of categories, not all are visible at once usually, which changes the behavior.
Install Fake10 like normal (guide below)
Copy the window borders from ~/Desktop/Fake10/Qubes/Themes/ to ~/.themes/ and apply one in Window Manager
Modify the following line by running “sudo nano /usr/lib/qubes/icon-receiver” to prevent icon tinting [OPTIONAL]
icon_tinted = icon.tint(color) <----- [CHANGE TO "icon_tinted = icon"]
Change the VM colors to gray if you don’t like the colored context menu borders [OPTIONAL]
If the cursor theme isn’t working, overwrite the Adwaita cursors in /usr/share/icons/Adwaita/cursors/ [TROUBLESHOOTING]
Reboot system to fix icons, cursors, fonts, scrollbars, and alignment
—Other VMs—
Install the UNMODIFIED Fake10 theme in the rest of the VMs (setting accent colors is recommended, skip the taskbar section) (again, guide below)
For sys-net specifically, change the VM color to gray and overwrite the icons in ~/.icons/Fake10/16/ with icons from ./Qubes/Icons/SysNet/
For whonix-gateway, run " qvm-run -u root whonix-gateway-18 ‘pcmanfm-qt’ " to open a file explorer in root
Copy the sdwdate icons from ./Qubes/Icons/ to the Whonix Gateway VM and overwrite the old icons in /usr/share/sdwdate-gui/icons/
STANDARD SETUP GUIDE
—Main—
Move the font folders from ./Fonts/ to ~/.local/share/fonts/
Move everything inside ./Icons/ to ~/.icons/
Move the images in ./Wallpaper/ to your wallpaper folder [OPTIONAL]
Set your desired accent color hex code inside ./Theme/Fake10/gtk-3.0/gtk.css (Refer to colors.png for default Windows accent colors) [OPTIONAL]
Set your accent color hex code at the bottom of ./Theme/Fake10 Accent Color/xfwm4/themerc [OPTIONAL]
Move the folders inside ./Theme/ to ~/.themes/
Add the following text to the last line of ~/.bash_profile, ~/.profile, and ~/.xsessionrc: export GTK_OVERLAY_SCROLLING=0
Run "rm -rf ~/.cache/fontconfig && rm -rf ~/.fontconfig && fc-cache -rv"
Run "gtk-update-icon-cache -f -t ~/.icons/Fake10/"
Run "xfce4-panel -r"
Appearance > Style > Fake10
> Icons > Fake10
> Fonts > Default Font = Segoe UI Regular 9px
> Default Monospace Font = Consolas Regular 12px
> Sub-pixel order = RGB (unless you aren't on a RGB monitor)
> Custom DPI setting = Disabled
Window Manager > Style > Theme = Fake10 (you will set it to the Qubes theme later)
> Title Font = Segoe UI Regular 9px
> Title Alignment = Left
> Shade Button = Hidden [OPTIONAL]
Mouse and Touchpad > Theme > Fake10 or Fake10 Evil
—Taskbar and Start Menu—
Panel Preferences > Delete Panel 2
> Panel 1 > Display > Unlock the panel, drag it to the bottom, re-lock
> Row size (pixels) = 40px
> Appearance > Style = Solid color (required to remove 1px border)
> Color = #101010
> Fixed icon size (pixels) = 24px
> Items > Set in order: Whisker Menu, Window Buttons, Separator, Status Tray, PulseAudio, Clock, Notification Plugin, Separator
> Replace right separator with Show Desktop [OPTIONAL]
> Left Separator > Style = Transparent
> Expand = Enabled
> Right Separator > Style = Transparent
> Window Buttons > Show handle = Disabled
> Show button labels = Enabled
> Status Tray Plugin > Fixed icon size (pixels) = 16px
> Square items = Enabled
> Clock > Date Font > Segoe UI Regular 9px
> Time Font > Segoe UI Regular 9px
> Set layout and format to your country standard
> Whisker Menu > General > Show category names = Disabled
> Show application descriptions = Disabled
> Category icon size = Very small
> Menu width = 392 [OPTIONAL]
> Menu height = 640 [OPTIONAL]
> Appearance > Position categories on left = Enabled
> Position search entry on bottom = Enabled
> Position commands next to search entry = Enabled
> Profile = Hidden [OPTIONAL]
> Set the icon to your preferred start menu icon
> Behavior > Show confirmation dialog = Disabled
> Commands > Enable Shut Down, disable the other buttons
Keyboard > Application Shortcuts > Add "xfce4-popup-whiskermenu" and bind it to your start keys [OPTIONAL]
Window Manager Tweaks > Compositor > Show shadows under dock windows = Disabled
Move ./reload-theme.sh to ~/.config/autostart/ (NECESSARY TO MAKE THE TASKBAR WORK, MAKE SURE IT IS SAFE!)
Run "chmod +x reload-theme.sh" in the same directory as the shell script
Session and Startup > Application Autostart > Add the reload-theme shell script to trigger on login
Power Manager > System > Critical Battery Power Level = 20 (to match theme icons, if you have a battery)
> System tray icon = Enabled (if you have a battery)
—Terminal—
Terminal > General > Initial title = "Command Prompt"
> Dynamically-set title = Isn't displayed [OPTIONAL]
> Cursor Shape = Underline
> Cursor blinks = Enabled
> Appearance > Font = Consolas Regular 11px
> Allow bold text = Disabled
> Display menubar in new windows = Disabled
> Colors > Text Color = #CCCCCC
> Background Color = #0C0C0C
—Thunar File Explorer—
Thunar > Preferences > Side Pane > Shortcuts Pane Icon Size = 16px
> Toolbar > Disable Home
> View > Location Selector = Buttons Style [OPTIONAL]
Install xdg-user-dirs and run "xdg-user-dirs-update" to create user directories which use theme icons [OPTIONAL]
Bookmark the user directories (in order: Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos) [OPTIONAL]
—Final Touches—
Ristretto > View > Show Toolbar = Disabled
> Show Status Bar = Disabled
Notifications > General > Fade out = Disabled [OPTIONAL]
> Slide out = Enabled [OPTIONAL]
> Appearance > Theme = Fake10
> Opacity = 100%
> Default position = Bottom right [OPTIONAL]
> Log > Log notifications = Enabled, Always
Desktop > Desktop Icons > Icon Size = 48px [OPTIONAL]
> File/Launcher Icons > Disable Home, File System, and Devices [OPTIONAL]
Workspaces > Number of workspaces = 1 [OPTIONAL]
XFCE Screensaver > Lock Screen > User Switching = Disabled [OPTIONAL]
Customize desktop icon label colors and shadows based on your wallpaper near the bottom of Fake10/gtk-3.0/gtk.css [OPTIONAL]
Firefox > Settings > Extensions & Themes > Dark = Enabled (if you use Firefox)
Reboot system to fix fonts, scrollbars, and alignment
WINDOWS 10 ACCENT COLOR CODES (& QUBE COLORS)
If you really like this theme and/or are using it, please leave a comment or rate it on the download page. I worked hard on it and would love to hear your feedback!
If you have any questions you can ask them here. Have a nice day!
Love this! Look forward to trying it sometime!
I’m not a very advanced user and I don’t know how to add it myself
