If, like me, you started off by installing Ubuntu Netbook Remix onto your netbook, when you switch over to using the classic desktop, you’ll find that every time you start an application, the window maximises itself.

If this annoys you (and it definitely annoys me), here’s how to stop it happening.

Open the Startup Applications control panel (you’ll find it under the System -> Preferences menu). Scroll down to where the entry for Maximus Window Management is.

Disabling Maximus

Untick the box next to Maximus, and then click Close.

The next time you log into your netbook, application windows will no longer all start off maximised.

One of the nice things compiz does is provide real drop shadows around open windows. It’s one of those effects that improves the aesthetics and just makes the screen a little nicer to look at during the working day.

An Example Of Windows With Drop Shadows

Unfortunately, by default, compiz also adds a drop shadow to the panel at the top of the screen. This drop shadow always ends up slightly obscuring the title bar of any maximised window. Wouldn’t it be nice if it didn’t?

Disabling The Drop Shadow On The Panel

Launch ccsm (you’ll find it under the System menu, as Preferences -> CompizConfig Settings Manager). A window will open listing all of the different features of compiz:

CompizConfig Settings Manager

All of the different features are grouped by type, and the list of types can be seen on the left of the window. Click on Effects, and on the right hand side of the window you’ll see a bunch of features appear, including the one we are looking for

The Effects Group Of Settings In ccsm

Window Decorations is already enabled. Don’t disable it; just click on it to pull up its settings.

The Window Decorations Settings In ccsm

The Shadow options setting at the bottom of the list needs to be changed to say:

!type=dock

Click away from the Shadow options setting, and you should see the drop shadow on the panel disappear immediately.

It will probably be no surprise to learn that good ol’ compiz has a plugin that can help with this too. It’s called Shelf, and we can use it to shrink windows in size.

(If you’ve been following this blog, by now you should already have compiz installed and working on your netbook. If not, we have a complete set of instructions to get you started).

Enabling Shelf

Launch ccsm (you’ll find it under the System menu, as Preferences -> CompizConfig Settings Manager). A window will open listing all of the different features of compiz:

CompizConfig Settings Manager

All of the different features are grouped by type, and the list of types can be seen on the left of the window. Click on Window Management, and on the right hand side of the window you’ll see a bunch of features appear, including the one we are looking for

The Window Management Group In ccsm

Tick Shelf to enable it, and then click on it to open up its settings:

The Shelf Settings In ccsm

You need to setup a key combination for Trigger scale down.

Setting A Key Combination For Trigger Scale Down In ccsm

Click Okay, and you should now be able to shrink down the current window by pressing your chosen key combination. If the window is still too big, press the keys again to shrink it further. If you keep shrinking the window, eventually it will revert back to its original size.

The shrunken window is still a fully-working window. This can be handy when keeping an eye on log files, or on what is happening with your mobile broadband modem – something we’ll look at in a later post.

Although computer screens today are much better than they were in years gone by, sometimes it’s very handy to be able to magnify part of the screen to see things a little larger. This is easy to do using compiz.

(If you’ve been following this blog, by now you should already have compiz installed and working on your netbook. If not, we have a complete set of instructions to get you started).

Enabling The Zoom Desktop Feature

Launch ccsm (you’ll find it under the System menu, as Preferences -> CompizConfig Settings Manager). A window will open listing all of the different features of compiz:

CompizConfig Settings Manager

All of the different features are grouped by type, and the list of types can be seen on the left of the window. Click on Accessibility, and on the right hand side of the window you’ll see a bunch of features appear, including the one we are looking for

The Accessibility Group Of Settings In ccsm

Make sure that Zoom Desktop is not enabled (untick it if it is ticked). Tick Enhanced Zoom Desktop to enable it, and then click on it to open up its settings:

The Enhanced Zoom Desktop Settings In ccsm

The two settings that you need to edit are the mouse bindings for Zoom In and Zoom Out. Because I’m personally used to an Apple Mac, I have these setup to be Ctrl+Scroll Up and Ctrl+Scroll Down. (Under Linux, button 4 is the term normally used when you scroll up on your mouse’s scroll wheel, or when you use the scroll area on the right of the netbook’s trackpad).

Setting The Mouse Combination For Zooming The Desktop

Click Okay, and you should now be able to zoom into the desktop by holding down the Ctrl key and then scrolling up on the trackpad. To get the desktop back to normal, hold down the Ctrl key, and then scroll down on the track pad.

To get around this, some applications like Firefox have built-in the ability to go full screen, where everything else (including the panel at the top of the screen) is hidden from view. But not every application has this built-in, but it would be nice to be able to make any application go full screen.

Thankfully, this is something we can easily do using compiz.

(If you’ve been following this blog, by now you should already have compiz installed and working on your netbook. If not, we have a complete set of instructions to get you started).

Enabling The Full Screen Hot Key Combination

Launch ccsm (you’ll find it under the System menu, as Preferences -> CompizConfig Settings Manager). A window will open listing all of the different features of compiz:

CompizConfig Settings Manager

All of the different features are grouped by type, and the list of types can be seen on the left of the window. Click on Window Management, and on the right hand side of the window you’ll see a bunch of features appear, including the one we are looking for

The Window Management Group In ccsm

Make sure Extra WM Actions is ticked, and then click on it to into its settings.

The Extra WM Actions Settings In ccsm

Setup a key combination for Toggle Fullscreen. Applications like Firefox normally use F11, so I personally have chosen Super+F11 (the Super key is the Windows key on your netbook keyboard) to help me remember it.

Setting Up A Key Combination To Toggle Full Screen In ccsm

Click Okay, and you should now be able to make any window full screen by pressing your chosen key combination. To switch the window back to its normal size, press your chosen key combination a second time.

Let’s take advantage of the fact that compiz works well on netbooks like the Samsung NC10 and make Alt+Tab look a little smarter!

(If you’ve been following this blog, by now you should already have compiz installed and working on your netbook. If not, we have a complete set of instructions to get you started).

Disabling The Boring Alt+Tab Switcher

Launch ccsm (you’ll find it under the System menu, as Preferences -> CompizConfig Settings Manager). A window will open listing all of the different features of compiz:

CompizConfig Settings Manager

All of the different features are grouped by type, and the list of types can be seen on the left of the window. Click on Window Management, and on the right hand side of the window you’ll see a bunch of features appear, including the ones we are looking for

The Window Management Group In ccsm

Make sure that the Application Switcher, Ring Switcher and Static Application Switcher plugins are all disabled (if any of them are ticked, untick them).

Now we can go ahead and switch on the Shift Switcher.

Enabling The Shift Switcher

Make sure the Shift Switcher plugin is ticked, and then click on it to open up its settings:

The Shift Switcher Options In ccsm

Assign a key combination to the Next Window option. I’d recommend sticking with Alt+Tab, because that’s where everyone is used to finding this functionality.

Setting The Key Combination To Tab To The Next Window

Click Okay, and now when you press Alt+Tab, you should get a much nicer-looking 3D effect when tabbing through open windows.

You can easily switch between desktops using the Workspace Switcher applet, or from the keyboard using compiz’s Expo plugin. But wouldn’t it be nice if you could also switch between desktops just by using the left and right arrow keys? And wouldn’t it also be nice if the actual switching was nicely animated?

Well, you can, by using compiz’s Desktop Cube, Rotate Cube, and 3D Windows plugins.

Pre-requisites

To use these plugins, you must first have switched over to using compiz on your netbook. If you’re not sure how to do this, we have a complete set of instructions for you

You’ll also need the CompizConfig Settings Manager (ccsm) installed. To install this, open up a terminal, and run the following command:

sudo apt-get install ccsm

Enabling The Desktop Cube Plugin

Launch ccsm (you’ll find it under the System menu, as Preferences -> CompizConfig Settings Manager). A window will open listing all of the different features of compiz:

CompizConfig Settings Manager

All of the different features are grouped by type, and the list of types can be seen on the left of the window. Click on Desktop, and on the right hand side of the window you’ll see a bunch of features appear, including the one we are looking for

The Desktop Group Of Settings In ccsm

Click on the checkbox next to the Desktop Cube option to enable it. The default settings are fine, although you might want to take a look at them for your own curiosity.

Enabling The Rotate Cube Plugin

Next, click on the Rotate Desktop option to go into its settings, and then click on the Bindings tab.

The Bindings Tab For The Rotate Cube Plugin In compiz

In the Rotate Cube settings, set the keys you want to use to rotate left and rotate right.

Choosing A Key Combination For Rotating The Desktop Cube

The default values tend to be Ctrl + Alt + Left / Right, but personally I find that I remember all of these key combinations better if I just use Super + Left / Right (the Super key is the Windows key on your Samsung NC10′s keyboard).

Click Okay, and you should now be able to quickly move left and right between the desktops by using the key combinations you’ve just setup.

The 3D rotating cube effect – something Apple Mac users have taken for granted for years – looks very nice, and it’s a nice way to show that a netbook can be pretty and functional too.

But we can make it even prettier by turning on 3D Windows

Enabling The 3D Windows Plugin

Click the Back button on the left hand side of the ccsm window to come back to the list of plugins. Click on the Effects option on the left to bring up a list of the different Effects plugins.

The Effects Group Of Settings In ccsm

Click on the 3D Windows option to go into its settings.

The 3D Windows Settings In ccsm

There’s an option called 3D Only On Mouse Rotate. Make sure that option is not ticked.

Now, when you rotate desktops, the various open windows should appear to stand one above the other. It’s a fairly subtle effect, but in my humble opinion that’s also the beauty of it. It makes the rotating desktop look that little bit better, but someone watching would be hard-pressed to spot it and say why.

You can easily switch between the different desktops by using the Workspace Switcher applet in the panel at the top of the screen … but the applet takes up space that you might prefer to use for something else. Equally, you may be someone who prefers to use keyboard shortcuts instead of using the mouse.

If so, you might prefer to switch desktops using the Expo plugin for compiz.

Pre-requisites

To use Expo, you must first have switched over to using compiz on your netbook. If you’re not sure how to do this, we have a complete set of instructions for you

You’ll also need the CompizConfig Settings Manager (ccsm) installed. To install this, open up a terminal, and run the following command:

sudo apt-get install ccsm

Enabling Expo

Launch ccsm (you’ll find it under the System menu, as Preferences -> CompizConfig Settings Manager). A window will open listing all of the different features of compiz:

CompizConfig Settings Manager

All of the different features are grouped by type, and the list of types can be seen on the left of the window. Click on Desktop, and on the right hand side of the window you’ll see a bunch of features appear, including the one we are looking for

The Desktop Group Of Settings In ccsm

Click on the Expo option to go into its settings.

The Expo Settings In ccsm

Setup a key combination to activate Expo. I prefer Super+E (the Super key is the Windows key on your netbook), but you’re free to pick a different combination if you prefer.

Try it out for yourself. Press your selected key combination, and you should see all of your desktops appear. Click to select which desktop you want to use, and then double-click to change desktop.

We’ve already looked at how you can make it easier to switch between open applications, but you might prefer to work with additional desktops instead – or even as well!

The additional desktops feature goes by several different names; sometimes they are called virtual desktops, and on Apple’s OS X they are know as Spaces. The names may be different, but the features are pretty much the same.

Pre-requisites

To use multiple desktops, you must first have switched over to using compiz on your netbook. If you’re not sure how to do this, we have a complete set of instructions for you

You’ll also need the CompizConfig Settings Manager (ccsm) installed. To install this, open up a terminal, and run the following command:

sudo apt-get install ccsm

(It is possible to use multiple desktops on Ubuntu Netbook Remix or the Gnome Desktop without using compiz, but if you switch to compiz, you’ll get some additional flexibility which we’ll cover in the next two blog posts).

Enabling Multiple Desktops

Launch ccsm (you’ll find it under the System menu, as Preferences -> CompizConfig Settings Manager). A window will open listing all of the different features of compiz:

CompizConfig Settings Manager

All of the different features are grouped by type, and the list of types can be seen on the left of the window. Click on General and on the right hand side of the window you’ll see a bunch of features appear, including the one we are looking for

The General Group Of Plugins In ccsm

Click on the Desktop Size tab to see the available settings for changing the number of desktops you have:

The Desktop Size Settings In ccsm

I’ve found that this works best if you only adjust the Horizontal Desktop Size setting, and leave the other settings set at 1.

Your changes become effective immediately.

Getting At Your Multiple Desktops

With the desktops now created, you need to be able to access them. To do so, add the Workspace Switcher applet to your panel at the top of the screen.

Adding The Workspace Switched Applet To The Panel

You can then easily switch desktop by clicking on the mini-desktops now shown in your panel.

We’ve already look at using window previews to quickly switch between open applications. But, as the saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat, so today I’m going to show you how to use the Scale plugin for compiz to switch between open applications using a hot corner.

Pre-requisites

To use hot corners, you must first have switched over to using compiz on your netbook. If you’re not sure how to do this, we have a complete set of instructions for you

You’ll also need the CompizConfig Settings Manager (ccsm) installed. To install this, open up a terminal, and run the following command:

sudo apt-get install ccsm

Enabling Show Windows Hot Corner

Launch ccsm (you’ll find it under the System menu, as Preferences -> CompizConfig Settings Manager). A window will open listing all of the different features of compiz:

CompizConfig Settings Manager

All of the different features are grouped by type, and the list of types can be seen on the left of the window. Click on Window Management, and on the right hand side of the window you’ll see a bunch of features appear, including the one we are looking for

The Window Management Group In ccsm

Click the checkbox next to Scale to enable it, and then click on the word Scale to go into its settings.

The Scale Options In ccsm

Scroll down until you see the Initiate Window Picker For Windows On Current Output option. There should be an icon to the left that looks like a computer monitor, and a button to the right that probably says None. Click on the button to the right, and a window should pop up where you can choose which corners you want to use:

Choosing Hot Corners For The Scale Plugin

I prefer to have both the bottom corners for this feature to reduce how far I have to move the mouse, but of course you may prefer a different choice.

Click Okay, and Scale should now be active.

Try it out for yourself. Move your mouse to your chosen hot corner, and your open application windows should appear. Click the application you want to use, and that window should now be the one in front.