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I'm new to Ubuntu and I try to drag a file directly from a fold to the desktop in order to copy the file as one can do in Windows. But it doesn't work. I know how to do it in terminal, and I have disabled experiment view and is able to drag files between folders to copy them. I'm justing wondering why I can't drag and copy it to the desktop? Is it not supported in Ubuntu?

Jerry wu
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4 Answers4

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As answered here

No, you do not miss anything.

In Ubuntu 19.10, icons on the desktop are not anymore provided by the file manager Files (a.k.a. nautilus), but by a separate Gnome Shell extension, "Desktop Icons". Sushi works with Files, but not with the extension.

To preview files that live on the desktop, you can go to the Desktop folder in Files.

And this trend follows to 20.04 also. Hence the answer is NO. Hence the conclusion is that desktop is not a part of nautilus, hence the answer is NO.

Also read the comments of this answer.

You could use mv or cp commands in the terminal.

Abhay Patil
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Never noticed this until today, as I don't use the default desktop environment.

If you really want this behavior, there are desktop environments for Ubuntu that offer the feature.

It works in 20.04 flashback (Metacity)
It works in 20.04 MATE...
It worked in 18.04 cinnamon....

There are probably more, but those are the ones that I can quickly confirm.

WU-TANG
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I don't believe you can do this in Ubuntu. The closest is dragging files into the Desktop folder in the file manager. It doesn't see the Desktop display itself as a folder.

I stand to be corrected.

bloozguy
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Assuming you are not using top level folders to copy across ctrl+t in the file browser (nautilus) will open a new tab identical to the first one. Navigate one to "desktop" then switch to your source folder and you can drag and drop into the other tab.

Alternatively at the top of the file window will be "Home>path>to>files>" just drag file over home, the tab will switch and you can then drop into "Desktop"

Hope this helps.

Crighton
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