This is a thread where we collect short 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)

Guidelines These are subject to frequent and major changes while we figure out how this might work 1. Brevity is key--post as few words as possible 2. If your tip cannot be condensed into a few lines, it doesn't belong here 3. If your tip is niche with regard to Qubes users, it doesn't belong here* 4. Follow the established style convention 5. Feel free to add new categories when necessary 6. Give credit (even to yourself) and link to the original If your tip doesn't have its own post/page, post it here in a reply so you have a link. This is for consistency and also so we can neatly split the thread if needed 7. Discussions regarding specific tips belong in their own threads if available

* ^{^{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}}

Quick Quality-of-Life Improvements

Input Devices

Prevent loss of control from sys-usb shutdown - [dom0] crontab -e, then enter * * * * * qvm-start --skip-if-running sys-usb > /dev/null 2>&1 and save @SteveC
Create a toggle to hide the cursor - [dom0] Install unclutter, run the code below (expandable), then create a keyboard shortcut pointing to toggle-unclutter.sh @ludovic vecna13 from the 2676 issue

[details="Hide cursor (dom0)"]

mkdir $HOME/bin
cat &lt;&lt; 'EOF' | tee $HOME/bin/toggle-unclutter.sh

#! /bin/sh
if pgrep unclutter &amp;&gt; /dev/null 2&gt;&amp;1
then
   killall unclutter
else
   unclutter -idle 1 &amp;
fi
EOF

chmod +x $HOME/bin/toggle-unclutter.sh

[/details]

Storage - Send files directly to external storage mounted in other qube - [AppVM] Run the code below (expandable), then copy/move your file(s) @SteveC

[details="In destination qube:"]

mkdir -p ~/QubesIncoming/[ORIGIN QUBE]
mv ~/QubesIncoming ~/QubesIncoming_backup

ln -s [MOUNT POINT] ~/QubesIncoming/[ORIGIN QUBE]

[/details]

WiFi

Keep WiFi off by default on boot - [TemplateVM] In sys-net's template, create /var/lib/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.state containing the code below (expandable) @Bearillo [details="NetworkManager.state"]
```
[main]
WirelessEnabled=false
```
[/details]
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] In /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