exeify

Download → double-click → installed. exeify makes apps downloaded from a company's website install like a Windows .exe — no terminal required.

Built for KDE Plasma on Arch Linux (tested on CachyOS).

The problem

On Windows you download app-setup.exe, double-click it, done. On Linux the same button gives you a .tar.gz, a .deb (wrong distro), an .AppImage that won't run until you chmod +x, or a .sh that opens in a text editor. exeify fixes that: it registers itself as the handler for every common "downloaded app" format and does the right thing when you double-click.

What double-clicking does

You downloaded	exeify does
.AppImage	Moves it to ~/Applications, extracts its icon, adds it to your app menu
.sh / .run / .bin	Asks "Run installer?", then runs it in a terminal
.deb / .rpm	Extracts to ~/.local/opt/<app>, adopts the bundled .desktop file, rewrites its paths, symlinks binaries into ~/.local/bin
.pkg.tar.zst	pacman -U with a GUI password prompt (pkexec)
.flatpakref / .flatpak	flatpak install --user --from in a terminal
.tar.gz / .tar.xz / .zip	Sniffs the contents — if it looks like an app (e.g. Electron bundles like app-linux-x64.tar.gz), extracts and registers it; if it's just data, opens Ark like normal
.exe / .msi	Runs it with Wine

Archives also get a right-click "Install as application" entry in Dolphin for cases the sniffer can't identify.

Install

git clone https://github.com/Scdouglas1999/exeify.git
cd exeify
./install.sh

That's it. There's no daemon and nothing runs at boot — it's just file-type associations in ~/.config/mimeapps.list plus one script in ~/.local/bin.

Requirements (all preinstalled on a standard KDE system): kdialog, konsole, dolphin, ark, tar, bsdtar (libarchive), ar (binutils), unzip, file.

Optional:

sudo pacman -S fuse2     # AppImages need FUSE to actually launch
sudo pacman -S flatpak   # .flatpakref support
sudo pacman -S discover  # KDE's graphical app store (Flathub front-end)

Uninstall

./uninstall.sh

Removes the handler and all file associations. Apps already installed via exeify stay put.

Where things go

• Extracted apps: ~/.local/opt/<name>/
• AppImages: ~/Applications/
• Launchers: ~/.local/share/applications/ (auto-marked; exeify never overwrites a .desktop file it didn't create)
• Binary symlinks: ~/.local/bin/
• Icons: ~/.local/share/icons/

Everything is user-level — no sudo, no /usr writes (except .pkg.tar.zst, which asks).

Honest caveats

• Tarballs aren't a real installer format. Detection is heuristic (looks for .desktop files, installer scripts, and bare executables). Worst case it opens Ark or extracts and tells you it couldn't find a binary — right-click "Install as application" covers the misses.
• .deb packages are built for Debian. Self-contained ones (most Electron apps) work fine; ones with real dependencies won't resolve — exeify warns you via ldd when that happens. Prefer Flatpak or the AUR when an app exists there.
• Arch + KDE only. The concept ports to other distros/DEs (swap pacman bits, kdialog → zenity, etc.) — PRs welcome.
• Installed apps don't self-update — same as a Windows app without a built-in updater. Flatpaks update via Discover; AppImages update best via Gear Lever.

Related / alternatives

• Gear Lever — best-in-class AppImage manager; use it if AppImages are your main format
• KDE Discover — graphical Flathub storefront; install this too, it covers most mainstream apps
• AM — CLI manager for AppImages and portable apps from its own database
• debtap — converts .deb to system-level pacman packages (needs root; exeify's extraction doesn't)

exeify's niche is being the universal double-click glue across all of these formats at once — most of which have handlers that already exist piecemeal, but nothing wiring them together.

License

MIT