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In Lubuntu, it is possible to control window positioning on the desktop using keyboard shortcuts, as follows:

  • Windows + ← - window occupies left half of the desktop
  • Windows + → - window occupies right half of the desktop
  • Windows + ↑ - window occupies upper half of the desktop
  • Windows + ↓ - window occupies lower half of the desktop

Are there similar keyboard shortcuts in Ubuntu (Unity)?

Nickolai Leschov
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4 Answers4

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Super(Windows)+Left and Super+Right work the same on Ubuntu 17.10. They split the window and place it on the left/ right side.
But the Up and Down are different. Super+Up maximize window and Super+Down restore it to the original smaller size.
You can see the shortcut list on Settings > Devices > Keyboard.

Before on 17.04 it's the same, but with Ctrl: Ctrl+Super+Left etc. And the Down minimizes the window.

Yasmin Zulfati Yusrina
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In my case, this can be done with Compiz Setting Manager.

  1. First, you'll need to download Compiz (Skip this part if you already own it).

    sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-plugins
  2. Open compiz, then navigate to Window Management category which located on the left pane.
  3. Enable Grid plugin.
  4. Set your own desired shortcut/keybinding for tiling window, simply click the corresponding action key, then change it to whatever you want.

enter image description here

Liso
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    This is the perfect awnser when you dont have a keypad :D. Worked out of the box. – Johan Hoeksma May 01 '17 at 05:18
  • For some reason this doesn't work since 17.10 for me. The settings are the same, I have a keypad and happily used it for gridding before. And now I have no idea what to do… – Artem Pelenitsyn Nov 05 '17 at 10:18
  • For the record, this answer is redundant. Unity has grid enabled by default and the shortcuts work out of the box. – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy Dec 12 '17 at 01:45
  • This does not work for Ubuntu 20.04 or later because of the switch from Unity to Gnome. As described in this related question, "Gnome Shell can only use its own window manager, Mutter. You can install Compiz and configure it, but none of this will have effect. Other Ubuntu desktops, including Xfce and Mate, can run on Compiz." – Steven C. Howell Nov 14 '23 at 18:02
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Back in the good old days (before 17.10) there was a really nice display of shortcuts when the user held super (the windows key). As you can see there were incredibly powerful Window Placement shortcuts that TooManyPets mentioned.

Now, for some god forsaken reason, they got rid of that menu and switched to an even less functional version of how windows does it: super+arrow-key

All of the Pre-Defined shortcuts and how to find them is described at https://help.ubuntu.com/stable/ubuntu-help/keyboard-shortcuts-set.html

brenthompson2
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    Do you happen to know if there's a way to achieve the numpad window positioning? I really liked the ability to have upper/lower as well as left/right window tiling so easily. – kabdulla Mar 08 '19 at 17:39
  • I also really liked the upper/lower window positioning. Windows uses the same keys as what Ubuntu switched to and it is able to do that. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to do it on Ubuntu since updating. – brenthompson2 Mar 08 '19 at 17:44
  • Found a work-around which involves a plugin which can be installed on top of chrome of firefox: https://askubuntu.com/a/1089033/588928 Doesn't seem to be as good as the old way of doing it - but seems to work. – kabdulla Mar 08 '19 at 20:39
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Ctrl+Alt+Num...

Ctrl+Alt+1 => Lower Left
Ctrl+Alt+2 => Bottom
Ctrl+Alt+3 => Lower Right
Ctrl+Alt+4 => Left
Ctrl+Alt+5 => Maximimze
Ctrl+Alt+6 => Right
Ctrl+Alt+7 => Upper Left
Ctrl+Alt+8 => Top
Ctrl+Alt+9 => Upper Right
Ctrl+Alt+0 => Minimize

TooManyPets
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