How Do I Use the Gconf Editor?
I See Some Answers Where People Post to Set a Key in the Gconf-Editor, However There Is No Entry for Gconf-Editor in My Menu. How Do I Run It and How Do I Use...
I see some answers where people post to set a key in the gconf-editor, however there is no entry for gconf-editor in my menu.
How do I run it and how do I use it to set keys that people recommend?
2 Answers
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What is Gconf?
GConf is a system for storing application preferences. These preferences are stored in XML files under the user's home directory, ~/.gconf. Each preference is represented as a key-value pair.
GConf is meant to be a way for developers to easily store user preferences and system administrators to set default values for particular preferences. In most cases, there is no need for a user to edit Gconf keys directly.
The vast majority of keys correspond to entries in the various applications' preference menus. Though on occasion, developers will use Gconf keys as a way to enable undocumented features. These are "hidden" from users for a number of reasons. Sometimes the feature is still a work in progress. Other times it is a feature that the developer wants to do away with but still leave accessible to users that don't want to give it up. Frequently, the features are targeted at "power users," and the developer simply doesn't want to clutter up the normal preference dialog.
In some ways it is similar to Windows' Registry. One major difference is that, unlike the Windows' Registry, Gconf does not store system settings. It only stores application preferences. While editing Gconf keys may potentially cause minor issues with specific programs, it should never lead to system wide issues such as rendering your system unbootable. In fact, deleting the entire ~/.gconf directory will simply revert all programs using Gconf back to their defaults.
Robert Thorne covers electric vehicle innovations, autonomous driving systems, global mobility trends, and automotive engineering developments.
