How to set application lens as default in Unity Dash view and search results?

Question

I want to open the Application lens in the Unity Dash as the default lens, since I much more open a programm then searching for a Wikipedia article, the weather or anything else the Home lens offers.

Here How do I show the Applications Lens By Default? and here What are Unity's keyboard and mouse shortcuts? are the same questions, but the suggested answers don't work anymore on Trusty.

I know that I can open the Application lens with Superkey + A but I just would like to press Superkey to open it.

An alternative would be to only get online suggestions when specifically asked for them, but even though I just select the application scope in the filter section I get some useless online results. BTW, I don't want to open the online search results in general, since I just reactivated them to try it out.

Answer but no solution: Just found this bug report https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity/+bug/1089010. Till it will be fixed JohnnyEnglish's answer as a workaround will is the best.

Solution 1

install dconf if you don't have it sudo apt-get install dconf-editor if you want to use GUI way, in dconf go to com > canonical > unity > lenses all the rest you can find here

If you want to disable maximum per-monitor scale-factor go to dconf then navigate to com > canonical > unity > interface and uncheck the ticked box.

If you want to swap your Home .scope with Applications .scope go to dconf then navigate to com > canonical > unity > dash and change the order of .scopes the way that you desire or uncomment any if you want to.

How to hide or disable a reference in Dash results from searching in remote and commercial sources go to dconf then navigate to com > canonical > unity > lenses click on remote-content-search and change all to none.

Solution 2

One command to solve it all!

gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Lenses always-search "['applications.scope']"

That will make dash search by default, only on the application scope. EASY AS!

No need to install no programs. Just enter it in the command line, and restart your computer to see the changes taking effect.

If you are interested in getting rid of the useless lenses and scopes and dash plugins, please read my answer to a similar question:

Sources: my answers to a Boarder Question: How to disable all scopes, filters and dash plugins?

Solution 3

Navigate to com > canonical > unity, then add 'home.scopes' to hidden scopes in lenses and add 'applications.scope' as the first entry in dash using dconf-editor.

Comments

[meles]

Well, whatever I edit in the com>canonical>unity>lenses section, the home lens stays the default to open on Super Key. And as soon I type something e.g. "spring" for springseed I get no just the application I'm looking for but also the weather of Colorado Springs. The parameters are set like this now: always-search = ['applications-scope']; home-lens-default-view=['applications.scope']

[meles]

Thats the same as you just commented before, and it is not realy referring to my question especially the second part. My question is: I want to open the Application lens in the Unity Dash as the default lens. How can i achieve that?

[meles]

Yes! Or if not possible just show the applications when not especially asked for online results. Referring to the suggestion of changing the order: unfortunately it just changes the order but doesn't open the applications lens when pressing the super key, even though it is the first.

[meles]

If I go to com > canonical > unity > interfaces the only checked box there is app-fallback-to-maximum-scale-factor. If I uncheck this and log out and log in again I still get all the results.

[meles]

thats right, I didn't understand this. It's an improvement thank you! But anyway it is still not the thing I want it to do. Imagine I'm on my non flatrate simcard and I don't want to waste any traffic volume (yes even in 2014 that exists). Is there no way to turn the search in all scopes off by default but to have it accessable when wanting it. And all that with just one key strike.

[meles]

Thanks for your patience but I already tried this option aswell. It is the same as going to systemsettings > privacy > search > use online results (translation might not be correct since I'm not using the english ubuntu). Thats how I had it before, but I wanted the option to use the remotesources when requesting via a certain keyword (e.g. wiki:ubuntu). But the point is I just want it when explicitly asking for it through a keyword otherwise I just want the apps.

[JoKeR]

I'm afraid there's nothing else you can do about it, if you want to hide weather and other suggestions from search you have to disable that option as I explained in my answer.

[meles]

ok. Thanks for your help anyway, the prioritisation of the applications is the best method. But there is also a bug report for the feature to set the shortcuts manually as posted below.

[meles]

Thanks for the suggestion but I don't think it's a very good option.