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Can I put the title bar buttons in Unity on the right side somehow, or is that impossible?

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You can move buttons of the unmaximized Windows to the right side with command gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences button-layout ':minimize,maximize,close' But Window buttons in panel for maximized windows don't respect org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences like normal windows do :( See bug 1072755 for more info. –  Mantas Baltix Jun 6 '13 at 7:02

6 Answers 6

up vote 5 down vote accepted

You do this using gsettings:


or gconf-editor which has more complicated instructions listed at:


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impossible as of now, and most likely it will stay impossible, unless someone wants to write a nasty hack.

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Not anymore: see handytutorial.com/… –  sligocki Feb 4 '13 at 21:22

Ubuntu Tweak can do that for you in the Windows Management Settings. You can get it at http://ubuntu-tweak.com

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partially true, if using metacity then YES if using emerald then NO , you have to set it from the emerald manager –  Uri Herrera May 21 '11 at 4:00

FWIW, hopefully this will save someone else who is googling this issue the time.. Ubuntu Tweak nor gconf-editor will fix this problem. Seems to be a known issue with Unity. Seems there is no solution in the works either.

Closest thing I saw to a somewhat resolution. Seems to be pawned off on Unity:

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Configuration Editor > Apps > Metacity > General > Button layout edit key to minimize, maximize, close

Log out or type nautilus -q in a terminal to restart Nautilus. Also while, you're there, may as well check the boxes for Metacity to be composite manger and effects

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