How To Add Tor Browser to Your Menu/Launcher for Easy Access

The Tor Browser is a powerful tool for protecting your privacy online. It can be a bit inconvenient to launch, however, especially if you have to navigate through your file system to find it each time. This article will guide you through the process of adding Tor Browser to your menu or launcher for easy access.

Downloading and Installing Tor Browser

Before we begin, you need to have Tor Browser installed on your system. If you haven’t done this yet, you can download it from the official Tor Project website. Once downloaded, extract the contents of the archive to a directory of your choice.

Registering Tor Browser as an Application

The first method to add Tor Browser to your menu/launcher involves registering it as an application. Here’s how to do it:

1. Open your terminal. You can do this by searching for “terminal” in your menu or launcher, or by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+T.
2. Navigate to the directory where Tor Browser is installed. You can do this with the cd command, which stands for “change directory”. For example, if you installed Tor Browser in your Downloads directory, you would type cd ~/Downloads/tor-browser_en-US/.
3. Run the following command to register Tor Browser as an application:

./start-tor-browser.desktop --register-app

The ./ before the command indicates that the command should be run in the current directory. The --register-app option tells the script to create a desktop entry for Tor Browser.

After running this command, Tor Browser should appear in your applications menu or launcher.

Manually Creating a Desktop Entry

If the above method doesn’t work for some reason, or if you prefer to do things manually, you can create a desktop entry for Tor Browser yourself. Here’s how:

1. Open your text editor. This could be any text editor, such as Gedit, Nano, or Vim.
2. Create a new file and paste the following contents into it:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Tor Browser
Comment=Launches Tor Browser
Exec=/path/to/tor-browser/start-tor-browser
Icon=/path/to/tor-browser/browser/chrome/icons/default/default48.png
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Network;WebBrowser;

Replace /path/to/tor-browser with the actual path to your Tor Browser installation directory.

3. Save the file with a .desktop extension, for example, tor-browser.desktop.
4. Move the desktop entry file to the appropriate location. If you’re using GNOME, move it to ~/.local/share/applications. If you’re using Unity, move it to /usr/share/applications.

You can move the file with the mv command, which stands for “move”. For example, if you saved the file in your home directory and you’re using GNOME, you would type mv ~/tor-browser.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/.

After following these steps, Tor Browser should appear in your applications menu or launcher.

Conclusion

Adding Tor Browser to your menu or launcher makes it much easier to launch, saving you time and effort. Whether you choose to register it as an application or create a desktop entry manually, the process is straightforward and doesn’t take long. With Tor Browser readily accessible, you’ll be better equipped to protect your privacy online.