Ubuntu custom desktop shortcuts

With Ubuntu, you can create your own desktop shortcuts that will be accessible directly from the launcher.

You can do it by using a GUI, or you can do it using directly a terminal, which is the what we will be covering here.

EDIT: There is a menu editor for the GNOME desktop, alacarte, which is a better alternative than creating the shortcut yourself.

There are two applications folders that Ubuntu is looking:

• /usr/share/applications/
  • Shared folder to every computer’s users
• ~/.local/share/applications/
  • Folder specific to the users, thus shortcuts only available for current user

If you want to create a custom one, create a <name>.desktop file into one of those two folders with the following content:

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[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Name of the app
Icon=/path/to/your/icon.png
Exec="/path/to/your/exec" %f
Comment=Some comment
Categories=Categories;separated;by;semi-commas;
Terminal=false

Sources:

• https://askubuntu.com/questions/64222/how-can-i-create-launchers-on-my-desktop
• https://askubuntu.com/questions/1006882/intellij-shortcut-location