How do I dim inactive windows
Back in the Unity days, there was a Compiz setting where you could force inactive windows to dim. I frequently work with two monitors and multiple windows open and it regularly happens that I start typing in the wrong window.
I already tried changing the colour of the titlebar, but it doesn't seem to help me much.
Is there a way to dim inactive windows while letting them remain legible?
I'm using Gnome as my Desktop Environment.
21 Answer
So, inspired by the comments, I searched for suitable gnome extensions and found two useful ones:
Shade Inactive Windows and Windows Blur Effects
I settled for the second one since it is more configurable.
However, I quickly realised that, while this is a great help when I'm quickly switching between windows, it is a nuisance at other times. Not wanting to open the extensions app to enable/disable the extension every time, I did some research and found this script which I modified as follows:
#! /usr/bin/env bash
# Copyright (C) 2016
# Alexandru Catalin Petrini <>
# This script is intended to usefully manage gnome-shell extensions,
# in compatible Gnome Shell versions.
# Install this script by running this command:
# $ sudo wget -O /usr/local/bin/gnome-shell-extension-cl && sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/gnome-shell-extension-cl
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
function get_enabled_extensions() { enabled_extensions=( $(gsettings get org.gnome.shell enabled-extensions | \ sed -e 's|^@as ||g' | tr -d "[",",","]","\'") )
}
function print_enabled_extensions(){ get_enabled_extensions for enabled_extension in "${enabled_extensions[@]}" do echo "$enabled_extension" done
}
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
function get_installed_extensions() { global_installed_extensions=( $(find "/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/" \ -maxdepth 1 -type d -name "*@*" -exec \ /usr/bin/basename {} \;) ) local_installed_extensions=( $(find "$HOME/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/" \ -maxdepth 1 -type d -name "*@*" -exec \ /usr/bin/basename {} \;) ) if [ ${#local_installed_extensions[@]} -gt ${#global_installed_extensions[@]} ] then installed_extensions=( ${local_installed_extensions[@]} ) test_extensions=( ${global_installed_extensions[@]} ) else installed_extensions=( ${global_installed_extensions[@]} ) test_extensions=( ${local_installed_extensions[@]} ) fi for test_extension in "${test_extensions[@]}" do test_extension_not_doubled=true for installed_extension in "${installed_extensions[@]}" do if [ "$test_extension" = "$installed_extension" ] then test_extension_not_doubled=false break fi done if [ $test_extension_not_doubled = true ] then test_extension=( $test_extension ) installed_extensions=( "${installed_extensions[@]}" "${test_extension[@]}" ) #echo ${test_extension[@]} fi done echo "${installed_extensions[@]}"
}
function print_installed_extensions() { installed_extensions=( $(get_installed_extensions) ) for installed_extension in "${installed_extensions[@]}" do [ "$(check_extension_is_enabled "$installed_extension")" = true ] && \ status="enabled" || status="disabled"; printf "%-65s - %-10s \n" "$installed_extension" "$status" done
}
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
function check_extension_is_enabled() { extension_to_check=$1 enabled_extensions=( $(gsettings get org.gnome.shell enabled-extensions | \ sed -e 's|^@as ||g' | tr -d "[",",","]","\'") ) for enabled_extension in "${enabled_extensions[@]}" do if [ "$enabled_extension" = "$extension_to_check" ] then echo true return fi done echo false
}
function check_extension_in_all_extensions() { extension_to_check=$1 installed_extensions=( $(get_installed_extensions) ) for installed_extension in "${installed_extensions[@]}" do if [ "$installed_extension" = "$extension_to_check" ] then echo true return fi done echo false
}
function version_greater() { minimal_version=3.18.0 our_version=$(gnome-shell --version | awk '{print $3}') if [ "$(echo "$our_version $minimal_version" | tr " " "\n" | sort -V | head -n 1)" != "$our_version" ] then echo true else echo false fi
}
function disable_extension() { arguments=("$@") unset "arguments[0]" for extension_to_disable in "${arguments[@]}" do if [ "$(check_extension_in_all_extensions "$extension_to_disable")" = false ] then echo "'$extension_to_disable' is not installed." continue fi if [ "$(check_extension_is_enabled "$extension_to_disable")" = false ] then echo "'$extension_to_disable' is already disabled." continue fi if [ "$(version_greater)" = true ] then gnome-shell-extension-tool -d "$extension_to_disable" continue fi enabled_extensions=( $(gsettings get org.gnome.shell enabled-extensions | \ tr -d "[",",","]","\'") ) enabled_extensions_string="" for enabled_extension in "${enabled_extensions[@]}" do if [ "$enabled_extension" != "$extension_to_disable" ] then enabled_extensions_string="$enabled_extensions_string '$enabled_extension', " fi done enabled_extensions_string=${enabled_extensions_string:1:-2} enabled_extensions_string="[ $enabled_extensions_string ]" dbus-launch gsettings set org.gnome.shell enabled-extensions "$enabled_extensions_string" done return
}
function enable_extension() { arguments=("$@") unset "arguments[0]" for extension_to_enable in "${arguments[@]}" do if [ "$(check_extension_in_all_extensions "$extension_to_enable")" = false ] then echo "'$extension_to_enable' is not installed." continue fi if [ "$(check_extension_is_enabled "$extension_to_enable")" = true ] then echo "'$extension_to_enable' is already enabled." continue fi if [ "$(version_greater)" = true ] then gnome-shell-extension-tool -e "$extension_to_enable" continue fi enabled_extensions_string=$(gsettings get org.gnome.shell enabled-extensions | tr -d "]") [ "$enabled_extensions_string" != "@as [" ] && delimiter=, enabled_extensions_string="${enabled_extensions_string}${delimiter} '$extension_to_enable' ]" gsettings set org.gnome.shell enabled-extensions "$enabled_extensions_string" done return
}
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
function disable_all_extensions() { get_enabled_extensions for enabled_extension in "${enabled_extensions[@]}" do # Don't disable user-theme extensions to avoid breaking them if [ "$enabled_extension" != "user-theme" ] && \ [ "$enabled_extension" != "user-themes" ] && \ [ "$enabled_extension" != "" ] then disable_extension "this element will be ignored" "$enabled_extension" else continue fi done
}
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
function toggle_extension() { arguments=("$@") unset "arguments[0]" for extension_to_enable in "${arguments[@]}" do if [ "$(check_extension_in_all_extensions "$extension_to_enable")" = false ] then echo "'$extension_to_enable' is not installed." continue fi if [ "$(check_extension_is_enabled "$extension_to_enable")" = true ] then disable_extension "$@" else enable_extension "$@" fi done return
}
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
function print_help() { printf "
GNOME Shell Extension Control Tool:
usage: gnome-shell-extensions <option> [extension name]
Options -h, --help Display help message. -e, --enable-extension <extension name> Enable extension. -d, --disable-extension <extension name> Disable extension. -da, --disable-all-extensions Disables all extensions. -le, --list-enabled List enabled extensions. -l, --list List all extensions + state info. -s, --status <extension name> Show status of extension. -t, --toggle-extension Toggle extension.
\n"
}
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
case $1 in -h|--help) print_help ;; -e|--enable-extension) enable_extension "$@" ;; -d|--disable-extension) disable_extension "$@" ;; -t|--toggle-extension) toggle_extension "$@" ;; -da|--disable-all-extensions) disable_all_extensions ;; -le|--list-enabled) print_enabled_extensions ;; -l|--list) print_installed_extensions ;; -s|--status) if [ "$(check_extension_is_enabled "$2")" = true ] then echo "enabled" else echo "disabled" fi ;; *) print_help ;;
esacThen, I ran gnome-shell-extension-cl -l to get the list of extensions.
Finally, I added a Keyboard shortcut to run gnome-shell-extension-cl -t . I used Super + Alt + B, but any keyboard combination could do.
