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How to Create Desktop Shortcut Icons in Ubuntu 14.10

Last updated: October 18, 2014

ubuntu desktop shortcuts

This quick tutorial shows you how to easily create applications shortcut icons on your Ubuntu’s default Unity Desktop.

Due to permission issue, it’s not possible to drag and drop application shortcuts from the Unity Dash to the Desktop. You will get below error dialog when trying to do so:

As a workaround we can directly copy and paste the application shortcuts from /usr/share/applications directory into desktop.

1.) Open “Files”, Nautilus file browser, from the left Launcher and navigate to Computer (left panel) / usr / share / applications.

You will see all the applications’ icons there.

2.) Select one or more icons and press Ctrl+C to copy it/them. Then click on blank area of your desktop and press Ctrl+V to paste the icon(s). Note that drop and drop won’t work

That’s it, just so easy!

3.) For those who want to place Home, Network, Trash, and Devices icons on desktop, open Unity Tweak Tool (available in Ubuntu Software Center) from the Unity Dash and enable them from Desktop Icons utility.

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    8 responses to How to Create Desktop Shortcut Icons in Ubuntu 14.10

    1. Lester December 28, 2014 at 3:03 pm

      Thanks Ji.This tip was quick and to the point. Good job.

    2. ireclo May 5, 2015 at 3:16 pm

      Thanks, works great ! Excellent tip

    3. JPacheco May 26, 2015 at 4:23 pm

      Excellent post !! it help me a lot !

    4. Laurie Daniels July 3, 2015 at 10:43 pm

      Thank you very much for your help Ji. Another nice app that is available in the Software Centre is ClassicMenu Indicator. It sits in your tray and has a drop down menu so you can easily access all your desktop items.
      Cheers Laurie.

    5. Bob Briggs November 17, 2015 at 4:09 am

      Just what I needed for my cluttered Desktop. The how-to was brilliant. Keep them coming

    6. vaaibhav November 26, 2015 at 6:46 pm

      hello,
      i have download playon linux app but i did not found shortcut on desktop and in app menu too.
      wget -q “http://deb.playonlinux.com/public.gpg” -O- | sudo apt-key add –
      sudo wget http://deb.playonlinux.com/playonlinux_precise.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/playonlinux.list
      sudo apt-get update
      sudo apt-get install playonlinux
      For user having different platform refer http://www.playonlinux.com/en/download.html
      please help

      • Ji m November 27, 2015 at 1:30 pm

        The installer does provide a shortcut for Ubuntu desktop. Log out and back in after it’s properly installed and see effect.

    7. Kent July 7, 2016 at 9:41 pm

      This article could be improved by including instructions for accessing applications stored on drives other than the main Hard Disk, such as another internal HD, and drives connected by a USB port.
      .exe applications requiring “Wine” to open them also seem to fool this method.