Ubuntu – What Custom Launchers and Unity Quicklists are available

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Please note that right now, most of the information contained below is outdated and cannot be updated. Be careful, most of this won't work on Ubuntu 12.04 and newer.

Creating a custom launcher for Unity is simple. Quicklists provide an easy and efficient way to quickly access commonly used tasks for a specific application.

NOTE: Starting with Ubuntu 11.10, this popup option has vanished. Launchers can now only be created by editing text files in your home folder.

Creating a custom launcher is easy.

  1. Right-click on your desktop and click create a launcher.
  2. Edit the .desktop file using a text editor. (More information can be found here and here.)

So, which custom launchers do you use on Unity?

Note: Please limit yourself to one custom launcher per answer. Also, please provide a screenshot of it in action.

Best Answer

Home Icon Quicklist

Home Icon Quicklist

  1. Copy 'Home Folder' launcher file to your home directory:

    mkdir ~/.local/share/applications
cp /usr/share/applications/nautilus-home.desktop ~/.local/share/applications

  2. Open the file for editing in gedit:

    gedit ~/.local/share/applications/nautilus-home.desktop

  3. Delete the following line from the file:

    OnlyShowIn=GNOME;

  4. Add this text to the bottom of the file, then close and save:

    X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=Videos;Documents;Music;Pictures;Downloads
[Videos Shortcut Group]
Name=Videos
Exec=nautilus Videos
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Documents Shortcut Group]
Name=Documents
Exec=nautilus Documents
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Music Shortcut Group]
Name=Music
Exec=nautilus Music
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Pictures Shortcut Group]
Name=Pictures
Exec=nautilus Pictures
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Downloads Shortcut Group]
Name=Downloads
Exec=nautilus Downloads
TargetEnvironment=Unity

  5. Log out and log in again to see the changes.

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