Newbie query for " mouse clicking "

[sam]

Ashim Kapoor wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> 
> I am kinda new to Ubuntu, here is my MOST important query.
> 
> Sometimes, for example, when I minimize a window by clicking on the
> taskbar at the bottom of the screen the mouse clicks a couple of time
> " on its own " and I see windows flashing by. How can I prevent this ?
> 
> Also sometimes I see 2 arrows in the middle of the screen flash by
> when my mouse is on the edge of the screen ? What is that ?
> 
> Lovely people, please explain.
> 
> God bless.
> 
> Ashim. : )
> 
you're seeing the desktop/workspace switching behavior that is enabled
by default (I think when you enable desktop effects, but it maybe just
the default behavior even without desktop effects). Ubuntu (and most
modern desktop linuxes) give you the option to have virtual desktops
allowing for organization and grouping of windows by task. the behavior
you are seeing comes from two actions:
1. scrolling (moving the scroll wheel of the mouse) on any blank space
on the desktop causes the "arrows" to appear which is an indicator that
you are moving to another workspace, another indicator is found in the
workspace switcher (the grey box next to the trash in the lower taskbar)
which will visually indicate which workspace you are in and allows
selection of workspaces. you can also set things up to switch workspaces
while dragging windows to the edge of the screen, and have the mouse
moving to the edge of the screen trigger the workspace to switch.
2. applications "live" on the desktop you open them on (which is why you
see windows flipping when you select a running application from the task
bar, as the virtual desktop is switched to the one containing the
application you want)

to fix/change this behavior you need to install
'compizconfig-settings-manager', which will be found in the
System->Preferences menu. in this you will find many ways to tweak the
behavior of the desktop environment to suit your needs and tastes.
specifically addressing this behavior is the 'Viewport Switcher' plugin
and others listed under the Desktop heading.

To turn off the features simply uncheck the boxes... but all of the
actions can be customized by opening up the configurations and adjusting
things to work how you want them to.

HTH
sam