Linux: Create shortcut icon on Desktop and in Menu

Table of Content

We will add shortcut icon for Navicat.

You can create .desktop shortcut in any of these directories:

  • ~/.local/share/applications/
  • /usr/share/applications/

Run next commands:

$ cd /usr/share/applications
$ sudo touch navicat.desktop
$ sudo vim navicat.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Navicat
Comment=Navicat
Premium Exec=/home/popov/Soft/navicat121_premium_en_x64/start_navicat
Icon=/home/popov/Soft/navicat121_premium_en_x64/navicat.ico
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=true
Type=Application
Categories=Development;

Check you shortcut with desktop-file-validate. Fix errors if they are presented.

$ desktop-file-validate navicat.desktop

Create shortcut icon on Desktop and in Menu

$ cp /usr/share/applications/navicat.desktop ~/Desktop/navicat.desktop

You should select a correct category for your icon. Take a note that Categories=Development in Menu named as Prodgramming or Categories=AudioVideo named as Sound & Video. If you apply category something like this Categories=Sound & Video no item will appear in Menu.

Related links:

  1. How to create shortcuts to application on the desktop on Linux Mint 18 or up?
  2. The official specification for .desktop entries
  3. When creating a .desktop file, what are valid categories?

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