For 11.04 and earlier:
Unity does support custom launchers from .desktop files. To create custom launcher from a .desktop file you need to create a *.desktop file for your program.
gedit ~/.local/share/applications/name.desktop
The .desktop file should look something like this:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=the name you want shown
Comment=
Exec=command to run
Icon=icon name
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true
In your file manager open your home folder and navigate to:
(You may need to press ctrl+h to show hidden files to see the .gconf directory.)
.gconf-> desktop-> unity-> launcher -> favourites
you'll see a bunch of folders starting with "app-".
you need to create a folder for your program. Use the same name.desktop you used in /usr/share/applications. Go into 1 of the folders for something that is already on the dock & copy the xml file and paste that into your new folder. Open it with your text editor and change the name of the *.desktop to your name.desktop.
Open gconf-editor (you can open gconf by running the command gconf-editor in the Terminal) & go to:
desktop-> unity-> launcher -> favorites
Double click the list on the right & add your name.desktop.
Log out & back in and you should see your launcher.
(thank you kerry_s on the Ubuntu Forums for helping with this answer)
Unity also has a feature called Lenses. By default, you have two in Unity: Applications and Files. In the future, you will be able to install and create a lot more. There is some info about that on the Ubuntu wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Unity/Lenses
I don't think there's a dedicated file managing menu associations centrally. Alacarte operates by modifying applications' .desktop files, so you might want to back up these folders:
~/.local/share/applications
/usr/local/share/applications
/usr/share/applications
Best Answer
What goes wrong
I tried to create a launcher with Alacarte, with the same result. It turns out that when Alacarte creates a new launcher, it does not handle the icon's file extension correctly on custom icons. In the
Icon=line of the launcher; it simply leaves out the extension.How you can fix it
In your home directory, there is a folder
~/.local/share/applications(.localis invisible by default, press Ctrl + H to make it visible). That is the location where your launcher (file) is created.alacarte-made.desktop(if you created more than one, they will be numbered)alacarte-made.desktopon to the open gedit window to open it.Icon=, replace the section afterIcon=with the path to your icon, including the.pngextension.Note
You might have to log out and back in to see the result.