Downloaded Ubuntu tweak and set window controls to the right side. Only some programs follow the rule. Pidgin as an example has window controls on the right. But Chrome, Thunderbird, Geany, still have controls on the left.
How can I move ALL window controls(close/min/max) to the right (or left)?
It seems that Canonical went the totalitarian way and ordered that users should not be allowed to change the buttons position (you can find more technical details of this change on the bottom of this post).
As for now the only way to have windows buttons on the right side in 14.04 is to switch from Unity to the Gnome Flashback session (what I personally recommend). More details on how to do that are presented below.
Open terminal and run the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository universe
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnome-session-flashback
Next logout and select Gnome Flashback session in login manager.
You can select between Metacity and Compiz managers. Metacity is more lightweight, however it lacks some effects. With Compiz you will get more similar experience to Unity. You can speed up Compiz by turning off animations plugin (use compizconfig-settings-manager).
While in Gnome Flashback session, to move buttons to the right open a terminal and enter this command:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences button-layout 'menu:minimize,maximize,close'
As I wrote in technical details, Canonical hardcoded buttons position in their Unity plugin. Changing of this needs this plugin to be patched by some third-party programmers. As for now such a patch is not available. (When such a patch will be published, please edit this answer and post it here.)
Unity uses Compiz as its window manager. They used Compiz plugin called GTK Window Decorator to draw window borders and titlebars. This plugin draws borders basing on the Metacity theme, which itself is highly configurable. That is why until 14.04 we had been changing Metacity settings in order to change buttons position [1].
Now they have resigned from using gtk-window-decorator and implemented window decoration right in their Unity Compiz plugin. They deliberately hardcoded buttons position on the left side and do not expose any position switch to the user, in order to maintain "consistent user experience", as they call it [2].
from 12.04 and newer gconfeditor wont work use this:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences button-layout ':minimize,maximize,close'
gconf-editorApps -> Metacity -> Generalbutton_layoutmenu:minimize,maximize,closeFor Ubuntu 10.10 the string needs to be menu:minimize,maximize,close, with a comma in the end of the string.
Run this command in a terminal:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences button-layout ":minimize,maximize,close"
Note that this will only change the position of the window controls of non-maximized windows. The maximized windows will continue to have their window controls on the left in title bar. To set the controls back to being on the left side:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences button-layout "close,minimize,maximize:"
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.overrides button-layout ":minimize,maximize,close"
You can also download Ubuntu Tweak, which has an easy GUI option to switch the window buttons to the right. It's found under the Windows Manager Settings option, under the Desktop category. Just select the "Right" radio button and you're done.
Far more easy than I thought (or remember it was in previous versions)
sudo apt-get install unity-tweak-tool
Open System Tools -> Preferences -> Unity Tweak Tool
On the tab "Window Controls" (last tab) you can now choose between Left or Right.
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.overrides button-layout :close,minimize,maximize
Try the above command in the terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T). This will work. It actually follows the principle of slicing in Python. You can give close,minimize,maximize: to move the keys to left. Further u can interchange the positions of close,minimize and maximize :)
For ubuntu 17.10 simply type in terminal:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences button-layout 'close,maximize,minimize:'
System>Preferences>Appearance Change the theme to something other than Radiance/Ambiance.
I found that the gconf-editor suggestion just reversed the order of the buttons. They remained on the right hand side of the window. To switch buttons to the left hand upper corner, I used System Settings > Ubuntu Tweak > Tweaks > Window. Window Control
Some applications do not adhere to the global window decorations, and Chrome is an example of this behaviour. Right-click its window border and choose "use system window decoration". Pretty much every major application other than Chrome uses the default, system-wide kind, so peobably this is all you will have to do.
Also, I strongly recommend you leave the button order as it is, because this change did not come out of nowhere. For instance, in Unity, maximized windows have their buttons in the top-left corner as well, and this tweak won't change that.
In dconfig Editor go to org>gnome>desktop>wm>preferences>button-layout and change it to :minimize,maximize,close and hit enter.
Be sure that you include the colon before minimize.
I have two laptops using the gnome desktop environment. One I upgraded from 12.10 to 14.04 and the other was a fresh install of 14.04. The upgrade kept the old setting I checked it against the fresh install. It worked when I changed the fresh install.
