How to find the .desktop files for pinned applications in the Unity launcher?

If you want to know which applications are pinned currently (from other launcher icons, which are also shown in the launcher) , you can use gsettings

Open a terminal and use this command

gsettings get com.canonical.Unity.Launcher favorites

This command gives me the output below, (the exact output may differ)

['nautilus-home.desktop', 'firefox.desktop', 'libreoffice-writer.desktop', 'libreoffice-calc.desktop', 'libreoffice-impress.desktop', 'ubuntu-software-center.desktop', 'gnome-terminal.desktop', 'wimaxcmgui.desktop', 'synaptic.desktop']

The .desktop files are with the exact name in the output. But, you may not see the name though.

You can use cp command to copy them in some other directory.

• First use this command to get a variable list with the list of .desktop files which are pinned.

  export list=`gsettings get com.canonical.Unity.Launcher favorites | grep .*.desktop | tr "[]\'," " "`
  

• Then copy those files in your Desktop.

  cd /usr/share/applications && cp $list ~/Desktop && cd
  

Hope this will help. You now have the .desktop files which are pinned in your desktop.