If you’re using Ubuntu Linux 10.04 or later, you may be familiar with the Windows key—or the “Start” key, to be more specific. This key can be used to access the “Start” menu, which is a convenient way to access your most commonly used applications and files. To use the Windows key on Ubuntu Linux, first press it down until it becomes highlighted. Then press the left arrow key to move up one level in the menu and press Enter to open it. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+T (or Cmd+Alt+T on Mac) to open the “Terminal” application and type “startx” to start your desktop environment. ..
Just in case you’re a total newb, here’s the menu we’re talking about:
Change the Gnome Main Menu Shortcut Key to the Windows Key
The first thing you’d normally do is head to System –> Preferences –> Keyboard Shortcuts to change out the shortcut key, but sadly the “Show the panel’s main menu” can’t be assign to the Windows key. You can hit the key as much as you want, but it won’t work here.
What you’re going to need to do is either open up a terminal or use the Alt+F2 shortcut key to bring up the Run Application dialog, and then paste in the following:
Once you’ve hit the enter key, the Windows key will not only open the main menu, but the Keyboard Shortcuts panel will be updated with “Super L”, which means the left Windows key.
And there you go.
