---
title: "FAQ"
description: "Frequently Asked Questions"
index: 1000
---
# {frontmatter.title}

This page is being actively expanded as common questions come up again.

Make sure to also read the [Item Size and Position](/docs/guide/size-position) and
[QML Language](/docs/guide/qml-language) pages for questions related to

## How do I

### Reduce memory usage
The main thing you can do to reduce the memory usage of a given configuration
is to use loaders. Loaders can be used to create objects only when needed,
and destroy them when not needed.

- Use @@QtQuick.Loader when the component being loaded inherits from @@QtQuick.Item.
- Use @@Quickshell.LazyLoader in other cases.

### Show widgets conditionally
The @@QtQuick.Item.visible property can be used to change the visibility of an
Item conditionally, as well as Loaders.

Note that you can change out a loader's component conditionally:
```qml
@@QtQuick.Loader {
  readonly property Component thing1: ...
  readonly property Component thing2: ...

  sourceComponent: condition ? thing1 : thing2
}
```

### Make a rounded window
Rounded windows are simply transparent square ones with a rounded rectangle
inside of them.

```qml
@@Quickshell.PanelWindow {
  color: "transparent"

  @@QtQuick.Rectangle {
    // match the size of the window
    anchors.fill: parent

    radius: 5
    color: "white" // your actual color
  }
}
```

### Get rid of the purple/black icons
The @@Quickshell.Quickshell.iconPath() function has three variants:
- One draws a purple/black square if the icon is missing.
- One allows you to specify a fallback icon if the desired one is missing.
- One returns an empty string if the icon is missing.

Either of the last two variants can be used to avoid the purple/black square.

## Something is broken

### There is a hole in my window
If you set a Rectangle's color to `"transparent"` and touch its `border` property,
you'll hit [QTBUG-137166](https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-137166), which
causes everything under the transparent rectangle to become invisible.

Adding a definition like `border.width: 0` seems to work around it, especially
if the only border property you wanted to set was radius.

### My window should not be opaque
If a window is created with an opaque background color, Quickshell will use
a window surface format that is opaque, which reduces the amount of processing
the gpu must do to draw it. If you change the background color of your window
between opaque and transparent colors, this may affect you.

To tell Quickshell to always create a window capable of showing transparency,
use @@Quickshell.QsWindow.surfaceFormat to set `opaque` to false.
