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In Windows 7, you can press Shift+Windows Key+←/→ to instantly move the current window to the next/previous monitor. Is there an equivalent feature in Ubuntu 11.04? I poked around the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog but didn't see anything relating to moving windows among multiple monitors.

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6 Answers 6

Reset to default
27

What you need:

  • wmctrl (sudo apt-get install wmctrl)
  • The dimensions of each monitor

How to do it:

  • From the terminal, run gnome-keybinding-properties and click "Add"
    • Name the entry something like "Move to left monitor" and enter this command:
      • wmctrl -r ":ACTIVE:" -e 0,0,0,1280,1024
        • You can change ":ACTIVE:" to ":SELECT:" and wmctrl will wait until you select a window
        • The values for -e are gravity,x-coordinate,y-coord,width,height. I have gravity set to 0, which is default (I don't actually know what gravity does), x and y-coordinates set to 0 and 0, and the width and height are the dimensions of the left monitor: 1280 and 1024. Change this to match your configuration.
    • Click where it says "Disabled" and press the same keyboard shortcut as in windows, i.e. Shift+Super+left
    • Make another entry for "move to right monitor"
      • wmctrl -r ":ACTIVE:" -e 0,1280,0,1366,768
        • Where I have "1280", put the horizontal resolution of your left monitor. The vertical resolution can be more tricky if your monitors have different resolutions, and especially if they aren't lined up along the top or bottom. Mine are aligned along the top, so the vertical-coordinate value is "0".
        • My right monitor is 1366x768, so replace those values with the appropriate ones.
    • Map the shortcut-key sequence and you're finished!

You may have to tweak the coordinates and dimensions to account for the top (usually 24px tall) or side panels.

For more reading on wmctrl, check out http://movingtofreedom.org/2010/08/10/arranging-windows-from-the-gnulinux-command-line-with-wmctrl/

I hope this helps!

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  • 8
    I recommend using -1 in the last two fields to leave the windows dimensions unchanged when it moves (e.g., wmctrl -r ":ACTIVE:" -e 0,0,0,-1,-1)
    – Sk606
    Nov 27, 2012 at 18:22
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    As per this askubuntu.com/questions/75631/… answer. For current versions of gnome/ubuntu after installing wmctrl use: "gnome-control-center keyboard" or via GUI "settings -> devices -> keyboard" and then click the "+" in the bottom.
    – user3605780
    Sep 11, 2019 at 10:26
66

Compiz and Unity will be soon obsolete.

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  • meta + left right moves in a single window but this fills in the gaps. I couldn't make sense of the extension though - it was moving other windows around in a strange way aswell and there seems to be no documentation
    – JonnyRaa
    May 25, 2018 at 14:57
  • @JonnyLeeds Disable unused shortcuts the may overlap.
    – Waldemar Wosiński
    May 30, 2018 at 5:42
  • It's quite new but available and easy.
    – Shihe Zhang
    Dec 22, 2018 at 6:11
  • 3
    best answer!!!!
    – otaviodecampos
    Mar 21, 2019 at 19:50
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    This worked for me on Ubuntu 18.04! No additional setup/configuration needed
    – 7ochem
    Aug 20, 2020 at 12:15
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If you use Compiz as the window manager on your Ubuntu installation (Which I believe comes pre-installed with 11.04). Open Compiz Config Settings Manager (do a sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager if you don't have ccsm installed.)

  • Go to Window Management -> Put
  • Enable the Put plugin.
  • Give your required key combination for the Put To Next Output option in the Bindings tab.

This will allow you to get the same functionality as what you require. The Put plugin has loads of other productivity increasing options too. Enjoy.

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  • 1
    This works great for me on Ubuntu 12.04 64bit with Unity. Remember though that Compiz is a dangerous tool, many of its (seemingly harmless) options can easily break your setup, so don't mess around with it unless you've got backups and/or are sure your steps are safe.
    – Sicco
    Jan 8, 2013 at 11:14
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    It appears that put was removed/omitted in 13.04.
    – Sean McCleary
    Aug 26, 2013 at 17:40
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    If you haven't got the Pug plugin, you can install the package compiz-plugins-main which also installs some other plugins. I also had to restart X after I had set a shortcut.
    – gitaarik
    Jul 7, 2015 at 8:42
  • I think that this should be the accepted answer.
    – MasterAM
    Aug 28, 2016 at 14:14
  • works fine on ubuntu 18.04 + unity
    – Kennet Celeste
    Sep 15, 2018 at 17:12
3

If you're using Budgie or Linux Mint Cinnamon Desktop Environment,
then the default shortcut for moving window into monitor is Shift + Super + Arrow.

Ubuntu Budgie Keyboard Shortcuts

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1

On a fresh install of 20.x.x.x

Windows + Shift + Left

Worked just like it would on a Windows machine.

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  • Yep this works on Ubuntu 20.04!!
    – Abdullah Khan
    May 13, 2022 at 11:53
0

If you use Xfce as your desktop environment in Ubuntu or Linux Mint, you can obtain a script, "move-to-next-monitor" from GitHub:

https://github.com/jc00ke/move-to-next-monitor

There are two dependencies: "xdotool" and "wmctrl".

You can assign any key combination to execute the script. I use the same key combination as the Windows shortcut. I have been using this script for several years on various generations of Ubuntu and Linux Mint with the Xfce desktop.

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