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How can I disable the alt+click combination from moving windows in Ubuntu 11.10 (unity-2d)?

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With Unity-2D, this is controlled using the /apps/metacity/general/mouse_button_modifier GConf key. To disable Alt+Click dragging, run

gconftool-2 --set /apps/metacity/general/mouse_button_modifier --type string disabled

To re-enable it, run

gconftool-2 --set /apps/metacity/general/mouse_button_modifier --type string '<Alt>'

Note that this GConf key controls several mouse shortcuts:

  • Alt+Click: Move windows
  • Alt+Middle Click: Resize windows
  • Alt+Right Click: Open a generic window menu

N.B: Disabling the modifier in this way can lead to the Alt+Drag behavior when no modifier keys are pressed (Every drag behaves like Alt+drag) Setting the modifier to '<SUPER>' makes the Super/Windows key the modifier. Alt+Drag can then be used by applications, and Super+Drag to move the window. 

gconftool-2 --set /apps/metacity/general/mouse_button_modifier --type string '<SUPER>'
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Great, it works, thank you very much. – Petike Nov 23 '11 at 17:39
This just reverses the effects of alt+click. All normal clicks acting like alt+click and alt+click results in a normal click. – nathaniel Dec 21 '11 at 5:01
Perfect, just what I was looking for! Photoshop requires alt + click for a number of things, and I've never use alt + click to drag windows. Thanks! – Costa Feb 29 at 16:40
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