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Does anybody know how to apply a customized user settings to other existing or new users?. Something like a customized preferences settings for system wide so that everybody posses those settings and below will explain in clear what I actually ment.

On every machine I will install the following:

Eclipse
Mysql Query Browser and Admin
Mysql Workbench
Oracle VirtualBox
Thunderbird
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If I install them by apt, this will automatically create shortcuts in Applications but when I build them from source or extract the tar ball, I will have to add New Item at it's relevant place going to System-->Preferences-->Main Menu to make them available as a shortcuts and this settings are applied only for the account I login and perform them. How could I make this preferences settings for complete system wide which applies for all users? or if there is a way to apply a customized user settings to other users will also be ok. Any hint please?

Thank you!

user3215
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1 Answers1

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There are many different kinds of system preferences that are stored in different ways. So answering your broad question is difficult, but here's the answer to the specific question:

When you use the menu editor to create new shortcuts, it works by creating desktop files which get placed in the user's/home/$USER/.local/share/applications/ directory. This will only add it to the menu of the user used to create the menu item. For the menu item to be accesable system-wide, you can put the desktop file in /usr/local/share/applications/

You could find the desktop file created by the menu editor and move it, or you could just create a file under /usr/local/share/applications/ manually. Here's a sample file, terminator.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Categories=GNOME;GTK;Utility;
Comment=Multiple terminals in one window
Exec=terminator
Icon=terminator
Name=Terminator
Type=Application

Replace the values with those appropriate for your application.

andrewsomething
  • 37,712
  • You've given nice hint or probably answer, I could see come progress, let me check it thoroughly and I'll get back to accept your answer!. Thanks! – user3215 Nov 14 '11 at 12:47
  • I could not see applications directory under /usr/local/share. Should I create it? – user3215 Nov 14 '11 at 12:49
  • I could see applications upto the edition lucid. But in new editions(11.04, 11.10) I couldn't see the directory, any more idea? – user3215 Nov 14 '11 at 13:05
  • Actually I upgraded from karmic to lucid and the path was /usr/local/share/applications as you said. Probably the path is changed from 10.04 onwards and is /usr/share/applications where I could see many applications. This would be enough for my requirement for now. You're awesome!!!. Thanks a lot! – user3215 Nov 14 '11 at 15:12
  • Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. /usr/share/applications is where distribution packages install these files. Generally, you want to keep files handled by the package manager and files you create separate. /usr/local/share/applications might not exist in a default install, but you can create it yourself. It's not something that is 100% necessary, but it is very good practice. – andrewsomething Nov 18 '11 at 16:05