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How does one add an application icon to the desktop in verson 14.04?

Thank you for your time.

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  • Using Avinash Raj's response, I simply used files to locate the app, right clicked, copied, and pasted. The created desktop file did not need to be edited at all.
    – Adam
    Oct 2, 2014 at 3:00

3 Answers 3

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First copy your desired application's icon from the /usr/share/applications directory to Desktop,

sudo cp /usr/share/applications/filename.desktop ~/Desktop

Then change the permissions(give execute permission to the .desktop file) of copied .desktop file on the Desktop,

sudo chmod +x ~/Desktop/filename.desktop

Double click on the application icon to run it's corresponding application.

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  • get rid of the lock with: sudo chown username:groupname ~/Desktop/*.desktop Jan 28, 2016 at 13:22
  • Don't think that you need sudo...
    – Gremlin
    May 4, 2016 at 13:59
  • Not sure whether this was already available in version 14, but now you can also put the .desktop in .local/share/applications/. Jan 2, 2020 at 14:58
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Create a symbolic link in the desktop folder to the file you want to execute. Open a terminal session and change to your Desktop folder:

cd Desktop

To create the desktop icon use:

ln -sv "target file to execute" "filename to create for shortcut" (no quotes)

I tried it with Nautilus and it worked fine. So far all of the icons I have created work, but they don't get an identifying icon, just the AptURL icon.

Here's the example I created for Nautilus:

ln -sv /usr/bin/nautilus "File Manager"

The icon appeared on the desktop and it works fine, as have the others I made. You do need to be able to find the executable files, which means you need to know some Linux, but otherwise it's pretty easy.

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Here's another easy way to do it:

1) Open Nautilus, navigate to "Computer".

$ sudo nautilus

-provide your password credentials

2) Navigate to folder /usr/share/applications

3) In that folder, select the program of your choice (for example, System Monitor).Now Drag it to your desktop or copy & paste it. That's it!

Your Desktop icon is created.

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  • +1 this is the best way for 2 reasons: first of all it's easy to copy more then one program, and secondly because it copies also the icon.
    – Yagel
    Jul 24, 2016 at 8:16

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