Ubuntu – What desktop environments can group window icons in the taskbar like Windows 7

desktop-environmentstaskbarwindow-managerwindows 7

I find it much faster to identify a window in the taskbar (window list) by its icon,

taskbar with icon only

rather than by its text:

taskbar with icon and text

The problem with most graphical interfaces I've switched among is that they don't group windows, and if you have more terminals or file managers, they'll just clutter the taskbar and you won't know which is which. Windows 7 offers a relatively elegant solution to this by grouping similar window icons together.

Question: What Linux desktop environments have this functionality? If addons exist that provide it, that's alright.

For reference, a Cinnamon applet that sort of does this is Window List With App Grouping.

Best Answer

Unity's launcher groups windows belonging to one application in the same icon.

Four icons from Unity's launcher

For example, in this screenshot, I have two Firefox windows open, and one Thunderbird window open. The Firefox icon in the launcher has two corresponding arrows on the left to indicate this, and the Thunderbird icon has one arrow. If I click the Firefox icon, I can choose between its two windows, which are immediately rearranged and laid out on the screen.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Switching window manager/desktop environments

Just install the one that you want. For example to install LXDE, just press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open Terminal. When it opens, run the command below.

sudo apt-get install lxde

for XFCE

sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop

for Gnome

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

Once you install the one you want, log out, choose the one you want, and log back in.

enter image description here

Ubuntu – change the image of the icons on the taskbar

Check this: Where are the Unity Launcher .desktop files?

Open the .desktop file you want the icon changed for and there will be a

[Desktop Entry]
Version=
Name=
Comment=
Exec=
Icon=

Obviously the file name behind "Icon=" is what you need to replace. From UnityLaunchersAndDesktopFiles:

Icon field is the icon that should be used by the launcher and represents the application. All icons that are under the directory /usr/share/pixmaps don't need to have their full path specified, but their filename without the extension. For example, if the icon file is /usr/share/pixmaps/wallch.png, then the Icon field should be just 'wallch'. All other icons should have their full path specified.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Switching window manager/desktop environments

Ubuntu – change the image of the icons on the taskbar

Related Question