How can I get rid of the nautilus desktop window?

gnome

asked Jun 4 '12

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When using i3 within a GNOME session, starting nautilus (the file manager), nautilus will also start a window containing the desktop icons. This window is just a normal, managed window in i3.

To disable the nautilus desktop window, use:

$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons false

On older systems, you can try:

gconftool-2 \                                                                   
--type bool \             
--set /apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktop false

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hasn't fixed it for me :-(

Kretortex (Apr 9 '13)edit

@Michael Wouldn't your answer be more clear if it was an actual accepted answer ? Nevertheless, thanks for the tip! It worked for me.

Yannick (Oct 4 '13)edit

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answered Jun 4 '12

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Starting nautilus with --no-desktop also does the trick but this is not the permanent solution.

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answered Sep 24 '14

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This has stopped working on Ubuntu 14.04.

[UPDATED] Muhuahha, of course, after a couple of months suffering this, as soon as I post a question in a public forum, I find the answer myself. The problem is the new Ubuntu includes a fork of Nautilus called Nemo (just found out) and the config for nemo is different.

$ gsettings set org.nemo.desktop show-desktop-icons false

will do the trick.

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answered Jun 6 '12

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I also found that very annoying, and to type every time (from terminal) "nautilus --no-desktop" is a pain. Some things you can do about it (if you want to keep using nautilus):

(a) create a bash alias:

# add this to your ~/.bash_aliases file
alias N='nautilus --no-desktop&'

This works, but still you would need a terminal to execute this (and all nautilus output dirts your terminal). So, what I do it:

(b) create a bash script and place it in your $PATH:

create the file, let's say: nautilus2 or n2autilus in /usr/local/bin:

#!/bin/bash
nautilus --no-desktop

I like the n2autilus, because it is quick to access through the dmenu_run ($mod+d, then type n2, enter, and you are done).

Comments

Doesn’t the permanent solution I posted work?

Michael (Jun 6 '12)edit

Sorry Michael, it actually worked! Don't know why (maybe I did something wrong last time), but it did not work for me before. I think I only used gconftool instead of gsettings (the latter is the one that worked for me). Thanks for correcting it!

bruno.braga (Jun 6 '12)edit

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answered Jun 4 '12

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I guess this is more a comment than an answer, but I can't find a comment box..

My question: Is this somehow applicable to XFCE and their desktop window?

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There is a "post a comment" link on the bottom of each question/answer. Also, can you elaborate on when XFCE opens its desktop window? When i start thunar (the file manager), I only get a thunar window.

Michael (Jun 4 '12)edit

There is a "post a comment" link on the bottom of each question/answer.

Michael (Jun 4 '12)edit

Hm, when I'm logged out I see the comment link, but not if I'm logged in :/

kenda (Jun 4 '12)edit

The desktop window appears because I start a full "xfce4-session" from i3.

kenda (Jun 4 '12)edit

Thanks for the hint, I lowered the karma requirements for commenting.

Michael (Jun 4 '12)edit

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How can I get rid of the nautilus desktop window?

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