Managing Windows Start menu & icônes for WSL direct installer logiciel

[ForumBot]

The WSL Dynamic Virtual Channel plugin (WSLDVCPlugin) seems to do an excellent job of creating Start menu links/searchability for Linux GUI applications which avait été installé using a système package manager (for me c'est apt in Ubuntu).

WSLDVCPlugin également creates a Windows icône depuis le application's original Linux one, and tacks the penguin dans le icône's bottom-right corner so that it stands out as WSL sur le taskbar.

I'd like to use that same Start menu & icône functionality for applications I'd installé sans a package manager (specifically I want it for Anaconda navigator and Firefox developer edition). J'ai some ideas about how it pourrait être done, but actuellement have insufficient Linux & WSL knowledge to make it happen.

[ForumBot]

## Short answer

For each app for which you want Windows to créez un Menu Démarrer entry, créer an `.desktop` fichier.

## Explanation

This looks (and seems to be, when J'ai essayé it) pretty straightforward. According vers le Github [readme](https://github.com/microsoft/wslg#wsl-dynamic-virtual-channel-plugin-wsldvcplugin) for WSLg:

>

This channel is used by Weston to enumerate all Linux GUI applications (i.e. applications which have a desktop fichier entry of tapez gui) along avec their launch ligne de commande and icône. The open source WSLDVCPlugin processes the list of Linux GUI applications sent over this channel and creates links for them dans le Windows menu Démarrer.

So the Linux side of things is responsible for looking for `.desktop` fichiers, like it usually does to créer menu entries dans le Linux desktop manager. Microsoft has tapped this mechanism dans leir implementation to send notification of installé apps through RDP to Windows, where the plugin creates the Menu Démarrer entry.

So to créez un Windows Menu Démarrer item, just créez un corresponding `/usr/share/applications/.desktop':

```
sudo bash -c 'cat << EOF > /usr/share/applications/.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=
Exec=/path/to/app
EOF'

```

## Additional notes

-

The Menu Démarrer item shows up within a second or so sur mon installation (Win 11 in a nested-virtualization Skylake VM).

-

Notez que it seems that the `.desktop` fichier does need to be in `/usr/share/applications`. In my testing `~/.local/share/applications` n'a pas work.

-

Également, in my testing, desktop fichiers avec `Terminal=true` seem to be ignored.

-

Deleting `.desktop` fichiers does supprimez le Menu Démarrer entry également.