linux-control
A faithful recreation of the Windows Control Panel built with Qt6 and libAeroQt, along with real backends. Best enjoyed with AeroThemePlasma.
A Linux desktop app that recreates the classic Windows Control Panel, backed by real pacman, ufw, and system data instead of fake screens.
This project rebuilds the classic Windows Control Panel as a native Linux desktop app. It aims to look and feel like the old Windows 7 era Control Panel, complete with the same category based home screen, but everything behind the screens talks to real Linux system tools instead of faking the data.
The app is built with Qt6 and KDE's widget libraries, along with a separate library called libAeroQt that recreates the Windows Aero visual style. It is designed to be used alongside a matching theme called AeroThemePlasma for the full look. The author is upfront that this is an early, work in progress project: several pages are placeholders that do not function yet, the code has rough edges, and it is not meant to be used as a daily driver until later in the year.
The features that do work read from real system data. A Windows Update style page checks for actual package updates using the pacman package manager, and shows update history pulled from pacman's own log file. A Programs and Features page lists installed packages and lets you uninstall them, with support for reinstalling packages that came from the Arch User Repository through the yay helper tool. There is a Network and Sharing Center overview, a Firewall page that reads status and rules from the ufw firewall tool, a Power Options page, and a Performance page with a benchmark styled after the old Windows Experience Index score.
The project is built specifically for Arch Linux and CachyOS, since several features depend on tools like pacman, yay, and ufw that are common on those systems, though other distributions might work with some adjustments. It can be installed from the Arch User Repository, downloaded as a pre-built binary, or compiled from source using CMake alongside Qt6 and KDE Frameworks packages. It needs pkexec for actions that require administrator privileges, such as installing or removing packages.
This is one entry in a small series of Windows-alike Linux tools by the same author, alongside a separate Linux Device Manager project.
Where it fits
- Manage installed Arch Linux packages through a familiar Windows-style Programs and Features screen.
- Check for and review pacman package updates in a Windows Update style interface.
- View firewall status and rules read from ufw without using the command line.
- Run a Windows Experience Index style benchmark to gauge system performance.