This quick tutorial is going to show you how to add a ‘Show Desktop‘ icon into left dock launcher in Ubuntu 18.10 or Ubuntu 18.04.
The ‘Show Desktop‘ button was dropped since Ubuntu switched to Gnome 3 Desktop. To add it back, you can manually create show desktop shortcut icon and add it to panel (dock).
As you may know, the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+Alt+d
or Super+d
do the function hide or show all opened app windows. And following steps will create a ‘show desktop’ shortcut icon simulates the keyboard press (Super+d
) via xdotool
.
1. Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and install xdotool
:
sudo apt-get install xdotool
Type your user password (no asterisks feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.
2. Then create the show desktop shortcut icon and edit it via command:
gedit ~/.local/share/applications/show-desktop.desktop
When the file opens, paste following lines and save it.
[Desktop Entry] Type=Application Name=Show Desktop Icon=desktop Exec=xdotool key --clearmodifiers Super+d
3. Finally search for ‘show desktop’ in application menu, then right lick and select ‘add to favorites’:
That’s it. Enjoy!
Excellent, thanks!
Thanks — I installed it in 18.10 and it works.
At first it did not work. The button as written above emulates the keys Super+d, and Ubuntu18.10 uses Ctrl+Super+d by default. I looked up the keyboard shortcuts: Show Applications, Settings, Devices, Keyboard. Under “Hide all windows” the keyboard shortcut was Ctrl+Super+d. I clicked on the setting and changed it to Super+d to match with the new button. It now works fine.
CTRL+ALT+d works on Ubuntu Mate 18.08
Thank you, Ted McPherson, for this tip. Followed, and got to work.
This worked great! Thanks so much!
Thank you
nice
works great !!
That was easy and worked perfectly . Thanks Bruh
You are my hero! Thanks~
Worked like a cham
Awesome. Worked like a charm.
Is there a way to make it be the last button, at the bottom?
Drag and drop the icon to the last position at the ‘dash’.
Thanks !
thanks a lot
Thank you very much
Thank you, It worked just fine