How to add programs to the launcher?

Question

How can I add new programs to the launcher in Ubuntu?

Answer 1

The other portion if I understand you correctly should be pretty simple. Just launch the application you want to attach to the "start menu" or rather dock panel, side bar, but officially it is called the "Launcher" and right click the icon and lock to launcher.

You can also drag applications directly from the Dash into the launcher.

Answer 2

To add applications to the Dash (then you press the windows key), Go to ~/.local/share/applications and create your .desktop files there.

For example:

• Open Nautilus
• Browse to ~/.local/share/applications (ctrl + h to show hidden folders/files)
• Right click and choose create empty document
• Name the file testing.desktop
• Enter in a valid desktop contents (sample below)
• Save it and now that entry will show when you press the windows key under applications.

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A much easier way...

sudo apt-get install alacarte

Then run alacarte and create menu entries as you like. They will show in the unity launcher.

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Sample desktop file (from sublime text 2)

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Sublime Text 2
# Only KDE 4 seems to use GenericName, so we reuse the KDE strings.
# From Ubuntu's language-pack-kde-XX-base packages, version 9.04-20090413. GenericName=Text Editor
Exec=subl
Terminal=false
Icon="/opt/Sublime Text 2/Icon/48x48/sublime_text.png"
Type=Application
Categories=TextEditor;IDE;Development
X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=NewWindow
Icon[en_US]=/opt/Sublime Text 2/Icon/128x128/sublime_text.png

[NewWindow Shortcut Group]
Name=New Window
Exec=subl -n
TargetEnvironment=Unity