linux-control

The Windows Control Panel, on Linux

A faithful recreation of the Windows Control Panel built with Qt6, KDE Frameworks, and libAeroQt, backed by real system data via pacman/pkexec/ufw. Best enjoyed with AeroThemePlasma.

Warning

Very much a work in progress. Several features are placeholders or don't do anything yet, the code is janky and buggy in places, and it needs a lot more work before it's daily-driveable. Expect rough edges until about August.

Note

Built for CachyOS / Arch Linux. Some features (package updates, AUR reinstall, driver-adjacent firewall config) depend on pacman, yay, and ufw. Other distros may need minor adjustments.

Installation

Arch / CachyOS (AUR)

yay -S linux-control

Pre-built binaries

Download the latest archive for your architecture from the Releases page and extract it somewhere in your $PATH:

tar -xf linux-control-x86_64.tar.gz
sudo mv control libAeroQt.so* /usr/local/bin/

libAeroQt.so is a separate runtime dependency (not statically linked), so it needs to ship alongside control.

Building

Arch / CachyOS

sudo pacman -S qt6-base qt6-multimedia cmake kwidgetsaddons kwindowsystem openssl zlib
cmake -B build
cmake --build build -j
./build/control

You'll also need libAeroQt.so on your system, built from libaero-qt. Place the resulting libAeroQt.so* next to build/control (or install it to your library path).

Runtime dependencies

On Arch, you need these installed separately.

Tool	Purpose
pkexec	Privilege escalation for package installs/uninstalls
pacman	Update checks, installed-package listing, program uninstall
yay	(optional) Reinstalling AUR/foreign packages from Programs & Features
ufw	Firewall status/rules shown on the Firewall page (read-only)

Features

• Windows 7-style Control Panel home screen, organized by category
• Windows Update page backed by real pacman update checks
• Installed Updates history from pacman.log
• Programs and Features: list, uninstall, and reinstall (AUR-aware) installed packages
• Network and Sharing Center overview
• Firewall status and rule summary (reads ufw configuration)
• Power Options
• Performance page with a Windows Experience Index-style benchmark

Part of the WSL (Windows-alike Software for Linux) series

Why don't you also check out the other ones?

• Linux Device Manager
• Linux Control Panel