diff --git a/applets/appmenu/lib/appmenuapplet.cpp b/applets/appmenu/lib/appmenuapplet.cpp
--- a/applets/appmenu/lib/appmenuapplet.cpp
+++ b/applets/appmenu/lib/appmenuapplet.cpp
@@ -205,8 +205,16 @@
             actionMenu->installEventFilter(this);
         }
 
+        setStatus(Plasma::Types::AcceptingInputStatus);
+        actionMenu->winId();//create window handle
+        actionMenu->windowHandle()->setTransientParent(ctx->window());
+
         actionMenu->popup(pos);
 
+        //we can return to passive immediately, an autohide panel will stay open whilst
+        //any transient window is showing
+        setStatus(Plasma::Types::PassiveStatus);
+
         if (view() == FullView) {
             // hide the old menu only after showing the new one to avoid brief flickering
             // in other windows as they briefly re-gain focus
diff --git a/startkde/startkde.cmake b/startkde/startkde.cmake
--- a/startkde/startkde.cmake
+++ b/startkde/startkde.cmake
@@ -94,11 +94,6 @@
 #otherwise apps that manually opt in for high DPI get auto scaled by the developer AND manually scaled by us
 export QT_AUTO_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTOR=0
 
-#Set the QtQuickControls style to our own: for QtQuickControls1
-#it will fall back to Desktop, while it will use our own org.kde.desktop
-#for QtQuickControlsStyle and Kirigami
-export QT_QUICK_CONTROLS_STYLE=org.kde.desktop
-
 # For Qt Quick Controls 1, there is no style with that name,
 # so override that explicitly with the default style to avoid
 # a warning on startup. However, simply setting it to "Desktop" does
diff --git a/startkde/startplasma.cmake b/startkde/startplasma.cmake
--- a/startkde/startplasma.cmake
+++ b/startkde/startplasma.cmake
@@ -49,11 +49,6 @@
   esac
 fi
 
-#Set the QtQuickControls style to our own: for QtQuickControls1
-#it will fall back to Desktop, while it will use our own org.kde.desktop
-#for QtQuickControlsStyle and Kirigami
-export QT_QUICK_CONTROLS_STYLE=org.kde.desktop
-
 # For Qt Quick Controls 1, there is no style with that name,
 # so override that explicitly with the default style to avoid
 # a warning on startup. However, simply setting it to "Desktop" does