Quickly minimize/hide all windows, preferably with mouse - 11.10 specifc

Question

How can I minimize/hide all my windows quickly, same as moving mouse to lower right in Windows XP?

• I don't want a command-line option.
• Ideally, I want to move the mouse to trigger it, or perhaps click the mouse.
• I can't use a trackpad/touchpad solution since I use an external mouse.

Solution 1

I found an answer that does work on 11.10 !!!

Unity Tweak!

Doing this:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

Installs it.

If you start the app...

...you can see the settings:

With or without the app up, now if you move to the bottom right corner , all windows hide.
That's the default on install.

Solution 2

In 11.10 the default keyboard shortcut to minimize all windows and show the desktop is Super+D, in 12.04 Ctrl+Super+D.

Installing and running CCSM is not recommended.

You can activate the launcher icon to show the desktop in the desktop settings from 12.04 only myunity (in 11.10 this feature was not yet implemented in the Compiz Unity plugin)

Solution 3

Moving mouse to edge/corner like Windows

• To mimic the behavior you want (move to lower right triggers minimize), just install CompizConfig Settings Manager (CCSM) with sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager.

• Start CCSM from the Dash, and type "General Options" under filter. Double-click on General Options, select the Key Bindings tab, and find the Show Desktop edge binding as shown below:

• Click on "None" to get the edge-selection window, and click the bottom-right (or whichever you want) to turn it from red to green. Click OK and close CCSM.

• Now moving to the bottom right will show the desktop/minimize; moving away and moving back to that corner will unhide the minimized windows.

Based on Takkat's reference to this CCSM link, I will add that CCSM is an advanced tool and one wrong click/typo, especially if you are fat fingered, may render you unable to use the full Unity Gui, until you fix it from the terminal. So uninstalling it after you're done is probably a good idea; the changes will persist.

---

Keyboard Shortcut for 11.10 (Super+D)

A keyboard way to minimize all Windows (much like Win+D in Windows) is Super+D. (in 12.04, it's Ctrl+Super+D)

Super key = Win key!

Doing this again will restore the windows.

Solution 4

Besides for the keyboard shortcut izx mentioned, there is also a way to add a "Show Desktop" button, https://askubuntu.com/a/68996/53455.

They made this a little easier to do in 12.04, you can install the MyUnity utility (available in the repos), open it up, click desktop, then 'Active "Show desktop" icon. I'm not sure if MyUnity and this method will work for 11.10.

Solution 5

Ctrl+Alt+D is the combination on my Ubuntu 10.04 LTS — to hide all windows on the desktop.

View more solutions

Comments

[ish]

MyUnity is available for 11.10, don't know if it includes this option or not.

[Michael Durrant]

Wrong. Actually the "Windows" key however combined is bringing up dash stuff HOWEVER... ctrl-alt D (NOT ctrl-alt-delete though!) DOES do this nicely!

[ish]

Well, Super+D works on my 11.10, while Ctrl+Alt+D does NOT. Maybe a system-dependent key mapping issue?

[Michael Durrant]

This seemed good as I was able to install myUnity and get to this page. Unfortunately I can't change "Active 'Show Desktop' Icon" as that control will not change from grayed-out (I can change others though).

[Michael Durrant]

It's there but it's grayed out and doesn't allow changes (unlike other items on the same page which I can change).

[Michael Durrant]

True. Also, I'm afraid I went through all this above procedure (thanks for outlining it so well and including screen shots) but unfortunately after doing this I did not get the small green area where I had specified it. I rebooted but that didn't help. Mayve this isn't going to work on 11.10 perhaps?

[reverendj1]

Have you tried the other method I mentioned, by creating a custom launcher?

[Takkat]

@MichaelDurrant: good work with the ccsm warning. I tested your ccsm setting on 11.10 and can confirm it works. +1 :)

[Takkat]

Sorry but I only just now had access to my 11.10 box again. It is true, this feature was not yet implemented in Unity for 11.10. I decided to not delete my answer as people on 12.04 may come here.

[Bruno Pereira]

Keys were remapped, 11.10 = Win+D, 12.04 = Ctrl+Alt+D.

[ish]

Unity Tweak is simply a front-end to Compiz much like CCSM, and should be doing the same thing that CCSM failed to do for you. But then again, yours is a strange system, with Ctrl-Alt-D and what not :) Upvoted.

[Eric Wilson]

Any idea how to un-minimize all windows? (Restore to previous state after minimizing?) I'm on 12.10 at work, 12.04 at home.

[Hannu]

Noted: "Show Desktop" (images above) was set to "Bottom" - system 13.10 upgraded to 14.04 -- this had me puzzled for a long time as I could not reproduce the "mouse gesture" CONSISTENTLY.