If you’re familiar with macOS, then you’ll probably tend to agree that “hot corners” are a valuable productivity tool, as it allows you to instantly trigger several system actions with nothing more than a flick of the mouse in one of the four corners of the screen.
Custom Hot Corners – Extended is a GNOME Shell extension that aims to bring the popular feature to Ubuntu (or any Linux distro running GNOME). It allows you to assign a specific action to a corner of the screen, and activate/trigger it by simply flicking the cursor to its apex.
A simple “hot corner” extension with a twist
Even though the extension draws its inspiration from macOS’ tool, it builds on top of the classic recipe by adding a few extra features. For example, the extension also allows you to set various keyboard shortcuts for a wide range of built-in system actions.
Better yet, you are also provided with the option of mapping GNOME Shell environment actions that rely on both mouse pointer position, clicks, scrolls, and keyboard shortcuts, making it a surprisingly versatile tool.
Some examples of various available actions are a series of visual adjustments (such as tweaking the contrast, brightness, and opacity of GUI elements), adding correction filters for colorblind users, and cb simulation filters for advanced users (or developers).
Last but not least, the extension allows you to create 4 custom menus with your own selection of actions, and use them as a single action.
Verdict
Custom Hot Corners – Extended is without a doubt one of the best productivity extensions out there.
It can be configured for two separate monitors/displays, it allows you to trigger a wide range of actions via mouse gestures as well as with the help of the keyboard (and a combination of the two), and it’s overall a very nice, well-thought little tool that’s definitely worth having around.
