diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index e4218d1192..e944f77eae 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -752,6 +752,9 @@ endif
 	mkdir -p "$(DESTDIR)/$(qemu_icondir)/hicolor/scalable/apps"; \
 	$(INSTALL_DATA) $(SRC_PATH)/ui/icons/qemu.svg \
 		"$(DESTDIR)/$(qemu_icondir)/hicolor/scalable/apps/qemu.svg"
+	mkdir -p "$(DESTDIR)/$(qemu_desktopdir)"
+	$(INSTALL_DATA) $(SRC_PATH)/ui/qemu.desktop \
+		"$(DESTDIR)/$(qemu_desktopdir)/qemu.desktop"
 ifdef CONFIG_GTK
 	$(MAKE) -C po $@
 endif
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index ce54cd2bdc..7f1426ed0c 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -5746,6 +5746,7 @@ qemu_moddir=$libdir$confsuffix
 qemu_datadir=$datadir$confsuffix
 qemu_localedir="$datadir/locale"
 qemu_icondir="$datadir/icons"
+qemu_desktopdir="$datadir/applications"
 
 # We can only support ivshmem if we have eventfd
 if [ "$eventfd" = "yes" ]; then
@@ -6212,6 +6213,7 @@ fi
 echo "qemu_helperdir=$libexecdir" >> $config_host_mak
 echo "qemu_localedir=$qemu_localedir" >> $config_host_mak
 echo "qemu_icondir=$qemu_icondir" >> $config_host_mak
+echo "qemu_desktopdir=$qemu_desktopdir" >> $config_host_mak
 echo "libs_softmmu=$libs_softmmu" >> $config_host_mak
 echo "GIT=$git" >> $config_host_mak
 echo "GIT_SUBMODULES=$git_submodules" >> $config_host_mak
diff --git a/ui/gtk.c b/ui/gtk.c
index ec63befa16..87c0e33d2a 100644
--- a/ui/gtk.c
+++ b/ui/gtk.c
@@ -2226,6 +2226,7 @@ static void gtk_display_init(DisplayState *ds, DisplayOptions *opts)
 
     theme = gtk_icon_theme_get_default();
     gtk_icon_theme_prepend_search_path(theme, CONFIG_QEMU_ICONDIR);
+    g_set_prgname("qemu");
 
     s->window = gtk_window_new(GTK_WINDOW_TOPLEVEL);
     s->vbox = gtk_box_new(GTK_ORIENTATION_VERTICAL, 0);
diff --git a/ui/qemu.desktop b/ui/qemu.desktop
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..20f09f56be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ui/qemu.desktop
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+[Desktop Entry]
+Version=1.0
+Name=QEMU
+Icon=qemu
+Type=Application
+Terminal=false
+Keywords=Emulators;Virtualization;KVM;
+NoDisplay=true