In the next article we will take a look at how we can minimize the window of an open application with a single click, when clicking on the dock icon. This is a behavior that most operating systems perform and is always useful to have enabled.
In this publication we will see how we can enable it very easily in Ubuntu 20.04 and higher, as we already indicated in a previous article that I tested in Ubuntu 18.04. Unfortunately, the Configuration application in Ubuntu for a few versions now, does not have an option to enable the possibility of minimizing when clicking on an application icon.
When we click on an application icon that is located in the Dock Some things can happen in Ubuntu, but by default among them is not the possibility of minimizing the window of an application that is running. The option of ‘Minimize on click ‘ It will change the behavior of the open windows, so that when we click on the icon of an application that has the focus, the window will be minimized or hidden in the Ubuntu Dock, and it will restore it using a second click.
This is a behavior that users switching from other operating systems to Ubuntu find missing from the desktop as it is very useful.
Enable Minimize on Click Ubuntu
What we are going to see next, I have to say that I have tested it on Ubuntu 20.04 version, but for other versions of this OS the steps should be the same. We can enable ‘minimize on click‘from Ubuntu and above in two ways: from the command line and from the dconf-editor GUI.
From the terminal
Although some users do not want to know anything about the terminal and its things, it must be said that this is the fastest way to enable the option of ‘minimize on click‘in Ubuntu. We will only have to open a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) and execute the following command in it:
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock click-action 'minimize'
Once we press the key Intro the change will take effect at the moment. We will not need to log out.
In order to undo the change we just made with the previous command and return to the default configuration of the Ubuntu Dock, the command to use in the terminal will be the following:
gsettings reset org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock click-action
Again the change will be effective immediately. We will not need to restart the session or anything like that.
Using Dconf-Editor
For those who do not want to work with the terminal, it can also be enabled ‘minimize on click‘using an application called dconf-editor. This tool can be installed from the Ubuntu software option.
Once installed, we must open the application searching for its launcher in the system.
From the user interface of the application, we will have to move to the route / org / gnome / shell / extensions / dash-to-dock.
Once on the indicated screen, we will need to scroll down to the option ‘click-action‘, and we will have to click on it.
At the bottom of the action pane click there is an option called ‘default value‘. We will have to move it to the off position. After if we click the ‘buttoncustom value‘We will see a list with available options appear.
Between them let’s find and select ‘minimize‘. To confirm we will press the green message ‘Apply‘that appears. The change, as with the terminal commands, will take effect immediately. Then we can close dconf-editor.
These that we just saw are two easy possibilities to enable ‘Minimize on click’ option in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and later versions. We can verify that it was enabled correctly and is working by clicking on the icon of any running application several times, since the first time we click, the application will take focus (if you don’t have it).
