Open windows in center of screen

Question

I'd like to have all of my windows open in the center of my screen instead of the top left corner. Is this possible? If so, where do I configure this?

score 28 · Accepted Answer · edited May 26 '12 at 03:35

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If you are using Gnome with Compiz, install CompizConfig Settings Manager.

You can find it here:

Or install it via Terminal:

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Then open it and go to Window Management > Place Windows, enable it, and in "Placement Mode" choose Centered.

edited May 26 '12 at 03:35

Eliah Kagan

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answered May 25 '12 at 15:20

tuks

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`compiz` has been removed from Debian, as [mentioned here](http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/111115/no-installation-candidate-for-compiz). – 0 _ Mar 08 '16 at 20:32

score 22 · Answer 2 · answered May 23 '16 at 15:47

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For newer version of gnome (3.14 or higher) compiz has been removed. you can now Open windows in center of screen by check center-new-windows in /org/gnome/mutter/ using dconf-editor.

answered May 23 '16 at 15:47

user41209

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Does that work for Unity as well? – orschiro Oct 22 '16 at 12:50
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This should be the accepted answer, as it works out of the box and is just a small change. – rugk Jul 29 '18 at 14:19
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Actually I opened a bug report to make this setting the default: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/issues/246 IMHO, everything else makes no sense. Feel free to upvote it. :) – rugk Jul 29 '18 at 14:33
the perfect answer I was looking for. Thanks – Mejan Jul 16 '21 at 12:47

rugk · Answer 3 · 2018-11-02T23:09:51.017

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Actually, in recent versions of Ubuntu it is enabled by default. And since GNOME v3.30 there is also a visible option in GNOME Tweaks:

Just select "Center New Windows" under "Windows".

edited Nov 02 '18 at 23:09

answered Nov 02 '18 at 22:24

rugk

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Since this, and the original answer, both involve tweak tools I’m leaving the original answer as the main one. Yours is still a valued answer. Thank you – Frantumn Dec 21 '18 at 02:43
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@Frantumn No, they don't both involve tweak tools. "Compiz" is a whole new window manager and a lot more. My answer is a nearly built-in tool in GNOME that just extends the settings. Using "Compiz" is a complicated workaround that I am not sure whether it still works anyway in recent Ubuntu versions. – rugk Dec 22 '18 at 17:30
Also see my comment: "in recent versions of Ubuntu it is enabled by default". As such the whole question is more or less obsolete now. – rugk Dec 22 '18 at 17:31
BTW, in contrast to what i said, (that it's the default in Ubuntu now) this topic is not dead and still in discussion in [Fedora](https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/should-gnome-center-new-windows-by-default-or-not/1413?u=rugk) & [Ubuntu](https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/center-windows-by-default/10262?u=rugk). – rugk Mar 30 '19 at 15:15
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this was disabled in ubuntu 20.04 lts for some reason – dkocich Nov 13 '20 at 06:23

Open windows in center of screen

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