Ubuntu Tutorials

Have you ever wondered what the actual command is behind the application you’re launching from the Applications Menu?  I’ve found it useful a number of times, and I have two three methods of finding out what the command actually is.  If there are any Gnome devs reading this, could finding the properties be made simpler directly from the menu itself?

What’s The Command?

There are actually two three ways that I can think of to do this.  One includes the Main Menu Editor, which I blogged about yesterday, the second involves a bit of a quick workaround and the third just uses your browser.  Do you have any other suggestions on how this might be done?

To find the command using the Main Menu Editor you would simply launch the tool:

System > Preferences > Main Menu

Find the application in the list, and then double-click the entry to find the details.  You’ll see something like:

The second method that you can use, and this is the one that I’ve used most often, is quickly adding the application to your panel and then checking the launcher properties.  Because the properties are not available from within the menu itself (again, Gnome devs, can this be added?) we can add the application to the panel and then check the properties.  To find the details this way we’d do the following:

Navigate to the application through the main menu.  Right-click on the application and select “Add this launcher to panel”.  This will add the menu-based launcher to your panel.  The next step is to right-click on the new panel launcher and select properties.  You’ll then find what command and details are being used to launch that application.

Once you’ve found what you’re looking for you can safely remove the newly added launcher via right-click > Remove from panel.

The third method, which was found apparently by accident recently, is simply to drag-n-drop the menu entry into a Firefox tab.  It’ll open the .desktop file, which will outline the command and a whole lot more.  Look for the “Exec=” line for the command used.

Do you have applications in your main menu that you never, ever use?  Would you like to get rid of them?  Perhaps you’d like to reorganize some of your menu entries?  This can be done two ways, both of which take only two-clicks.

Editing The Main Menu

Method number one is done via right-click + left-click.  Bring your pointer to your main menu and right-click on Applications.  Within the resulting options you should see “Edit Menus”.  Left-click on that and the Main Menu Editor will appear.  You’ll now be able to edit the items displayed in your menus by simply checking and unchecking boxes.  You can even add new items if, for some reason, your installed application did not create one.

Method number two is probably even simpler, but I outline Method One above because I’ve had situations where the Main Menu Editor did not appear within my menu.  Sure makes it difficult to add the Main Menu Editor to the menu when you can’t get there in the first place!

To launch the Main Menu Editor navigate to:

System > Preferences > Main Menu

Either of these methods will launch the same tool and give you the same options.  As I mentioned above, I’m glad I know both methods because there have been times when “Main Menu” did not appear within my menu for some reason.  This way you’re always able to find it.