# Launch Feedback

&Lauri.Watts; &Lauri.Watts.mail;
2011-11-28
&kde; 4.8

Sometimes it is reassuring to know that your computer didn't just ignore your command, and something is happening behind the scenes. In this module you can configure visible feedback to help you know if you really hit that icon or not.

The traditional way to indicate that your computer is busy is to modify the cursor, and you can turn this on by choosing a Busy Cursor.

With this option enabled, your cursor will have an icon attached to it for a short time, when a new application is being launched. You can configure how long this icon is displayed beside your cursor with the Startup indication timeout: spinbox. The default is 10 seconds.

There are several variations of busy cursor available, including a Blinking Cursor, a Bouncing Cursor or a Passive Busy Cursor icon with no animation.

Traditional &kde; launch notification has taken another form, which you can also enable and disable here. Normally when you start an application, it gets an immediate entry in the taskbar, with the icon replaced by a spinning hourglass to let you know something is happening. You can toggle this behavior on and off with the Enable taskbar notification checkbox, and when it's enabled, you can set a time in the Startup indication timeout spinbox.

Not all applications that you start will eventually show a window, or an entry in the taskbar. Some of them, for example, are docked into the &kde; system tray. Alternatively, it might be that you sent it off to a different virtual desktop, and in the Filters section of the Task Manager Settings the option Only show tasks from the current desktop is checked. Setting a timeout ensures that, even in these cases, you can still get launch feedback, but also that it will go away when the job is done.