Set Linux Mint’s MintMenu to always start in Favorites mode
Linux Mint is a great Linux distro. What I particularly like is the their Start Menu/MintMenu (or whatever you would like to call it). However, there is one quirk that I never did understand: By default, the MintMenu will open up to the last state it was in. For example, if you searched for “preferences”, then close the menu; the next time the menu opens, it will automatically show the search results for “preferences”. I find this behavior to be particularly odd, and doesn’t make sense in my opinion. Indeed, if I just opened an application, why would I want to see the search results for the application I just opened? It makes much more sense for the menu to start at its beginning position: the Favorites menu.
The Remedy:
Luckily in Linux Mint 9, this can be changed. You can now set (among other things) the default behavior of the MintMenu to always launch the Favorites list. Although this feature is available, there isn’t much documentation on how to actually set it. Simply searching for “Menu” or “Preferences” in the MintMenu search bar does not yield the necessary results to alter this configuration. Thus, I felt so inclined to document how to do this.
Follow the instructions below to set the default settings for the Linux Mint MintMenu:
- Right-click on the MinutMenu and select “Preferences”:
- In the Preferences window, select the “Options” tab, and click “Always start with favorites pane”.
- Close the preferences window and you are all set!
Disable Mobile Google Saved Searches
I love my Motorola Droid (and Google Android), but I kept having a small issue: All my Google Searches were saved. That is, every time I went to perform a Google Search, the Google suggestions would show my previous search queries. I personally dislike this behavior, since it consumes screen real estate from the search suggestions. (I even disable the “remember form data” feature on my PC’s browser.)
Here is a picture of the problem:
If you click on the “Clear History” link, you get this pop-up:
The pop-up states: “Go to Preferences for more options.” For the longest time, I kept thinking it was a browser setting (even though the “Remember form data” option is disabled). But then it occurred to me: It’s a not a browser setting, it’s a website setting. Indeed, Google’s mobile search site has an option for saving mobile search history.
How to fix it?
Perform a Google search, and navigate to the bottom of the page. Click the “Preferences” link:
On the Preferences page, select the “Do not save searches” button, and then click “Save”:
And that’s all there is to it!