Changing Window Button Positions In Ubuntu

May 2, 2010 | By Naman Bagga | Filed in: Linux, Tech Talk.

People who upgraded to Ubuntu 10.04 would’ve noticed that the new Ambiance theme has window buttons on the left side of the window border. This means, when you install Ubuntu, you get an unordered set of buttons on the left which look like this-

Unordered buttons on the left
Unordered buttons on the left side spells DISASTER

At first sight, it doesn’t seem to be much of a problem to have the window buttons on the left. But it gets really irritating when you start using it and tend to move your mouse pointer towards the top right to find absolutely no buttons there. I tried living with it for a couple of hours before I finally gave up. Its pointless to get used to working with the window buttons on the left. You’ll go crazy when you’ll have to work on other computers in your office/labs with buttons on the right. So its highly recommended to change the position of the Window button and bring them back to the right side. Doing this is pretty simple.

1. Open the GNOME Configuration Editor. There are many ways to do this like typing ‘gconf-editor’ in the terminal.

2. Move to ‘/apps/metacity/general’ and edit the ‘button_layout’ key.

3. Set the ‘button_layout’ key to ‘menu:minimize,maximize,close’ as shown-

Ordered Buttons
Edit the button_layout key to change the button position to right as shown.

The buttons mentioned before the colon appear on the left and after the colon appear on the right. Your buttons will now be on the right side of the window border.

If you still didn’t get it, here’s a video tutorial explaining how to do this-

Ankur suggested me a simple python script that uses a GUI to change the button position on the fly. You can check that out if you’re more of a GUI person.


4 comments on “Changing Window Button Positions In Ubuntu

  1. Interesting. You are absolutely right. Seeing the windows button in left panel was fascinating in beginning but I couldn’t help being annoyed by it. Now, the buttons are restored back. 🙂

    Also, can you tell me Naman how did you do it? by seeing the configuration of menu in previous versions of Ubuntu? I’m quite curious in knowing these stuff and explore more in Ubuntu!
    Rohit

  2. wen i plugin my headphn in my ubuntu 10.04 the inbuilt speakers of the lappy also work while dis problem is not in windows.I wanted to know y does dis happen nd wat to do now??

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