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Ubuntu Tip Adjust Navigation Hotkeys Creating Desktop Application Shortcuts

Ubuntu Tip Adjust Navigation Hotkeys Creating Desktop Application Shortcuts

I was a hopeless Windows user - in fact, I still am. I stick to Windows XP until late 2010, because that was the only option and I was too busy with my exams and life (yup, I used to have a life...!) to play with Windows 7 when it first released.

Well, my first encounter with Windows 7 was on the laptop I bought for University. 2 weeks in my freshman year, I bought that Lenovo Ideapad laptop - I have to say, that was wonderful.

I wasnt really a hotkey person until I start using Windows 7, especially the navigation ones, this is one of the few things I genuinely appreciate on works from Microsoft.

Win + D and Win + Up/Down/Left/Right to resize the focus windows has been very important to my computer usage in the last few years - and also Win + 1-9, but Ubuntu comes with that by default so there isnt really much to say about it.

However, for some reason, Canonical has decided to add ctrl to every of these hotkeys I mentioned above, so Show Desktop is ctrl + win(super) + d, and snapping windows are ctrl + win + nav.

If youre an experienced Windows user like me, then you might develop a reluctant-ness to Ubuntu for being unable to use these hotkey like we used to.

Good news is we can change that - well, in fact, in the world of Linux, almost everything can be changed!

First, go to Software Center and search for "CompizConfig Settings Manager". Download it and it would got pinned to your taskbar automatically.

Just open the app, and go to Grid, under Windows Management. Go into it and you will see a list of hotkeys you will be able to change with the app.



The ones we are looking for are the 4 at the bottom, they are: Maximize Key, Restore, Left Maximize, and Right Maximize.



Click on the Button with the current hotkey to change it, you can use the interface given to select a new hotkey, or you can choose to click Grab combination and go on and press the keys on your keyboard and they will be recorded as the new hotkey for a specific feature.

There is, however, another thing we need to do before closing the app, for some reason, Win + Down is not functioning properly just by setting the Win + Down here in the Grid menu, we will have to go back to the main menu of CompizConfig Settings Manager, choose General Options under General, then find the option "Unmaximize or Maximize Window" and change it into Win + Down as well.




After that, close the app and try to control a window with your newly-set hotkeys!

Oh, and there is still one frequently used hotkey I havent wrote about yet - the Show Desktop key.

To set this one, we dont have to use CompizConfig Settings Manager, simply to go System Settings in your dash (open by Win key and search system then you will see it.) Go to Keyboard and click the shortcut tab, select Navigation, in the list of options on the right, find the one named "Hide all normal windows", select it and press Win+D, the hotkey will then be set.




All done!

Update:

A few days after, I found that my show desktop hotkey wasnt working properly.

My situation was - everytime I use the newly-set win+D hotkey to minimize all windows, the hotkey doesnt restore all windows when pressed again.

The solution is simple - just go to the system settings, click on Appearance, then get into the Behavior tab, check Add show desktop icon to the launcher. After that, the hotkey show behave as in Windows.

Cheers!

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