Just choose the desired application from the K menu and drag and drop it to the Desktop.

For applications not listed in the K menu, use the right mouse button on the desktop and choose Create New->File->Link to Application... and fill in the configuration for the application you want to link to.

First, make sure you are allowed to mount/umount the relevant device as a user.

Then you can add any device via right mouse button on the desktop and then choosing Create New->Link to Device and then selecting the device of the type you wish to control from the desktop. Fill in the settings for the device in the dialog that appears and click OK. You can use the resulting desktop icon to mount/unmount the device from the desktop.

The icons can be found only in $KDEDIRS/share/icons or $HOME/.kde/share/icons or $HOME/.kde2/share/icons. To use icons stored in other locations, you must either copy them into one of the above-mentioned fixed KDE locations or make symlinks.

Mouse wheel support comes with Qt™ 2.0 and above, so KDE based on that will automatically support the use of the mouse scroll wheel if your system is configured correctly. Check your X-Server settings support the use of a scrollwheel if it is not working.

KDE comes with a program called kstart. To start an xterm on the second desktop and then activate it use: kstart --desktop 2 --activate --window "xterm" xterm.

Note that the --window option is important. It takes an argument which is a regular expression matching the title of the window to apply the settings to.

Please read kstart --help-all for more magic available with kstart (and there is an abundance).

$HOME/Desktop. You might need to refresh your desktop after you have saved your files.