---
title: "Desktop"
description: "A short guide to the Federated CoreDesktop desktop: launching apps, moving windows with Tiling Shell, editing layouts, workspaces, notifications, screenshots and screen recordings."
sections:
- type: hero
compact: true
eyebrow: "GNOME · Tiling Shell"
title: "Find your way around the desktop."
subhead: "CoreDesktop is GNOME with the Tiling Shell extension. A few keys get you most of the way: Super to find things, Super and the arrows to move windows, Print Screen to capture the screen."
tiles: ["Launch", "Tile", "Capture"]
- type: text
id: launching
kicker: "Launching apps"
headline: "Press Super and type."
body: |
Super is the Windows key, or ⌘ on a Mac keyboard. Press it to open the overview, start typing an app's name, and press Enter. The same search finds files, settings and calculations.
- Super+A opens the app grid, with every app installed.
- The dock at the bottom of the overview holds your favorite apps. Right-click an app there or in the app grid and choose **Pin to Dash** to add it.
- Alt+Tab or Super+Tab switches between open apps.
- Alt+F2 runs a command without opening a terminal.
To see everything CoreDesktop installs, browse the [software catalog](/software/).
- type: text
id: windows
kicker: "Moving windows"
headline: "Windows go into tiles."
body: |
Tiling Shell divides each screen into tiles. CoreDesktop starts you with three columns. A new window goes into an empty tile by itself, so you rarely need to drag or resize anything.
From the keyboard, select a window and hold Super:
- ← and → move it to the next tile. At the edge of the screen, they move it to the next monitor, if there is one.
- ↑ maximizes it, from a tile in the top row. If the layout has a tile above, it moves the window there instead.
- ↓ puts a maximized window back in a tile.
With the mouse, drag a window by its title bar:
- Hold Ctrl while you drag, and the tiles appear. Drop the window on one.
- Hold Ctrl and Alt to stretch it across more than one tile.
- Or drag the window to the top of the screen. A strip of layouts opens, and you drop the window into a tile of any of them.
Drag the window away from its tile to free it. It goes back to the size it had before.
- type: text
id: layouts
kicker: "Layouts"
headline: "Change the tiles to suit the screen."
body: |
Click the Tiling Shell icon in the top right of the top bar to choose a layout for the current workspace. CoreDesktop comes with three columns, two columns and a single full-screen tile. Each workspace keeps its own layout, so one can have three columns for code and another a single tile for a video call.
To change a layout or make your own:
1. Click the Tiling Shell icon, then **Edit Layouts** (or **New Layout**).
2. Choose the layout to change, then **Start editing**.
3. Click inside a tile to split it in two side by side, where the line shows. Ctrl+click to split it top and bottom. Right-click a tile to delete it. Drag the line between two tiles to resize them.
4. Click the Tiling Shell icon again and choose **Save**, or **Cancel** to leave the layout as it was.
Ultrawide monitors are where this shines: try four narrow columns, or a wide middle tile with a narrow one on each side.
- type: text
id: workspaces
kicker: "Workspaces"
headline: "More room than one screen."
body: |
Workspaces are screens side by side, each with its own windows and layout. There's always an empty one at the end; put a window on it and another empty one appears.
From the keyboard:
- Super+Page Up or Page Down switches to the workspace to the left or right. Ctrl+Alt+← or → does the same.
- Add Shift to take the selected window with you: Super+Shift+Page Up or Page Down.
With the mouse:
- Click the dots in the top left of the top bar, or press Super, to open the overview. It shows your workspaces side by side; click one to go there, or scroll to move between them.
- In the overview, drag a window onto another workspace to move it there.
- On a touchpad, swipe left or right with three fingers to switch, and up to open the overview.
- type: text
id: notifications
kicker: "Notifications"
headline: "Everything that wanted your attention."
body: |
Notifications appear at the top of the screen for a moment. Click one to open what it's about.
To see the ones you missed, click the clock in the middle of the top bar, or press Super+V. That opens the calendar and the list of notifications. **Clear** removes them, and the **Do Not Disturb** switch holds new ones back until you turn it off. They still go into the list.
CoreDesktop uses notifications too. If a daily [backup](/utilities/#backups) fails, you'll hear about it here.
The menu in the top right, which you can also open with Super+S, has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, sound, power and dark mode.
- type: text
id: screenshots
kicker: "Screenshots and recordings"
headline: "Capture the screen, or a video of it."
body: |
Press Print (PrtSc on many keyboards) to open GNOME's screenshot tool. Choose an area, a window or the whole screen, then press Enter or click the round button. To record a video instead, switch the tool from the camera to the video icon first, and stop the recording with the red button in the top bar.
- Print opens the screenshot tool.
- Shift+Print takes a screenshot of the whole screen.
- Alt+Print takes a screenshot of the selected window.
- Ctrl+Shift+Alt+R opens the tool ready to record.
Screenshots go to `~/Pictures/Screenshots` and are copied to the clipboard, so you can paste one straight into a chat. Recordings go to `~/Videos/Screencasts`.
To point at something with arrows, boxes or text, or to blur a password before you share, use [Flameshot](/software/flameshot/): open it from the app grid, or run `flameshot gui`. For recordings with your camera, several sources or live streaming, there's [OBS Studio](/software/obs-studio/).
- type: table
id: shortcuts
kicker: "Cheat sheet"
headline: "The shortcuts worth learning."
lede: "For the rest, open **Settings › Keyboard › View and Customize Shortcuts**, where you can change them too."
headers: ["Keys", "What it does"]
rows:
- ["Super", "Opens the overview, to search for an app or file"]
- ["Super+A", "Opens the app grid"]
- ["Alt+Tab", "Switches between apps"]
- ["Super+← →", "Moves the window to the next tile, or the next monitor"]
- ["Super+↑ ↓", "Maximizes the window, or puts it back in a tile"]
- ["Ctrl while dragging", "Shows the tiles to drop a window into"]
- ["Super+Page Up Page Down", "Switches workspace"]
- ["Super+Shift+Page Up Page Down", "Moves the window to the next workspace"]
- ["Super+V", "Shows notifications and the calendar"]
- ["Super+S", "Opens the system menu: network, sound, power"]
- ["Print", "Takes a screenshot or a recording"]
- ["Alt+F4", "Closes the window"]
- ["Super+L", "Locks the screen"]
- type: final-cta
headline: "Now make it yours."
body: "See what CoreDesktop sets up under the hood, or browse the software it installs."
ctas:
- label: "What's set up"
url: "/system/"
- label: "Browse the software"
url: "/software/"
---