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Show Desktop Keyboard Shortcut for Linux

by | Sunday, 03rd Feb 2008 | 10 Comments | Share

Did you just switch to Linux and realise that pressing Win Key + D shortcut doesn’t take you to the desktop? Yes, by default this keyboard shortcut for ‘Show Desktop’ doesn’t work in Linux.

Show Desktop Shortcut for the Gnome Desktop

By default, Gnome should come with a Show Desktop icon. Look for it. You can also use CTRL + ALT + D shortcut on your Gnome Desktop to bring the Desktop View.

If you’re too used to the Win+D shortcut, there’s a way you can enable it to act as the ‘Show Desktop’ shortcut. Here’s how you can make Win+D to show up the desktop for you:

Just fire up the shell, and enter the following command:

$ gconftool-2 -t str set /apps/metacity/global_keybindings/show_desktop “d”

That’s it. Press Win + D keyboard shortcut, and you’re taken to the desktop instantly.

Show Desktop for the KDE Desktop

The same CTRL+ALT+D key works on KDE as well, or you can add a panel (if it’s not there already) by right clicking on the panel, clicking on ‘Add’ >> ‘Special Buttons’ >> ‘Desktop Access’. Drag the button and place it anywhere on the panel.

I’m not sure of how to go about changing the shortcut combination in KDE, let me know in the comments if anyone has got a solution to this.

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A 16 year old Techie, High School Student, Blogger and Part Time Freelance Writer from India. He writes about computers and software at Killer Tech Tips

Shankar Ganesh has written

The author of this post can be contacted at shankar@techie-buzz.com

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  1. Techblissonline Dot Com on February 4th, 2008 at 1:37 am #

    so shankar, r u using linux desktop ?

  2. Shankar Ganesh on February 4th, 2008 at 10:17 am #

    Yeah, I’m on Ubuntu right now.

  3. inna on February 4th, 2008 at 6:34 pm #

    Thank You for nice responding and a timely theme
    of this post.

  4. Magie on February 4th, 2008 at 8:36 pm #

    Linux is new to me…So, this post is really useful as I don’t know much about Linux right now. Thanks for the great info.

  5. Jake on February 6th, 2008 at 9:16 pm #

    KDE:
    1) Run KControl (Alt+f2, kcontrol if not in KMenu)
    2) On the sidebar, go to Regional and Accessibility — Keyboard Shortcuts
    3) Find “Toggle Showing Desktop” under Panel section. You can use the search for quicker finding.

    From here, it should be self explanatory. :) Sorry no easy command to insert though. :-\

  6. Greg M on September 3rd, 2009 at 2:46 pm #

    In KDE 4.3, open system settings. Click Keyboard & Mouse, global keyboard shortcuts, change kde component to plasma workspace, click “show dashboard.” Enable the default setting or choose your own.

  7. DINAS on January 9th, 2010 at 7:27 pm #

    HI
    for KDE
    1) Run KControl and write CompizConfig Settings Manager
    2) and you will see desktop –> show desktop
    3) add widgets —-> show desktop and configure it
    and enjoy

  8. Mack on May 31st, 2010 at 12:13 am #

    I was struggled to get back to the Linux GUI mode terminal being new to the Linux environment. I was even tried and tired by pressing Crtl+alt+F7 to get back to the GUI mode but nothing had work. Ctrl+alt=D worked it out. techie-buzz.com helped me to got back to the Linux GUI mode.

  9. blackmail on May 18th, 2011 at 3:20 pm #

    So, for KDE it is pretty straight forward, just type in the kickoff menu search bar keyboard and the glodal keyboard shortcuts will be there somewhere, then just try to find show desktop and define the shortcut keys your heart wishes… I personally set Meta(Windooz-key)+D
    cheers