How to edit/create new launcher items in Unity by hand in Ubuntu?
Tags: ubuntu, desktoplauncherunity
Published: 2021-11-24 17:11:51

---
title: How to edit/create new launcher items in Unity by hand in Ubuntu?
published: true
date: 2021-11-23 16:03:28 UTC
tags: Ubuntu,desktoplauncherunity
canonical_url: https://stackallflow.com/ubuntu/how-to-edit-create-new-launcher-items-in-unity-by-hand-in-ubuntu/
---

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<p><span style="font-size: 1.2em; color: initial;">desktop</span><span style="font-size: 1.2em; color: initial;">launcher</span><span style="font-size: 1.2em; color: initial;">unity</span></p>
</header>

Will Unity allow making custom launcher icons from `.desktop` files or via menu editing system? (Right now the launcher doesn’t give the option to “keep in launcher” on all programs.

For some programs I use, I have to make custom launchers or `.desktop` files.

For instance, daily blender builds are generally just folders with an executable.

In basic Gnome or KDE, I can make a new menu entry with the menu editing system. Then, I can also add it to Docky either from the menu or by dragging a `.desktop` file to it. Unity launcher doesn’t support drag and drop, so thats not a bug or anything, but when I open a `.desktop` file, it has unpredictable results. Most time it will not have “keep in launcher”. Sometime it will have a pinnable item without the `.desktop`‘s icon, and if I pin the item to the launcher, it will not call upon the program again after closing it. I’ve also gotten it to just work with a `.desktop` file for `celtx`.

#### Accepted Answer

### 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 <kbd>ctrl+h</kbd> 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](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Unity/Lenses)

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