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Kristin Klodzinski

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Aug 2, 2024, 9:18:23 AM8/2/24

to gausleduavos

I was advised to start a new thread to an old question posted back in 2009, because a lot has changed since then and creating a desktop icon is supposed to be easy now.
I must admit I'm a new convert to Linux and have a lot to learn. That's why I'm here. I think the XFCE desktop envionment is one of the best set-ups of them all, but there are very simple tasks that are not intuitive at all or downright hard to accomplish.

One of those things is creating a desktop icon. I found out through much trial and error and by finally giving up and looking it up on the internet, that you have to "Create a Launcher", which sounds much different than adding a desktop shortcut. But it does make sense as to why it's called that... just threw me off.

I would like to look at and go through all the apps I have so that I can decide which ones I'd like on the desktop. Once I looked up where to find those, I right clicked on one that I wanted and I see the "send to desktop(create shortcut)" option. That's perfect! But not so fast.... Now I have a shortcut with a lock on it, and everytime I click it there's a warning saying:
Untrusted application launcher
"The desktop file "gcalctool.desktop" is in an insecure location and not marked as executable. If you do not trust this program, click Cancel.
Exec=gnome-calculator"
with a promt to "Launch Anyway" or "Cancel"

It's not very handy to add these shortcuts with the "create launcher" function because then I'm not choosing from a list... I have to start typing the app I want from memory, unless I "work-around" that by adding all the ones I want from the list of applications or look at the list in another open window, then I can see them and I start creating the real shortcuts with the create launcher function.
After that I still get the same error, but this time a 3rd option is on the promt: "Mark Executable" ...well I'm glad that was there... now it's functional.

But it IS easy to create a desktop shortcut for one of your apps. Just open your menu, move your mouse cursor over the app, hold your left mouse button down, move your mouse cursor to the desktop, and let go of the button. I believe this process is known as "click and drag," "drag it to the desktop," something like that.

I just tried to do the same thing with the directory you mentioned by right-clicking on it from Thunar and choosing Send to / Desktop (Create Link). I also saw that the directory (link) was locked. But, really, that makes sense, because I checked the permissions and they're "root" - the same as the actual directory.

I knew the folder was under root permissions, but the right click functionality was there all the way up to launching it, as long as you didn't mind the error message each time. I just didn't understand why that would even be an option... what a tease!

BTW on my computer, even when I drag and drop an app from the applications menu to the desktop to make the shortcut, it still has the error message and I have to mark it as executable. Maybe that's a security thing...

I really kind of like access to that "usr/shared/applications" folder. I haven't yet figured out if there's a way to make a desktop shortcut for it. Since it's 'root' permission, I would bet I have to go to the terminal and use a sudo command...

Actually the folder "/usr/share/applications" has more. It is full of symbolic links to all your executables including each executable command found inside places like the "Settings Manager". While technically those are accessable in the menu by openning the menu, clicking on Settings Manager, then selecting an app (for example "Appearance"), there's not any drag and drop functionality to create a launcher to "Appearance" on the desktop from Settings Manager. But inside "/usr/share/applications" there is, and I can save 2 steps and have a launcher that goes directly to "Appearance". Which I have figured out how to do now.

Also I like seeing everything all in one place (listed alphabetically) for reference, especially when you can look at the properties of each one, including where the actual app is found and what natively opens it... just personal preference for convenience. It even lists executables that are only accessed inside of other applications otherwise. For example the "Bulk Rename" command from Thunar is there. That's not useful, but it's just an example of what's there that isn't in the menu.

Click on Files or Show Applications and type Files, and open Files. Now in the upper right corner you have your 3 lines hamburger menu. Click that, and click Preferences, then click Behavior, then "Show Action to create symbolic links".

Now any time you right click on a file or folder, you can drag that file or folder with in "Files" to "Desktop" on the left side column. Once the symbolic link or shortcut is moved, you can rename it so it looks like the original source file or folder name.

For example, I was trying to create a shortcut for pycharm named pycharm.desktop, but the Allow launch option was not showing up, until I renamed the file to pycharm.sh.desktop. After renaming everything worked smoothly.

For folder shortcut, first you need to enable the simlink creation under Files --> Preferences in the Behavior tab (Show action to create symbolic links) in order that the Create link menu can appear when you right click on a folder. You can do the same with SHIFT+CTRL+M but this key combination works only if the simlink creation is enabled as described above (otherwise useless), and you will also need to turn on Capslock before using the keys to trigger capital 'M'...

move to the the file or folder to be linked and right-click upon it to open a drop-down/pop-up menu then use the Create Link option (or use Shift+Ctrl+M hot-key. This creates the link in the target's directory which can be copied/moved to the required location.

I had also discover, without Eiko's first steps that simply doing ashift-control while drag-and-drop on the target object but with dragging just off the target's position followed by dropping back onto the target correctly creates the iconised link locally in the target's directory.

then select one of these sessions on the login screen and as the result to forget this new GNOME Shell nightmare (the Desktop without DESKTOP is a pain, but not the real desktop).

More technical users who prefer traditional desktop with traditional habbits have to remove GNOME Shell completely and install other DE of their preference. I have a solution for such method which was tested on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS freshly installed VM.

could i ask you some silly favor could you write the password let in text file then copy it from that file then use it to login in netflix in both safari and brave just to make sure there was not mistake or issue with some key on your keyboard that play you

it happens only on netflix, other websites facebook and instagram are working, yeah i tried to copy from my phone and paste it on safari, it worked then i did the same on brave, no password incorrect.

My shortcut icon stopped working a couple months ago. The only way I can access dropbox is through windows explorer. I'm running windows 10. I have uninstalled/reinstalled multiple times, restarted my pc multiple times. I've tried single and double clicking, right clicking, running as administrator. By the way, the software opens just fine on my phone. Suggestions?

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Hi @PRQ! To recretate the Dropbox shortcut in your taskbar, please click on the small Dropbox icon in your system tray, go to your initials/profile picture > Preferences > Account tab. When you're at the Account tab, press alt + h on your keyboard, and click the "Create desktop shortcut" button.