Switching monitors as in Windows 7

Question

One thing I loved in Windows 7 was the ease of switching between single monitors/extending/mirroring them using Win+P. This shortcut produced the following:

Is there something similar in Ubuntu? The only way I found is to either

1. use Displays settings, which is bothersomly slow
2. use Fn shortcut, which sucks, because you don't know, which mode you'll be turned to

Answer 1

Why is Displays slow? Because it is too many clicks away, or because changing what is needed (necessarily using mouse) is clumsy? If the former, you can either use the launcher with Win+A, displays (or disp should be enough), Enter; and if that is not enough, use ccsm command bindings to invoke gnome-control-center display with one keystroke.

If the latter, I believe there still may be a remedy: if you are using say two or three typical monitor setups, you may use the command bindings as above for mapping appropriate xrandr invocations, e.g. Fn+F1 for the first setup, etc. You still will not see what configuration you are going to end up with, but you will know which one you are setting.

Answer 2

As I switched to XFCE, I am very happy with the XFCE's display swicher. It's as easy as hitting Win+p and selecting the output via arrows and hitting alt+o. Once you remember the shortcuts, it's lightning fast.