Configuring Element Desktop
Element Desktop is a Matrix client for desktop platforms with Element Web at its core.
You can download Element Desktop for Mac, Linux or Windows from the Element downloads page.
See https://web-docs.element.dev/ for the Element Web and Desktop documentation.
Aligning Element Desktop with your ESS deployed Element Web
By default, Element Desktop will be configured to point to the Matrix.org homeserver, however this is configurable by supplying a User Specified config.json.
As Element Desktop is mainly Element Web, but packaged as a Desktop application, this config.json is identical to the config.json ESS will configure and deploy for you at https://<element_web_fqdn>/config.json, so it is recommended to setup Element Desktop using that file directly.
How you do this will depend on your specific environment, but you will need to ensure the config.json is placed in the correct location to be used by Element Desktop.
-
%APPDATA%\$NAME\config.jsonon Windows -
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/$NAME/config.jsonor~/.config/$NAME/config.jsonon Linux -
~/Library/Application Support/$NAME/config.jsonon macOS
In the paths above, $NAME is typically Element, unless you use --profile $PROFILE in which case it becomes Element-$PROFILE.
Note on Microsoft Windows Explorer by default file extensions are hidden. Hence, double check if a config.json created by Windows Explorer (right click menu) is obtaining a txt file extension.
Customising your desktop configuration
You may wish to further customise Element Desktop, if the changes you wish to make should not also apply to your ESS deployed Element Web, you will need to add them in addition to your existing config.json.
You can find Desktop specific configuration options, or just customise using any options from the Element Web Config docs.