Custom Toolbox is a utility used for building custom launchers (toolboxes) by editing a simple text file with the .list extension.
The default location of the .list files is /etc/custom-toolbox, but the files can be placed in any folder. You can build multiple launchers using different .list files.
.list fileYou can find examples in /etc/custom-toolbox. The application supports two formats: Custom (Key=Value) and INI.
# Comments that start with # are ignored Name=Name of the Launcher Comment=This is a comment/description Category=Name of the category app1 app2 root app3 terminal alias="My App" Category=Second category app4 user
Keywords like root, user, terminal, and alias="..." can follow the application name.
The program automatically detects this format if a [Categories] section is present. Comments use ; (the standard INI comment marker).
[General] Name=Name of the Launcher Comment=This is a comment IconTheme=Adwaita [Categories] ; List categories to define their order list=First Category, Second Category [First Category] items=app1, app2:root, app3:terminal:alias="My App" [Second Category] items=app4:user
In the INI format, flags are separated by colons (:). Localization is supported using brackets, e.g., Name[fr]=Nom.
Only applications that have a corresponding .desktop file appear in the custom launcher.
You can launch the app directly with the command custom-toolbox filename.list, or browse to the .list file from the application.
If you select the Show this dialog at startup checkbox, the application places a .desktop file in ~/.config/autostart using the name from the Name= field in the .list file.
You can also copy that .desktop file to /usr/share/applications if you want to place it in your menu.
In Xfce, run xfce4-panel -r as the normal user to refresh the panel after menu changes.