Hi there

Whenever I install a new distro, the desktop settings of the last installation of another distro take over. This prevents me from seeing the default look & feel of the new distro and things look like a jumbled mess - something of the previous distro, something of the new distro! Even the K menu does not change!

I wanna know where these settings are stored so I can delete them everytime I install a new distro. Can anyone tell me where the config files for these things are stored so I can delete them SAFELY (without breaking anything) so that when I do a new install, I don't get any remnants of the last installation/distro.

But REMEMBER that I CANNOT afford to format my home partition as there are lots of important stuff there.

Thanks

Try "ls -al | grep kde"

Many settings are stored in hidden sub-directories in your home directory.

In Linux, the name of hidden files/directories starts with a dot. I.e. the config data for KDE are most likely be stored in .kde

The normal list command will not show the hidden files by default. Only with the option -a will hidden files/directories be listed as well.
This is not a bug, this is a feature. Settings of other applications are stored in the same way: Gnome settings in .gnome, settings from gnupg are stored in .gnupg, the personal settings of ssh can be found in .ssh, to name a few.

Simply delete the .kde directory and the settings are gone.

Note: First, I don't know if you can delete the kde settings while kde is running, i.e. use a terminal while kde is not running. Secondly, even though I am reasonably sure that kde will create a new default settings in .kde, don't delete .kde, but rename it, e.g. to .kde-old. This way you can go back to the old settings if something goes wrong.

Thanks a lot dear Vimico for your crystal-clear explanation. Thanks to one andoneis2 too!