Adjust the Launcher Icon Size
Ubuntu includes a launcher on the left of your screen. If it appears that the size of the icons on the launcher is either too small or too big, you can adjust it to the size you like.

1. Click the Control Gear and select "System Settings".
2. Click "Appearance" under "Personal".
3. Under the Look tab, drag the slider of "Launcher Icon Size" to the left for a smaller size, or right for a bigger size.

Depending on the version of Ubuntu you use, the Launcher is set to always either appear or hide on the screen by default. You can change this default setting easily.

1. Click the Control Gear and select "System Settings".
2. Click "Appearance" under "Personal".
3. Under the "Behavior" tab, switch on or off the button of "Auto-hide the Launcher".

To reveal the Launcher temporarily, just press and hold the Super (aka Windows) key, or move your mouse cursor to the far left of the screen. You can adjust the reveal sensitivity with the slider under the "Behavior" tab mentioned above. If it still doesn't work very well, you can adjust the amount of mouse pressure in the following tip.

After auto hiding the Launcher, you can reveal it by moving the mouse cursor to the left edge of the screen. But when you feel that you have to actually knock the mouse cursor against the screen edge hard enough to get the Launcher revealed, then it's better that you adjust the 'mouse pressure' using CompizConfig Settings Manager.

1. Install CompizConfig Settings Manager from the Ubuntu Apps Directory if the application is not available in your system.
2. Press Alt-F2 and type ccsm into the box, press Enter to run this program.
3. Select "Desktop" from the left panel.
4. Click "Ubuntu Unity Plugin".
5. Under the "Launcher" (or "Experimental") tab, adjust the preset value of "Launcher Reveal Pressure" or "Launcher Reveal Edge Responsiveness" where applicable, to lower to make the launcher easier to reveal, or higher to do otherwise, click "Back" and "Close".

Try the Launcher again and enjoy.

Like the way the Jump Lists do in Windows 7, you can use almost the same feature for Ubuntu's Launcher. If you're using a newer version of Ubuntu, you can right-click an icon on the Launcher to reveal all open windows or browser tabs in a list and quickly jump to one of them.
For Ubuntu 12.04, you can enable this feature by installing Unity Window Quicklists.
Press Ctrl-Alt-T to call up Terminal, copy following codes and paste (Ctrl-Shift-V) them inside Terminal to install Unity Window Quicklists.

1. sudo apt-add-repository ppa:alanbell/unity
2. sudo apt-get update
3. sudo apt-get install unity-window-quicklists
4. sudo sed -i 's/OnlyShowIn=UNITY/OnlyShowIn=Unity/g' /etc/xdg/autostart/unity-window-quicklists.desktop (This command line allows for the Unity Window Quicklists to start automatically when you log into the system.)

After running the codes successfully, log out and log back in, right-click an icon on the Launcher and select an open window in the jump list. This serves as an alternative to clicking an icon on the Launcher and selecting an open window in preview.

When you do a search from the Dash in Ubuntu 12.10 or newer versions, it offers additional search results including shopping suggestions, a feature known as "Shopping Lens" or "Unity Smart Scopes", underneath the local search results by default. If you don't like these suggestions, you can turn them off or back on.
For Ubuntu 13.10

1. Click the Dash Home icon on the Launcher and click "Filter results" next to the search box.
2. Deselect the categories or sources that you want to exclude from the search results.

For Ubuntu 12.10 and 13.04
You can disable (or re-enable) the Shopping Lens by entering the command below in the Terminal, then log out and back in.

• To disable: sudo apt-get remove unity-lens-shopping
• To re-enable: sudo apt-get install unity-lens-shopping

Alternatively in either of the versions above, you can follow these simple steps to opt out of the online search results:

1. Click the Control Gear and select "System Settings".
2. Under Personal, select "Security & Privacy" (or just 'Privacy' in older versions).
3. Under the Search tab, turn off "When searching in the Dash: Include online search results", then log out and back in.

Ubuntu system places the application menu (File/Edit/View) (also known as AppMenu or Global Menu) on the top bar by default. If you want to disable this feature and move the menu back to the application's window, follow these steps:

1. Press Ctrl-Alt-T to run the Terminal.
2. Enter sudo su
3. Enter echo "export UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0" > /etc/X11/Xsession.d/81ubuntumenuproxy
4. Log out and back in to the system.

To re-enable it, enter sudo rm /etc/X11/Xsession.d/81ubuntumenuproxy into the Terminal, then log out and back in the system.
Prior to Ubuntu 13.10, you can remove the Global menu by running the following commands in the Terminal:

1. Enter sudo apt-get autoremove appmenu-gtk appmenu-gtk3 appmenu-qt into the Terminal.
2. Log out and log back in the system.

To get back the Global Menu, follow these steps:

1. Enter sudo apt-get install appmenu-gtk3 appmenu-gtk appmenu-qt into the Terminal.
2. Log out and log back in the system.

Note: To disable the Global Menu of Firefox, enter about:config into the address bar, then set the value of "ui.use_unity_menubar" to false.

If your Ubuntu system sets the Minimize, Maximize and Close buttons to the left in a window and you prefer to change them to the right, then follow these simple steps:
For Ubuntu 12.10, 13.04 and 13.10

1. Press Alt-F2, then type dconf-editor into the box, and press Enter to run it. (See Note below)
2. Browse to org > gnome > desktop > wm > preferences, look for "button_layout" on the right panel.
3. Change the value in the "button_layout" from close,minimize,maximize: to :minimize,maximize,close and press the Enter key.

For Ubuntu 12.04

1. In the Terminal, enter this code sudo apt-get install gconf-editor to install Configuration Editor if it's not in your system.
2. Press Alt-F2, then type gconf-editor into the box, and press Enter to run it.
3. Browse to apps > metacity > general, look for "button_layout" on the right panel.
4. Change the value in the "button_layout" from close,minimize,maximize: to :minimize,maximize,close and press the Enter key.

The above works for all control buttons on non-maximized windows. When a window is maximized, the control buttons are however fixed to the left of the Global Menu.
Note: If dconf-editor is not available, you can install it by running sudo apt-get install dconf-tools in the Terminal.

If you run an application without maximized and the system always puts it in the left-top corner of the desktop, but you are allowed to set a program window to open up in the center of the desktop area.

1. Install CompizConfig Settings Manager from the Ubuntu Apps Directory if the application is not in your system.
2. Press Alt-F2 and type ccsm into the box, press Enter to run this program. (You may receive a warning to use this advanced tool with care.)
3. Select "Windows Management" from the left panel.
4. Click "Place Windows".
5. Change Placement Mode from "Smart" or other modes to "Centered", click "Back" and "Close".

Ideally, the window manager in Ubuntu should restore the last known position of an application window, but it does not do that unless an application remembers its own window position. (See reported bugs)

When you double-click the title bar of a window, the default setting is to maximize or un-maximize a window. On a non-maximized window, you can roll up or down a window by changing the setting below.
For Ubuntu 12.10, 13.04 and 13.10

1. Press Alt-F2, then type dconf-editor into the box, and press Enter to run it.
2. Browse to org > gnome > desktop > wm > preferences, look for "action-double-click-titlebar" on the right panel, change the value from 'toggle_maximize' to 'toggle_shade'.

Now you can roll up a non-maximized window when you double-click its title bar, and vice versa.
For Ubuntu 12.04

1. In the Terminal, enter this code sudo apt-get install gconf-editor to install Configuration Editor if it's not in your system.
2. Press Alt-F2, then type gconf-editor into the box, and press Enter to run it.
3. Browse to apps > gwd, change the value in the "mouse_wheel_action" to shade.

You can now roll up a non-maximized window when you hover on its title bar and scroll up the mouse wheel, and vice versa.

Themes in Ubuntu can be customized to suit your needs. The default theme "Ambiance" has the menu (File, Edit, View, etc) printed in white on a dark background, but you can easily switch to another theme such as "Radiance" to have the menu printed in black on a light background. These are easy steps to customize a theme.

1. Click the Control Gear and select "System Settings".
2. Click "Appearance" under "Personal".
3. Under the Look tab, select a theme from the drop-down menu.

In Ubuntu you can set nearly the same aero glass effect to window borders with alpha transparency as available in Windows 7.
For Ubuntu 12.10

1. In the Terminal, enter this code sudo apt-get install gconf-editor to install Configuration Editor if it's not in your system.
2. Press Alt-F2, then type gconf-editor into the box, and press Enter to run it.
3. Browse to apps > gwd, look for "metacity_theme_active_opacity" on the right panel.
4. Change the value in "metacity_theme_active_opacity" from 1 to 0.75 (or smaller such as 0.5 for more transparency).

For Ubuntu 13.10

1. Press Alt-F2, then type dconf-editor into the box, and press Enter to run it.
2. Browse to org > compiz > gwd, look for "metacity_theme_active_opacity" on the right panel.
3. Change the value in "metacity_theme_active_opacity" from 1 to 0.75 (or smaller such as 0.5 for more transparency).

   If the aero glass effect doesn't work, check if you have updated your display driver. Go to Control Gear > System Settings > Hardware > Additional Drivers, activate the recommended graphics driver and restart the system.

In new versions of Ubuntu, the scrollbar button is hidden until you mouse over it. You can revert it to the normal scrollbar by changing the settings.
For Ubuntu 12.10, 13.04 and 13.10
Either enter this command in the Terminal: gsettings set com.canonical.desktop.interface scrollbar-mode normal
Or edit the value using dconf-editor:

1. Press Alt-F2, type dconf-editor into the box, and press Enter to run it.
2. Browse to com > canonical > desktop > interface, look for "scrollbar-mode" on the right panel and change the value from overlay-auto to normal.

For Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Try to use Ubuntu Tweak to get the same result.

You can right click your desktop, select "Change Desktop Background" and choose any one of the wallpapers pre-installed, but you need to do it each time you want to change a wallpaper. What about changing a wallpaper automatically within a certain time interval? Try Wally.

1. Install Wally from the Ubuntu Apps Directory if the application is not in your system.
2. Press Alt-F2, type wally and press Enter to run it.
3. Right-click the Wally icon on the system tray, select Settings.
4. Click "Folders" in the left column, then add /usr/share/backgrounds to the Folder box and tick "Include subfolders".
5. Click "Settings" in the left column, then tick "Play automatically on application starts". You can also check the option to disable splash screen and auto quit if you wish.
6. Set the application to auto start, using this tip Auto Start Up an Application (as Wally's option to "Start automatically when system starts" being disabled).

Your wallpaper on the desktop will automatically change following these basic settings when you log back in the system (or right click the Wally icon on the system tray and select "Play").

Windows Explorer allows for users to set a default view to all folders. In almost the same way, Ubuntu's Nautilus File Browser (now known as "Files") allows for these settings:

1. Click the File Browser icon on the Launcher.
2. At the Global Menu on the top of the screen, click "Files" or "Edit" then "Preferences".
3. Under Default View, change "Icon View" to "List View", to see more details in columns.
4. Tick "Show hidden and backup files" if that's your choice.

Other various settings, such as single or double click to open items, icon captions, list columns and preview files can be done in the same window as well.

Sushi is a quick previewer for Files (previously known as Nautilus) file browser. You can download the previewer from here if it's not in your Ubuntu system. With this handy tool installed, you can preview text, PDF, audio and video files, and other supported documents in a single step when using the file browser.

• Select a file, press Spacebar to preview.
• Press Spacebar again or Escape to close a preview.

When running a default file browser, you will see that the folder icons are predetermined by the theme you set. If you wish to change a folder icon to another for it to stand out from the system-wide icons, follow these steps:

1. In the file browser, right click a folder icon, select Properties.
2. Under the Basic tab, click the icon image to open up the "Select Custom Icon" window.
3. In the Location field, type /usr/share/icons, press Enter. (You can hide or unhide the Location field by clicking the Edit button on the top-left of the window.)
4. Browse and select an icon you want.
5. Click the Open button on the bottom-right of the window to confirm.

Note: You can change your custom folder icon back to the default by clicking the "Revert" button in the "Select Custom Icon" window at Step 2 above.

In the Ubuntu file system, you can use "Files" or "Nautilus" file manager to browse most files but can only write files in your home folder /home/your_name and its sub-folders such as Desktop and Documents. If you have to rename a folder or write files outside of your home folder using the file manager, you won't be able to but you can create a shortcut to run an advanced file manager for this purpose.

1. Click the Dash Home icon on the Launcher (or tap Super), then type keyboard into the Search box and press Enter.
2. Under the "Shortcuts" tab, select Custom Shortcuts, then click the "+" sign to create a custom shortcut.
3. Enter a name such as Advanced File Manager in the "Name" box.
4. Enter gksu nautilus in the "Command" box, then click the Apply button. (See note below)
5. Click on Disabled at the Advanced File Manager row in the Keyboard Shortcuts window (Disabled is then changed to New accelerator...).
6. Press a new key combination, e.g. Ctrl+Alt+N (New accelerator... is then changed to Ctrl+Alt+N).

Now you can easily access the Advanced Nautilus by pressing the shortcut key you assigned. But be careful since you can use it to delete or change any files on your system.
Note: For Ubuntu 13.04 or newer versions, "gksu" is not available by default. You'll need to enter sudo apt-get install gksu in the Terminal for it to work. If you're using the 64-bit version of Ubuntu, enter gksu-properties in the Terminal after installing gksu and set the authentication mode to sudo.

Keyboard shortcuts are preset in the system, but you can add new ones or change them easily. For instance, change the default shortcut Ctrl+Alt+T (Run a Terminal) to Super+R (press R while holding down the Super [aka Windows] key) by the following steps:

1. Click the Dash Home icon (or tap Super), type keyboard and press Enter.
2. Under the "Shortcuts" tab, select "Launchers" on the left panel
3. Click "Launch Terminal", and it shows "New accelerator..."
4. Tap Super+R, and it shows Super+R
5. Click the Close button and try the new shortcut. (Note: In this article, I use Ctrl-Alt-T as a default shortcut to Terminal.)

   To disable a shortcut, press Backspace when it shows "New accelerator..." after the step 3 above.
   Keyboard shortcuts can also be set by changing keybinding values with Configuration Editor. In Ubuntu 12.10 and newer verions, press Alt+F2 and enter dconf-editor, then navigate to org > gnome > desktop > wm > keybindings. In Ubuntu 12.04, press Alt+F2 and enter gconf-editor, then navigate to apps > metacity > global_keybindings and window_keybindings.

Xkill is part of the X11 utilities pre-installed in Ubuntu and a tool for terminating misbehaving X clients or unresponsive programs. You can easily add a shortcut key to launch xkill with the steps below.

1. Click the Dash Home icon on the Launcher (or tap Super), then type keyboard into the Search box and press Enter.
2. Under the "Shortcuts" tab, select Custom Shortcuts, then click the "+" sign to create a custom shortcut.
3. Enter xkill to both the Name and Command boxes and click the Apply button.
4. Click on Disabled at the xkill row in the Keyboard Shortcuts window (Disabled is then changed to New accelerator...).
5. Press a new key combination, e.g. Ctrl+Alt+X (New accelerator... is then changed to Ctrl+Alt+X).

Xkill is ready for use. Press the above key combination to turn the cursor to an X-sign, move the X-sign and drop it into a program interface to terminate the unresponsive program, or cancel the X-sign with a right-click.

Ubuntu only includes completely free software by default and does not configure proprietary media formats such as mp3 and mp4 'out of the box'. The required codecs however can be easily installed for the default player to playback these files following a few simple steps below.

1. Double click an mp3 file in a folder.
2. Click the "Install" button to download and install the recommended codecs. (See Note below)
3. Restart the player after the codecs are installed.

You might need to do the same for other restricted media formats such as mp4 too.
Note: As an alternative, you can also download and install Ubuntu restricted extras from Ubuntu Apps Directory right away for media players to playback some restricted formats.

Screenlets are small applications to represent things such as sticky notes, clocks, calendars around on your desktop. You can launch a pre-installed screenlet from Screenlets manager, or install a new one into the manager for launching it. Here are the steps for installing and launching a screenlet, for example, WaterMark System Information.

1. Install Screenlets manager if it has not been added from the Ubuntu Apps Directory.
2. Download the screenlet "WaterMark System Information" to a folder.
3. Press Alt-F2, type Screenlets into the box and press Enter to run the manager.
4. Click Install, select Install Screenlet and click OK.
5. Browse to the folder, select the file downloaded and click "Open" to install the screenlet into the Screenlets manager.
6. Select the screenlet "WaterMark" and click "Launch/Add". (Tips: you can add more than one WaterMark screenlet and set it to display other system information.)

More screenlets are available for installation from screenlets.org.

Ubuntu may use OpenJDK by default, but I note that some web services such as ezyZip.com might need the Oracle Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to be installed in the system for running the services properly. If you would like to get the proprietary Oracle Java packages for your system, you can download and install them following these steps:

1. Press Ctrl-Alt-T to run Terminal.
2. Enter sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java to add the partner repository.
3. Enter sudo apt-get update to update the source list.
4. Enter sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-installer to download and install the Oracle Java packages.
5. Enter sudo java -version to check the version of the Java used in the system.
6. Enter sudo update-alternatives --config java to choose the default Java for use in the system when necessary.

Ubuntu is capable of reading and writing files stored on Windows formatted partitions using NTFS file system, but partitions must be 'mounted' before they can be accessed. With these steps, you can auto mount the drives or partitions without the need to manually mount them for access each time you start up the system. Below are two ways of doing it, either using Storage Device Manager or adding an entry in the fstab file.
Method 1: Using Storage Device Manager (This PPA is not yet available for Ubuntu 12.10 and newer versions at time of checking)