Type=MimeType is deprecated as there is a new standard for this now, see the Shared MIME-info Database specification for more information. In consequence the Keys Patterns (various file name extensions associated with the MIME type) and DefaultApp (the default application associated with this MIME type) are also deprecated.

Using .kdelnk instead of .desktop as the file extension is deprecated.

Using [KDE Desktop Entry] instead of [Desktop Entry] as header is deprecated.

The Encoding key is deprecated. It was used to specify whether keys of type localestring were encoded in UTF-8 or in the specified locale. Possible values are UTF-8 and Legacy-Mixed. See Appendix D, The Legacy-Mixed Encoding (Deprecated) for more details.

Deprecated Exec field codes: %m (the mini-icon associated with the desktop entry, this should be expanded as two arguments, --miniicon and the content of the MiniIcon key, it can also be ignored by expanding it to no arguments) and %v (the device as listed in the Dev key in the desktop file).

Deprecated keys: MiniIcon (small icon for menus, etc.), TerminalOptions (if the program runs in a terminal, any options that should be passed to the terminal emulator before actually executing the program), Protocols, Extensions, BinaryPattern, MapNotify.

The SwallowTitle and SwallowExec keys are deprecated. The SwallowTitle key is of type localestring and specifies the title of the window if is swallowed onto the panel. The SwallowExec key is of type string and specifies the program to exec if swallowed app is clicked.

The SortOrder key is deprecated. It is of type string(s) and may be used to specify the order in which to display files. The Desktop Menu Specification defines another mechanism for defining the order of menu items.

The FilePattern key is deprecated. The value is a list of regular expressions to match against for a file manager to determine if this entry's icon should be displayed. Usually simply the name of the main executable and friends.

Historically some booleans have been represented by the numeric entries 0 or 1. With this version of the standard they are now to be represented as a boolean string. However, if an implementation is reading a pre-1.0 desktop entry, it should interpret 0 and 1 as false and true, respectively.

Historically lists have been comma separated. This is inconsistent with other lists which are separated by a semicolon. When reading a pre-1.0 desktop entry, comma separated lists should continue to be supported.