Add Wine application to GNOME application list

Question

I have some applications installed with Wine and if I like to start them I always have to open them through the terminal.

Is there an option to put them into the application list as a shortcut so that I can open them through pressing super and search for the name?

Solution

You need to create a .desktop launcher for the application in your ~/.local/share/applications directory.

To create a simple .desktop launcher manually, first create an empty text file, name it <application-name>.desktop in the aforementioned directory, and add the following lines to it

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Application Name
Comment=A short description of the application
Exec=command-to-run-application
Icon=/full/path/to/icon-file
Terminal=false
Type=Application

_{Note that in the Exec= line you need to use the full path to the command (i.e. /home/<YOUR_USERNAME>/folder/... instead of ~/folder/...).}

Then save the file. If it doesn't appear in 'Show Applications' (or searching after pressing Super), log out and re-login.

---

Also there are user-friendly GUI tools to create a .desktop launcher, e.g.

• Main Menu aka alacarte: install by running

  sudo apt install alacarte
  

• MenuLibre: install by running

  sudo apt install menulibre
  

• gnome-desktop-item-edit: need to install the gnome-panel package by running

  sudo apt install gnome-panel
  

  Note: gnome-desktop-item-edit is discarded since the Ubuntu 19.10 release.

Comments

[SnowGepard]

I could create the icon without any problems, but when I click it it does not open the application. I have Exec= wine /home/<user>/.wine/folder_to_app/app.exe. Do it need to set Terminal to true, since it works if I use the command in terminal?

[SnowGepard]

changed it to to Terminal=ture and now it works fine. The space after Exec was not on purpose. Thanks a lot.