Saturday 23 March 2013

Linux menus and the Windows Start Key

Linux menus and the Windows Start Key

Linux distributions like Ubuntu open the main menu with Alt+F1 instead of the Windows key that most new Linux users would be expecting, but it used to be simple to change the shortcut key. Since Ubuntu 9.10 the process isn’t so obvious, but we’ve got the instructions for you.


Just in case you’re a total newb, here’s the menu we’re talking about: (see above)

Change the Gnome Main Menu Shortcut Key to the Windows Key
The first thing you’d normally do is head to System –> Preferences –> Keyboard Shortcuts to change out the shortcut key, but sadly the “Show the panel’s main menu” can’t be assign to the Windows key. You can hit the key as much as you want, but it won’t work here.



What you’re going to need to do is either open up a terminal or use the Alt+F2 shortcut key to bring up the Run Application dialog, and then paste in the following:
gconftool-2 --set /apps/metacity/global_keybindings/panel_main_menu --type string "Super_L"


Once you’ve hit the enter key, the Windows key will not only open the main menu, but the Keyboard Shortcuts panel will be updated with “Super L”, which means the left Windows key


And there you go.

Update

I'm a fan of XFCE and one of the main reasons I like it is that its the only desktop that I know of that is compatible with the lovely whisker menu.

If you want to launch this menu with your windows key this (from the Codeyarns Site) should get you going:

 Go to Settings -> Keyboard -> Application Shortcuts. For the command xfce4-popup-whiskermenu, change it to the Win key.

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