Create Desktop Shortcuts of Favorite Applications & Folders in Ubuntu 11.10

We could create desktop shortcuts of our favourite applications and system locations untill Ubuntu 10.10 with the help of desktop launchers. Those shortcuts were called desktop launchers to launch any application or any system location from your desktop. But, thanks to unity that this is not possible since Ubuntu 11.04. Oneiric Ocelot does not allow us to create a desktop launcher just by right-clicking on blank area on the desktop.

To create desktop shortcuts of our favourite applications and system locations we need to install a package to make it possible.

To get started just make sure if the gnome-panel package is installed by running the following command in terminal.

# sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends gnome-panel

Now run the following command to launch Create Launcher dialog box.

# gnome-desktop-item-edit ~/Desktop/ --create-new

In Type field select Application.

In Name field type the name of the application.

In Command field type in the command to launch the application.

Whereas if you wish to make a shortcut of your most accessed system location or folder, just select Location in Type field and type in the path of the folder in the Location field.

Below are some of my favourite shortcuts that I have created for my convenience. You too can create some as per your convenience.

Below are the shortcuts that were created on my desktop.

Enjoy !!!