Here are some tweaks I used on Ubuntu 12.04. Most of them had been gathered from the net. Many thanks to the dedicated Linux users who posted them.
1. Become a sudoer (access to files with super-user permission)
Careful with this priviledge; wrong usage can stuff things up.
If you are not already a sudoer then add your name to sudoers. In a terminal issue: gksu nautilus > give your password In the file-browser navigate to /etc/sudoers which is a read-only text file Right click > Properties > Permissions > Owner: root Temporarily change Access to: Read and write Open the file and below:
root ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
type the following:
yourname ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
Save changes, close and change Access back to Read only.