# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Operating System specific notes

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This tutorial covers user-interface issues that are specific to
particular operating systems or window managers. Read the section that
applies to your computer; you may skip the rest.

## GNU/Linux

is used for changing the angular view on two angular axes of the 3D View
window, if  moves the current
window, then there\'s a conflict with your window manager. You can
resolve the conflict or use  or
 instead. (Also, you may have activated
Compiz-\>Rotate Cube. Default configuration for rotating the Cube is
also ; you may have to change
this binding to an alternative configuration.) If you are running KDE
this can be resolved by:  on the title
bar of the main Blender window → select *Configure Window Behavior* → go
to *Actions → Window Actions* → in the *Inner Window, Titlebar and
Frame* section → select the Modifier key to be
 and set all the select boxes beneath it
to *Nothing*. An alternate method within KDE might be to
 click on the title bar of the main
Blender window; then select *Advanced* → *Special Application
Settings\...* → *Workarounds* and then click *Block global shortcuts*
with *Force* selected and checked.

In Gnome, Click *System → Preferences → Window Preferences*. Look for
the last three options *Control*, *Alt* and *Super*. Select *Super*. Or
in Xfce, click *Whisker → Settings → Window Manager Tweaks*, and in the
*Accessibility* pane, change *Key used to grab and move windows* to
*Super*. Now you can press and hold  or
 to drag windows around, and use
 and 
as normal.

### KDE

Under KDE,  through
 are by default configured to switch
to the corresponding one of the first four desktops, while
 brings up Plasma settings. You can
change these in System Settings.

Alternatively you can suppress global shortcuts while inside blender by
adjusting the kwin rules for this application, which you can access with
a  click on the title bar of the window
and pressing more actions-\>add program rule.

### Gnome

You\'ll want to disable the *Find Pointer* functionality in Gnome, which
will impair your ability to use certain functions such as *Snap to grid*
and the lasso tool. If your mouse pointer is being highlighted when you
press and release , go to: *Mouse* in
Gnome\'s *Desktop Settings* and uncheck the box *Find Pointer*.

### Ubuntu

As of Ubuntu versions prior to about 09.10 ("Karmic Koala"), there was a
known incompatibility between Blender and the Compiz Fusion accelerated
(OpenGL) window manager used in Ubuntu. By default, Compiz Fusion is
enabled in Ubuntu, causing the problems to manifest themselves in
Blender as flickering windows, completely disappearing windows,
inconsistent window refreshes, and/or an inability to start Blender in
windowed mode.

The fix for this is simple. Install compiz-switch (might be in
universe). Go to *Applications → Accessories → Compiz-Switch*. This will
disable compiz temporarily. Do the same to turn compiz back on when
you\'re done using Blender.

This is no longer needed for current releases of Ubuntu.

## Mac OS X

You may need to press  in order to use
the  through
 keys.

To expand a section in Blender, you would usually press
. On a Mac, if "Spaces" is
enabled, you may have to use
.

## Microsoft Windows

### Two Ways to Launch Blender

Blender requires a console for displaying error messages, so if you
launch Blender by means of an icon, two windows will appear: the
graphical user interface plus a console window. Closing either window
will terminate Blender. These windows are indistinguishable in the
Windows taskbar in versions of Windows before Windows
7, which leads to confusion. Also, launching
this way does not provide any way to pass command-line arguments to
Blender.

Launching Blender from a command prompt is extra work, but it overcomes
these issues:

1.  *Start → Run\...*
2.  enter `cmd`
3.  enter `cd c:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender`
4.  enter `blender`

Blender version 2.6 onwards doesn\'t have this problem, and hides the
console window by default. You can show it by clicking Window \> Toggle
system console

### Sticky Keys

Pressing  five times in a row may
activate , an accessibility
option which alters how the computer recognizes commands. If a
StickyKeys dialog box appears, you should
 the \"Cancel\" button.

If you don\'t need the accessibility features, you can disable sticky
keys:

1.  *Start → Control Panel* (**OR** search for \"Accessibility Options\"
    on the Start menu/Search)

2.  double-click on *Accessibility Options (Ease of Access Center in
    Windows 10)*

3.      the *Keyboard* tab

4.  for each of the options *StickyKeys*, *FilterKeys*, and
    *ToggleKeys*:
    1.  clear the *Use ...* checkbox

    2.          the *Settings* button

    3.  uncheck the *Use Shortcut* checkbox in the settings

    4.          the *OK* button for the settings

5.      the *OK* button for *Accessibility Options/Ease of Access Center.*

### Multiple Keyboard Layouts

On systems with multiple keyboard layouts, pressing
 can alter the layout. (For
instance, it might change from QWERTY to AZERTY or vice versa.) Because
of this issue, *Noob to Pro* avoids
 hotkeys.

If you find your keyboard layout altered, press
 again to change it back.

You can also disable the hotkey:

1.  *Start → Control Panel*

2.  double-click on *Regional and Language Options*

3.      the *Languages* tab

4.      the *Details* button

5.      the *Key Settings* button

6.      the *Change Key Sequence* button

7.  uncheck the *Switch Keyboard Layout* checkbox

8.      the *OK* button

### Additional Resources

-   Input method editor keyboard shortcut (CTRL+SHIFT+0) switches the
    input language in Vista ---
    Microsoft Support Knowledge-Base

-   
