Upon installing the new Ubuntu 12.04 release I noticed terrible inconsistencies in window management. E.g. to snap window to left half (or right half for that matter) the default hotkey is Ctrl+Alt+Left, however snapping window to the upper half is Ctrl+Alt+Kp8 (Keypad 8). Let’s fix that.

If you don’t have Compiz Settings Manager installed (it is not installed by default), type this command into Terminal to install it:

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Once installed, launch the Compiz Settings Manager. Under “Window Management” click “Grid”, then select “Bindings” tab. Now you can set up your own Window Management hotkeys by clicking on each already defined binding and modifying it to your own desire. If you have a keypad, I suggest you to use these key bindings:

  • Put Center: <Control><Alt>KP5
  • Put Left: <Control><Alt>KP4
  • Put Right: <Control><Alt>KP6
  • Put Top: <Control><Alt>KP8
  • Put Bottom: <Control><Alt>KP2
  • Put Top Left: <Control><Alt>KP7
  • Put Top Right: <Control><Alt>KP9
  • Put Bottom Left: <Control><Alt>KP1
  • Put Bottom Right: <Control><Alt>KP3
  • Maximize: <Control><Alt>KP0

If I remember this correctly, these key bindings were default on Ubuntu 11.10