For anyone running Ubuntu 10.04 the new default positioning of the minimize, maximize and close buttons can be quite annoying.
Previously I have been using `gconf-editor` to edit the settings manually whenever I change themes. But here are two quicker ways.

First of all you can just use `gconf-editor` running it from terminal and specifying the parameter of the key you want to edit. The GUI will then launch with the value you want to edit already selected.

gconf-editor /apps/metacity/general/button_layout

Now Double click on `button_layout`, change it to read ‘:minimize,maximize,close’, click ok and the change should take effect.

The second way is to use the `gconftool` which allows you to directly edit gconf repository values without using a GUI.

In a terminal session run

gconftool -g /apps/metacity/general/button_layout

It will return what the current button layout is set to. Which should read

close,minimize,maximize:

To edit this just do

gconftool -s /apps/metacity/general/button_layout -t string :minimize,maximize,close

Your button layout should now be correct.