How can I add a custom launcher to favourites in Gnome Shell?

How can I add a custom launcher to favourites in gnome 3.8. I would like to put a laucher for wow


There are two simple methods:

  • Just dragging the application icon to from the list of applications to the left should create the favorite.
  • Right clicking any application icon and hit "Add to favorites"

This is more complicated, thus should only be used if you want something done form the terminal:

dconf read /org/gnome/shell/favorite-apps

Will return:

['firefox.desktop', 'chromium-browser.desktop', 'evolution.desktop', 'empathy.desktop', 'rhythmbox.desktop', 'shotwell.desktop', 'libreoffice-writer.desktop', 'nautilus.desktop', 'yelp.desktop']

Here, you have to treat it as an array, so you must know the name of the application .desktop file, ie. gparted.desktop for Gparted. Copy the same output and add the one you want.

dconf write /org/gnome/shell/favorite-apps "['firefox.desktop', 'gparted.desktop', 'chromium-browser.desktop', 'evolution.desktop', 'empathy.desktop', 'rhythmbox.desktop', 'shotwell.desktop', 'libreoffice-writer.desktop', 'nautilus.desktop', 'yelp.desktop']"

This will add Gparted as second element of my favorites. Please be mindful of the syntax that has to be ['application.desktop', 'application.desktop'] with comma and space between each item, and each item between single quotes.