Better UBUNTU : menu customization and hotkeys

Last few Days i was busy customizing GNOME to match up with my windows 7 setup as i like to have similar interface

One of the most important part of this customization will be the Menu.

Gnome menu with three icon interface is standard (“Application” “Places” and “System”) But then at times i found looking for a unified menu, i used to satisfy my needs with a gnome-main-menu on taskbar giving me a unified menu. but with windows vista and windows 7 quick search feature in place i was finding lack of facility in ubuntu-main-menu too.

Menu interface similar to Windows 7 menu

My Search finally took me to UBUNTU System Panel.

available @ http://code.google.com/p/ubuntu-system-panel/ <- This also has some plugin’s to display on

Its Launchpad Link is https://launchpad.net/usp

Next Stop : Enable hotkeys

In Windows I use hotkeys a lotmost common keys are

Win + E – Open Explorer

Win + D – Minimize all and show desktop.

and one shortcut which i thought i must add in linux

Win + T – to open terminal window

So i started with search on how to add such keys.

Win+ D => gconftool-2 -t str –set /apps/metacity/global_keybindings/show_desktop “d”

Win + T => gconftool-2 -t str –set /apps/metacity/global_keybindings/run_command_terminal “t”

For more details we can refer this simple post : http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/ubuntu/assign-custom-shortcut-keys-on-ubuntu-linux/

I know it’s not exactly what your after but if you go to…

System > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts

…and select “Launch home directory”, you can assign Win+e to load your home folder. If you’ve set up the sidebar in nautilus as directory structure, you should be set.

Hope that’s of some use.

set browser to Win W

set terminal to Win T

Also you can map windows Key to the Menu but then it will not be available for other actions.

so i went ahead and marked my right Win key for menu an left winows key remain intact for my shortcuts to work.

Note : to mark right win key as USP_Hotkey  use Super_R a the identifier.