0 Auto Shutdown the System

A simple command can be entered in the Terminal to schedule a time for the system to shut down.

1. Go to Applications (or Main Menu) > Accessories > Terminal.
2. Enter sudo shutdown -h +m (replace m with the number of minutes, e.g. +60).
   OR: enter sudo shutdown -h hh:mm (replace hh:mm with the time on the 24hr clock, e.g. 23:15).
3. Enter password and minimize the Terminal window.

The system will then shut down within the minutes or at the time specified. To cancel a scheduled time, enter sudo shutdown -c in the Terminal.
   Alternatively, you might want to download and install GShutdown, which is a GUI program for scheduling a time to shutdown the system.

0 Remove Old Linux Kernel, Clean Up Boot Menu

Each time when Ubuntu updates to a new Linux kernel, the old one is left behind and the boot menu gets longer. If your new Linux kernel works well, it's safe to remove the old one and clean up the boot menu. Do take these steps carefully as incorrect removal of the items can make your system unbootable.

1. Go to Applications (or Main Menu) > Accessories > Terminal.
2. Enter uname -r to print the Linux kernel version you're running (e.g. 2.6.32-22-generic).
3. Go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager.
4. Click Status from the left panel and select Installed.
5. Enter the main version number (e.g. 2.6.32) in the Search box.
6. Right-click the items with smaller sub version number (e.g. 2.6.32-21) for older Linux kernel and select Mark for Complete Removal. The files for the older version to remove may include linux-headers-2.6.32-21, linux-headers-2.6.32-21-generic and linux-image-2.6.32-21-generic.
7. Click Apply from the top panel.
8. Click Apply again from the pop-up window to confirm removal of the marked packages. The boot menu will be cleaned up automatically after the removal is confirmed.

   Try also Grub Customizer which can be used to hide items from the boot menu. Just install the program by entering the following in the Terminal, then run the program, untick the items you want to hide and click 'Save'.

1. sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
2. sudo apt-get update
3. sudo apt-get install grub-customizer

0 Change Default Boot Options

After full installation, Ubuntu is set to be the default operating system to boot up if no key is pressed within a few seconds on a multi-boot system. You might want to set your preferred operating system to boot up by default. This can be done easily with StartUp-Manager.

1. Go to Applications (or Main Menu) > Accessories > Terminal.
2. Enter sudo apt-get install startupmanager (OR copy the highlighted code and, in the Terminal, press Ctrl-Shift-V to paste it).
3. Enter password used upon installation of Ubuntu.
4. Go to System > Administration > StartUp-Manager
5. Enter the same password to perform pre-configuration tasks, which include searching bootloaders to operating systems.
6. Select the default operating system from the pull-down menu, click "Close" to perform post-configuration tasks.

With StartUp-Manager, you can also do others such as manage Usplash themes, adjust bootloader menu resolution or set timeout in seconds. Avoid changing timeout to 0 seconds if you need to select a system to boot up from a multi-boot menu.

0 Synchronize System Time and Date

Ubuntu allows you to manually set your system time and date, but you can also activate the Network Time Protocol (NTP) support in the system to automatically sync them with the Internet time servers as follows.

1. Go to System > Preferences > Time & Date.
2. Click the lock icon to change settings.
3. Select your time zone from the list.
4. If the configuration type is "manual", change it to auto synchronize with the Internet server. (In Ubuntu 11.04, the default is set to auto.)
5. Click "Install NTP support" when prompted with a dialog box. (Applicable to Ubuntu 10.10 & 10.04)
6. Tick the time server(s) nearer to you. (Applicable to Ubuntu 10.10 & 10.04)
7. Click the Close button.

When you next boot up the system with the Internet connection, your system clock will then be synced with the Internet time servers.

0 Auto Start Up an Application

In Windows, you can place a program shortcut in a startup folder for running a program automatically when the system starts. In Ubuntu, you can do the same in this way:

1. Go To System > Preferences > Startup Applications
2. Click the "Add" button.
3. Name a program.
4. Click the "Browse" button and navigate to File System > usr > bin, where programs are usually installed.
5. Select a program, click the "Open" button followed by the "Add" button.

The above program will then be listed in additional startup programs. Check if the program runs automatically by logging out and back to the system.

0 Name or Label a Partition

Nautilus file manager shows the root directory as File System for your Ubuntu system partition. If you have other partitions (or volumes), it shows them as xx GB Filesystem if they’re not named or labelled.
Using Disk Utility is one of the effective ways to name a partition easily:

1. Go to System > Administration > Disk Utility
2. Select the item Hard Disk.
3. In the Volumes section, click a partition you want to label.
4. Click "Edit Filesystem Label" (See  below)
5. In the Label box, enter a name, e.g. Data-Disk, and click Apply.

The file manager should now show the partition label, such as Data-Disk, instead of xx GB Filesystem.
   If the option for "Edit Filesystem Label" is not shown, click "Unmount Volume" before hand. In case you can't unmount a volume, try Storage Device Manager to unmount it. See Auto Mount Drives at System Startup.
   This tip is for naming a partition using Disk Utility, use other advanced features such as format, edit or delete partition with caution as they can delete data on your disk.

0 Manually Mount a USB Drive

A USB storage device plugged into the system usually mounts automatically, but if for some reasons it doesn't automount, it's possible to manually mount it with these steps.

1. Go to Applications (or Main Menu) > Accessories > Terminal.
2. Enter sudo mkdir /media/usb to create a mount point called usb.
3. Enter sudo fdisk -l to look for the USB drive already plugged in, let's say the drive you want to mount is /dev/sdb1.
4. Enter sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /media/usb -o uid=1000,gid=100,utf8,dmask=027,fmask=137 to mount a USB drive formatted with FAT16 or FAT32 system. OR:
   Enter sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /media/usb to mount a USB drive formatted with NTFS system.

To unmount it, just enter sudo umount /media/usb in the Terminal.

0 Auto Mount Drives at System Startup

Ubuntu is capable of reading and writing files stored on Windows formatted partitions, but partitions must be 'mounted' before they can be accessed each time you start up the system. With these steps, you can auto mount the drives or partitions without the need to manually mount them for access.

1. Install Storage Device Manager if it has not been added.
   1. Go to Applications (or Main Menu) > Ubuntu Software Center.
   2. Enter pysdm in the Search Box.
   3. Select Storage Device Manager, click the "Install" button.
2. Go to System > Administration > Storage Device Manager.
3. Extend the list of sda and select the sda you want to auto mount, click 'OK' to configure.
4. Click the "Assistant" button.
5. Uncheck "Mount file system in read only mode" and keep "The file system is mounted at boot time" checked.
6. Click the "Mount", "Apply" then "Close" button, and restart the system.

In case you wish to remove the auto-mount of a certain drive or partition, you can similarly use Storage Device Manager to do the setting.
   If you need to identify disk partitions by label, paste ls /dev/disk/by-label -g in Terminal, or to view partition sizes and file systems, enter sudo fdisk -l. Disk Utility mentioned in "Name or Label a Partition" also gives you a glance of device numbers, partition types, sizes and labels.

0 Add More Useful Software

Ubuntu Software Center lets you search and get free software. If an application you need is not included in the Center, you can go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager, type in an application name to search and install a software package from the repositories.
Alternatively, you can get the latest freeware applications by clicking the Install this now button from the GetDeb Repository after the getdeb package is installed with the instructions given.
See also our Best Free Software for Linux.

0 Install Oracle Java Packages

Ubuntu may use OpenJDK by default, but I note that some web services such as ezyZip.com might need the Oracle Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to be installed in the system for running the services properly. If you would like to get the proprietary Oracle Java packages for your system, you can download and install them with the steps below:

1. Go to Applications (or Main Menu) > Accessories > Terminal.
2. Enter sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java to add the partner repository.
3. Enter sudo apt-get update to update the source list.
4. Enter sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-installer
5. Enter sudo java -version to check the version of the Java used in the system.
6. Enter sudo update-alternatives --config java to choose the default Java for use in the system when necessary.

0 Install Screenlets

Screenlets are small applications to represent things such as sticky notes, clocks, calendars around on your desktop. You can launch a pre-installed screenlet from Screenlet Manager, or install a new one into the Manager for launching it. Here are the steps for installing and launching a screenlet, for example, WaterMark System Information.

1. Install Screenlets Manager if it has not been added.
   1. Go to Applications (or Main Menu) > Ubuntu Software Center.
   2. Enter screenlets in the Search Box.
   3. Select Screenlets, click the "Install" button.
2. Download the screenlet "WaterMark System Information" to a folder.
3. Go to Applications (or Main Menu) > Accessories > Screenlets.
4. Click Install, select Install Screenlet and click OK.
5. Browse to the folder, select the file downloaded and click "Open" to install the screenlet into the Screenlets Manager.
6. Select the screenlet "WaterMark" and click "Launch/Add". (Tips: you can add more than one WaterMark screenlet and set it to display other system information.)

More screenlets are available for installation from screenlets.org.

0 Enable Media Playback

Ubuntu only includes completely free software by default and does not configure proprietary media formats such as mp3 and mp4 'out of the box'. The required codecs however can be easily installed for the default player to playback these files following a few simple steps below.

1. Double click an mp3 file in a folder.
2. Click "Search" button when the the default player shows up with a "Search for suitable plugin?" window.
3. Click the "Install" and "Confirm" buttons to download and install the restricted software.
4. Restart the player after the package files are installed.

You might need to do the same for other restricted media formats such as mp4 too.

0 Install Extra Fonts

Do you prefer Windows TrueType fonts to the default fonts installed by Ubuntu? The mscorefonts package containing most Microsoft fonts can be installed and configured easily in a few steps below:

1. Go to Applications (or Main Menu) > Accessories > Terminal.
2. Paste sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer into the Terminal (by pressing Ctrl-Shift-V in the Terminal after copying the highlighted code).
3. Go to System > Preferences > Appearance > Fonts.
4. Click each of them, pick a font and size to configure for window title and so on.

   How about installing more TrueType fonts? With your font files, you can manually add them into the system following the steps below:

1. Press Alt+F2 to bring up "Run Application" window.
2. Paste gksu nautilus /usr/share/fonts/truetype into the box, click "Run" to open Nautilus in the right folder.
3. Create a new sub-folder and copy your files ending with .ttf into the sub-folder.
4. Enter sudo fc-cache -f -v in the Terminal to rebuild the font information.

   Besides this, you can run an application such as Font-Manager to view, install, remove fonts and so on.
   If you like the Tahoma font which is not included in the mscorefonts package, you might want to copy the two files tahoma.ttf and tahomabd.ttf from /Windows/Fonts and install them.

0 Disable or Change Login Sound

Each time when you login to Ubuntu, it plays a login sound. If you don't like to listen to it each time you login, you can easily disable it, or you can even change it to your favorite sound.
To disable the login sound:

1. Go to System > Preferences > Startup Applications.
2. Under the "Startup Programs" tab, untick "GNOME Login Sound"
3. Click Close

To change the login sound, tick the above "GNOME Login Sound" if it's unticked, then follow these steps:

1. Press Alt+F2 to bring up "Run Application" window.
2. Paste gksu nautilus /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo into the box, click "Run" to open Nautilus in the right folder.
3. Rename the original file desktop-login.ogg to another such as desktop-login-original.ogg for backup
4. Copy your sound file in ogg format to the above folder and name the file as desktop-login.ogg
5. Log out and log back in to listen to the new login sound.

0 Set Sound Output

When I first installed Ubuntu onto a PC with an integrated audio device and tried to play a media file on a player, it had no sound. I tried these simple steps in setting Sound Preferences and then it had sound. It works for me for the audio device I have.

1. Go to System > Preferences > Sound to bring up the Sound Preferences window.
2. Under the Hardware tab, change Profile to Analog Stereo Duplex from the drop-down menu.
3. Under the Output tab, change Connector to Analog Output (LFE)/Amplifier from the drop-down menu.

As the items available from the drop-down menus might differ depending on the hardware devices detected by the system, you might want to try other items in the menus to see if they work for your devices. It might also help to check out the steps in Sound Troubleshooting from the Ubuntu Documentation.
Playing a media file in a proprietary format on a player might also have no sound if the required codecs are not installed. In this case, see Enable Media Playback in this article.

0 Create an Advanced File Manager

In the Ubuntu file system, you can use Nautilus file manager to browse most files but can only write files in your home folder /home/your_name and its sub-folders such as Desktop and Documents. If you have to rename a folder or write files outside of your home folder using the file manager, you won't be able to but you can create an advanced file manager for this purpose.

1. Go to System > Preferences > Main Menu
2. Select "Accessories" in the left panel and click "New Item" in the right panel.
3. Enter a name such as Advanced Nautilus in the "Name" box.
4. Enter gksu nautilus in the "Command" box.
5. Click the "OK" button and the "Close" button.

Now you can go to Applications (or Main Menu) > Accessories and see that the Advanced Nautilus is ready for use. But be careful since you can use it to delete or change any files on your system.

0 Set a Default View in File Manager

Windows Explorer allows for users to set a default view to all folders. In almost the same way, Ubuntu's Nautilus File Browser allows for these settings:

1. Go to "Places" and open a folder.
2. At the top of the File Browser, click "Edit" and "Preference".
3. Under Default View, change "Icon View" to "List View", to see more details in columns.
4. Tick "Show hidden and backup files" if that's your choice.

Other various settings, such as single or double click to open items, icon captions, list columns, preview files and media handling can be done in the same window as well.

0 Re-start System without Rebooting

If you press Ctrl+Alt+Delete, Ubuntu brings you a menu to shut down, restart, or suspend your system. But for some reason you might encounter that the system freezes, the mouse cursor can't move, neither pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete can work.
Remember that there's a shortcut key Alt+PrintScreen+K that can bring you back to the log-in screen immediately without the need to reboot the system. That's a time saver.
As an alternative, you can also use Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to do the same after you've enabled the shortcut key by the following steps:

1. Go to System > Preferences > Keyboard.
2. Select the “Layouts” tab and click the “Options” button.
3. Select “Key sequence to kill the X server” and enable “Control + Alt + Backspace”.

0 Terminate Unresponsive Programs

Xkill is part of the X11 utilities pre-installed in Ubuntu and a tool for terminating misbehaving X clients or unresponsive programs. You can easily add a shortcut key to launch xkill with the steps below.

1. Go to System > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts.
2. Click the Add button to create a custom shortcut.
3. Enter xkill to both the Name and Command boxes and click the Apply button.
4. Click on Disabled at the xkill row in the Keyboard Shortcuts window (Disabled is then changed to New shortcut...).
5. Press a new key combination, e.g. Ctrl+Alt+X (New shortcut... is then changed to Ctrl+Alt+X).
6. Click the Close button.

Xkill is ready for use. Press the above key combination to turn the cursor to an X-sign, move the X-sign and drop it into a program interface to terminate the unresponsive program, or cancel the X-sign with a right-click.

0 Add or Change Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are preset in the system, but you can add new ones or change them easily. For instance, change the default shortcut Ctrl+Alt+T (Run a Terminal) to Win+R (press R while holding down the Windows key, also known as Super key) by the following steps:

1. Go To System > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts
2. Browse to Desktop > "Run a terminal"
3. Click on the Shortcut, and it shows "New shortcut..."
4. Press Win+R, and it shows Mod4+R
5. Click the Close button and try the new shortcut.

   To disable a shortcut, press Backspace when it shows "New shortcut..." after the step 3 above.
   Shortcuts begin with XF86 refer to special keys available to some multimedia keyboards.
   Keyboard shortcuts can also be set by changing keybinding values with Configuration Editor. Press Alt+F2 and enter gconf-editor, then navigate to apps > gnome_settings_daemon > keybindings, or apps > metacity > global_keybindings and window_keybindings.