This is a thread where we collect small tips and tricks that can improve the Qubes experience for most users. We want to create a one-stop-post where people can quickly find and implement changes to their systems instead of having to search for and visit a hundred different posts.

Feel free to add your tip to this wiki post (anyone can edit this)

The following guidelines are subject to frequent and major changes while we figure out how this might work 1. If your tip cannot be condensed into a few lines, it doesn't belong here   2. If your tip is niche with regard to Qubes users, it doesn't belong here*   3. Follow the established style convention as much as possible   4. Give credit (even to yourself) and add a link where applicable   5. Feel free to add new categories when necessary   6. Discussions regarding specific tips belong in their own thread--unless discussing whether they belong here.

* ^{What's 'niche' is going to spawn a lot of debate and angst, but this constraint is necessary to prevent this post from getting bloated and mostly irrelevant}  

Quality-of-Life Improvements and Minor Optimizations

Storage

• Send files directly to external storage mounted in other qube - [AppVM] Assumes external storage is mounted under /mnt/ext_store/.

>

mv ~/QubesIncoming ~/QubesIncoming_backup
  >ln -s /mnt/ext_store/ ~/QubesIncoming/

Execute the commands above, then use qvm-copy targeting the destination qube @SteveC

WiFi

• Keep WiFi off by default on boot - [TemplateVM] >

  [main]
    >WirelessEnabled=false

  In sys-net's template, create the file /var/lib/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.state containing the code above @Bearillo

• Soft toggle WiFi - [dom0] qvm-run sys-net -- "if nmcli radio wifi | head -c1 | egrep 'e'; then nmcli radio wifi off; else nmcli radio wifi on; fi" (can be mapped to shortcut) @Bearillo

Video playback - Reduce VLC's CPU usage - [AppVM] Under 'Video' in Preferences (Ctrl+P), change 'Output' to 'X11 video output (XCB)' @solene - Reduce mpv's CPU usage (link includes guide for YouTube too) - [TemplateVM] /etc/mpv/mpv.conf file, insert vo=x11 and profile=sw-fast as separate lines @Bearillo

Notifications - Disable notifications per VM - Fedora-XFCE only - [AppVM] Run xfce4-notifyd-config, then xfconf-query -c xfce4-notifyd -p /do-not-disturb --set true @solene