How can I have the software center automatically create a shortcut on my desktop every time it installs an application?

Run the script below in the background and it will automatically create a starter on your desktop on (only) newly installed software.

It also:

• checks if the new item actually is an application, meant to start from a launcher (checking for NoDisplay=true)
• makes the launcher on your desktop executable, ready to use.

How to use

• Copy the script below into an empty file (use e.g. gedit), save it somewhere as make_starter.py.

• If you first want to test it: run it from a terminal window by the command:

  python3 /path/to/make_starter.py
  

  Install an application like you are used to. An icon should appear on your desktop after installation has finished

• If all works fine, add it to your startup applications: Dash > Startup Applications > Add. Add the command:

  python3 /path/to/make_starter.py
  

Note

Localized versions of Ubuntu may have a different name for "Desktop" ("Bureaublad" in Dutch). If so, replace in the line:

desktopname = "Desktop"

"Desktop" by the loacalized name.

The script

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import subprocess
import os
import time
import shutil

desktopname = "Desktop"
dr = "/usr/share/applications"

while True:
    current = os.listdir(dr)
    time.sleep(10)
    last = os.listdir(dr)
    for item in last:
        if not item in current and item.endswith(".desktop"):
            file = dr+"/"+item
            with open(file) as src:
                text = src.read()
            if not "NoDisplay=true" in text:
                target = os.environ["HOME"]+"/"+desktopname+"/"+item
                shutil.copyfile(file, target)
                command = "chmod +x "+target
                subprocess.Popen(["/bin/bash", "-c", command])

This will be incredibly messy, since there might be well over a hundred application icons. The icons (actually, desktop launcher files) are usually in /usr/share/applications. So you could run the following command in a terminal:

find /usr/share/applications -type f -name '*.desktop' -exec cp --target-directory ~/Desktop/ {} +

but this would create a copy of every single launcher on your desktop. (possibly a few hundred, depending on your environment)

You could browse /usr/share/applications in the file manager, and manually copy them for relevant applications to the desktop. There's no automatic way to make the Software Centre do this, as far as I can tell.