Add a Desktop Launcher
From: https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-create-desktop-shortcut-launcher-on -ubuntu-22-04-jammy-jellyfish-linux 





How to create desktop shortcut launcher on Ubuntu 22.04
The objective of this tutorial is to show you how to create a desktop
shortcut launcher on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish Linux using the default
GNOME user interface.

Ubuntu mostly relies on its sidebar app launcher, but desktop shortcut
launchers can allow you to open applications or websites super fast, since
they live right on your desktop and make the targets only a click away. They
are also easy to drag around the desktop so you can organize them any way
you want to.

In this tutorial you will learn:

	
	

Software Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions 




CategoryRequirements, Conventions or Software Version Used

System Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish

Software GNOME GUI

Other Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo
command.

Conventions # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root
privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non
-privileged user






Create desktop shortcut launcher 
on Ubuntu 22.04 step by step instructions
Create desktop shortcut launcher from existing .desktop files




Step 1
Start by opening a command line terminal and executing the following
command. This will open a list of shortcuts for all of your installed
applications. For all Snap installed applications use
/var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications/ directory instead.
	$ nautilus /usr/share/applications/




Step-2
In the file browser window that just opened, find an Application you wish to
create a Launcher for on your desktop. Perform right click and Copy action.
	
	
	Right click on any of the applications listed and press copy




Step 3
 Then, right click on your desktop and press Paste.
	
	
	Right click on desktop and paste your shortcut
 



Step 4
 The last thing we need to do is right click on the newly created desktop 
shortcut and click on Allow Launching. Otherwise, the new icon will not be
usable.
	
	
	Right click on desktop shortcut and click Allow Launching




Step 5
 That’s all there is to it. Your new Desktop application shortcut is ready
to use.
	
	
	The new desktop shortcut is usable to quickly launch an application




Create a desktop application shortcut 
launcher manually
In case the desktop shortcut for your application is not available with the
/usr/share/applications/ directory you have an option to create the Desktop
launcher manually. In this example we will create and Desktop application
shortcut for Skype application.




Step 1M
 Obtain the following information for any given application you wish to
create shortcut for. Below you can find an example:

 Path Application Icon: /snap/skype/101/meta/gui/skypeforlinux.png
 Application name: Skype
 Path to executable binary:: /snap/bin/skype

 To obtain a full path to executable binary of any program use the which
command eg.:
	$ which skype
/snap/bin/skype

 In regards to the application icon, the choice is yours. You can either
head over to / usr/share/icons/hicolor/ directory and search for any relevant
icon to use, or simply download new icon from the web.




Step 2M
 Now that we have all the necessary information, create a new file
Skype.desktop within ~/Desktop directory using your favourite text editor
and paste the following lines as part of the file’s content. Change the
code where necessary to fit your application specific details.
	$ gedit ~/Desktop/Skype.desktop

	#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Exec=/snap/bin/skype
Name=Skype
Comment=Skype
Icon=/snap/skype/101/meta/gui/skypeforlinux.png




Step 3M
 Now that the desktop icon is created, right click on the new desktop file
located on your desktop and select Allow Launching.
	
	
	Right click on desktop shortcut and click Allow Launching




Step 4M
 That’s all there is to it. Your new Desktop application shortcut is ready
to use.
	
	
	The new desktop shortcut is usable to quickly launch an application




Closing Thoughts
In this tutorial, we saw how to create a desktop shortcut launcher on Ubuntu
22.04 Jammy Jellyfish Linux. As you can see, the process is quite simple,
and the icons nicely complement the sidebar app launcher as an alternative
way to open some of our most used applications.




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