<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
      xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its"
      type="topic" style="task"
      id="desktop-favorite-applications">

  <info>
    <link type="guide" xref="appearance"/>
    <revision pkgversion="3.30" date="2019-02-22" status="review"/>

    <credit type="author">
      <name>Aruna Sankaranarayanan</name>
      <email>[email protected]</email>
    </credit>
    <credit type="editor">
      <name>Petr Kovar</name>
      <email>[email protected]</email>
      <years>2019</years>
    </credit>

    <include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>

    <desc>Customize the default favorites in the Activities overview.</desc>

  </info>

  <title>Set default favorite applications</title>

  <p>Favorite applications are those visible on the GNOME Shell
  <link href="help:gnome-help/shell-introduction#activities">dash</link>.
  You can use <sys its:translate="no">dconf</sys> to set favorite applications
  for one user, or to set the same favorite applications
  for all users. For both cases, you must first edit the
  <sys its:translate="no">dconf</sys> profile found in
  <file its:translate="no">/etc/dconf/profile/user</file>.</p>

<section id="per-user">
  <title>Set different favorite applications for different users</title>

  <p>You can set the default favorite applications for each user by modifying
  their user database via <cmd>gsettings</cmd>. The following example
  command sets <app>Text Editor</app>,
  <app>Terminal</app> and <app>Files</app> (<sys>nautilus</sys>) as default
  favorites for a user.</p>

  <listing>
    <title>Contents of <file its:translate="no">/etc/dconf/profile/user</file>:</title>
<code its:translate="no">
# <span its:translate="yes">This line allows the user to change the default favorites later</span>
user-db:user
</code>
  </listing>

<p>Set Text Editor, Terminal and Files as default favorites:</p>
<screen><output style="prompt"># </output><input>gsettings set org.gnome.shell favorite-apps "['org.gnome.TextEditor.desktop', 'org.gnome.Terminal.desktop', 'org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop']"</input></screen>

  <note style="tip">
    <p>You can also <link xref="dconf-lockdown">lock down</link> the above
    settings to prevent users from changing them.</p>
  </note>

</section>

<section id="all-users">
  <title>Set the same favorite applications for all users</title>

  <p>In order to have the same favorites for all users, you must modify system
  database files using <link xref="dconf-keyfiles">dconf keyfiles</link>. The
  following steps edit the <sys its:translate="no">dconf</sys> profile
  and then create a keyfile to set default favorite applications for all
  users in the <code>local</code> configuration database.</p>

  <steps>
    <title>Set the favorite applications</title>
    <include href="dconf-snippets.xml"
             xpointer="xpointer(/*/*[@xml:id='dconf-profile-user'])"
             xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>
    <include href="dconf-snippets.xml"
             xpointer="xpointer(/*/*[@xml:id='dconf-profile-user-dir'])"
             xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>
    <item>
      <p>Create the key file
      <file>/etc/dconf/db/local.d/00-favorite-apps</file> to provide
      information for the <sys>local</sys> database.</p>
      <listing>
      <title>Contents of
      <file its:translate="no">/etc/dconf/db/local.d/00-favorite-apps</file>:
      </title>
<code>
# Snippet sets gedit, terminal and nautilus as default favorites for all users
[org/gnome/shell]
favorite-apps = [<var>'gedit.desktop'</var>, <var>'gnome-terminal.desktop'</var>, <var>'nautilus.desktop'</var>]
</code>
      </listing>
    </item>
    <item>
      <p>To prevent the user from overriding these settings, create the file
      <file>/etc/dconf/db/local.d/locks/favorite-apps</file> with the following
      content:</p>
      <listing>
      <title><file>/etc/dconf/db/local.d/locks/favorite-apps</file></title>
<code>
# Lock default favorite applications
/org/gnome/shell/favorite-apps
</code>
      </listing>
    </item>
    <include href="dconf-snippets.xml"
             xpointer="xpointer(/*/*[@xml:id='dconf-update'])"
             xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>
    <include href="dconf-snippets.xml"
             xpointer="xpointer(/*/*[@xml:id='dconf-logoutin'])"
             xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>
  </steps>

</section>

</page>