An Overview of Konqueror for the K Desktop Environment (KDE)

Konqueror is an all-in-one free file viewer, file manager and web browser, which is incorporated as an integral part of the KDE (K Desktop Environment). The program was developed by a group of volunteers and operates primarily on Unix operating systems like Linux. The program is under the GNU General Public License free of charge.

After installing Konqueror, you should notice that the user interface is very similar to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. However, the program was designed as a more customizable version of Netscape Navigator and the Mosaic web browser.

Konquerer works with panels that can be reorganized or added. You may have an Internet favorites or bookmarks panel located to the left side of the browser window. The panel functionality is very flexible and customizable and you can include a console window. Navigation buttons are available near the top of the Konqueror window just like most web browsers.

In addition to this, most of the keyboard shortcuts can be reconfigured with a graphical user interface. Users can also navigate by using shortcut keys. The address bar also has an AutoComplete function similar to Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Konqueror also offers tabbed browsing.

Konqueror's web browsing functionalities uses KHTML as its default layout engine, which supports Javascript, CSS, SSL, and Java applets. The web browser also supports several customizable search utilities that can be accessed by simplyu entering the service's abbreviation code and the search keywords. As far as speed is concerned, Konqueror is a very fast web browser that is on par with its market competitors.

However, reports have shown some problems from the use of plug ins on a web site that can't be run under the operating system. Because of its increasing popularity, Konqueror has replaced Firefox as the default web browser in many Linux distributions.

Konqueror also offers a file managing tool similar to Windows Explorer. The file manager allows users to browse the local directory hierarchy by entering locations in the address bar located near the top of the screen. In addition to this, the users can use and an embedded version of Konsole to execute shell commands from the file manager.

Konqueror also has a file viewer that is capable of viewing and editing certain file extensions using the KParts object model. KParts can be used to embed multimedia content on HTML pages. This makes it possible to view files directly from the browser.