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Hide the Desktop icons in Gnome for a clutter free Ubuntu

November 25th, 2008 · 5 Comments · Linux, Ubuntu

Quick tip … want to hide all the icons cluttering up your Gnome Desktop ?

Run gconf-editor (Alt-F2, type gconf-editor, Press “Run”) and navigate the tree to find /apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktop. Set the value to false (uncheck the checkbox), and your Desktop icons should disappear.

You can still access any files on the Desktop using the file manager (eg, under the “Places” menu), but they will no longer obscure the view of your snazzy desktop background.

(Via Tombuntu’s Ubuntu “Intrepid Ibex” 8.10 upgrade notes)

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5 Comments so far ↓

  • Danny Tatom

    Much appreciated. :)

    Also, for anyone wanting to hide just volumes/partitions navigate to:

    apps > nautilus > desktop
    and uncheck “Volumes Visible”

  • perry

    Hey, great tip Danny, thanks !

  • DanielFL

    I think it’s hard usability problem, there’s no other way to hide the icons?

    Holy shit!

    Daniel

  • Nykeej

    Use UbuntuTweak

  • perry

    Hey, thanks for the tip Nykeej. I wasn’t familiar with Ubuntu Tweak ( http://ubuntu-tweak.com/ ), but it looks great tool for power users … exposes lots of little options that are otherwise buried, and some nice package management stuff. It pretty much deserves a dedicated post on this otherwise quiet blog …

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