Preferably with no delay between hovering and peeking the desktop.

Why, what's the use case? Please explain problems and use cases rather than suggesting solutions to problems that aren't clear yet.

See https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved/Issue_Reporting#Proposing_a_solution

The use case is being able to see the desktop and its contents without UNfocusing/minimizing all windows in the process.

This function bypasses these inconveniences by making the peek just a peek (non-interactible), exactly like a window preview peek.

Some applications may reduce/modify their usage upon being minimized/UNfocused, which the users may find undesirable trade for just a peek.

Users may have too many windows or processing heavy content, and minimizing-then-UNminimizing all at once might freeze the system.

> The use case is being able to see the desktop and its contents without UNfocusing/minimizing all windows in the process.

That's not a use case, that's a method of accomplishing a use case. What's the use case? *why* do you want to do this?

(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #4)
> > The use case is being able to see the desktop and its contents without UNfocusing/minimizing all windows in the process.
> 
> That's not a use case, that's a method of accomplishing a use case. What's
> the use case? *why* do you want to do this?

To not affect the state of any window, especially when they're too many or too heavy.
Similar to why would anyone use window preview just to peek at other windows, instead of clicking on them.

Marking as NEEDSINFO until you can articulate a use case.

You mean why would I want to use the "Peek desktop" just to peek desktop with no interactivity?

To instantaneously prevent/stop people from snooping my private activity, such as bank account usage.
Simply hovering over that square is the most inconspicuous and elegant way of doing it, and the absence of a click makes it even more natural.

I'd be able to do it without the risk of freezing the system due to multiple minimizations at the same time because it would just mimic a window preview.

And by "a click", I meant "2 clicks", plus the precision of clicking at the right time.

(In reply to Fernando M. Muniz from comment #7)
> I'd be able to do it without the risk of freezing the system due to multiple
> minimizations at the same time because it would just mimic a window preview.

I might be missing something, but if the system is unstable when moving and changing visibility of multiple windows at the same time, I don't see how hovering vs. clicking would change that - and wouldn't the core issue be the instability, then? Is there a bug report open for those crashes?

(In reply to John Kizer from comment #9)
> (In reply to Fernando M. Muniz from comment #7)
> > I'd be able to do it without the risk of freezing the system due to multiple
> > minimizations at the same time because it would just mimic a window preview.
> 
> I might be missing something, but if the system is unstable when moving and
> changing visibility of multiple windows at the same time, I don't see how
> hovering vs. clicking would change that - and wouldn't the core issue be the
> instability, then? Is there a bug report open for those crashes?

Because the applet square would behave exactly like a window preview, meaning that they wouldn't minimize maximized apps when you're taking a peak.
The instability would be due to too many processes (or too heavy) having to go through the minimizing animation.

JFYI the "Peek at desktop" effect doesn't use the minimize effect, so if you're seeing performance issues with that effect (which should also be reported, but separately). What's being requested here doesn't seem related to that.

I looked at implementing this today, and remembered that there's already an existing off-by-default way to do it: assuming the widget is in its default position in a screen corner, you can use System Settings > Mouse & Touchpad > Screen Edges to set up a hotcorner for the corner that the widget lives on, and set it to "Peek at Desktop."

Can you try that out and see if it works for your purposes? And if not, explain why not.

Thanks!

Created attachment 179023 [details]
Video showing the window animations.

It is similar, however:
1- It uses animations on all windows, instead of just projecting the desktop over everything like a window preview does.
2- Seems like it has a one pixel hitbox.
3- Requires hovering into it two times.

1. Those are the same animations the "Peek at Desktop" widget uses. In fact, the widget is simply triggering that effect.
2. The one pixel hixbox is no issue due to Fitts' Law; the pixel is one of the four easiest to-hit-pixel on the screen.
3. If you want it to trigger faster, you can adjust System Settings > Mouse & Touchpad > Screen Edges > Activation Delay

This should suffice for the described use case, so I'm closing the bug report. Thanks for understanding!