How to Remove All Desktop Icons

In Ubuntu 19.04, how can I make it to where the desktop doesn't try to mirror the desktop folder? I don't want to see any icons on my desktop.

I'm not sure how this is suppose to be by default, but my desktop shows a trash bin, a folder with my user name, and a file I put into /home/username/Desktop. Instead I would like it to show nothing.

I have nemo installed, and I can't tell whether nemo or nautilus is responsible for this, but I'm unable to find settings in either that would remove all desktop icons.

3 Answers

This method worked for me:

sudo dpkg -r --force-depends gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons

This will force removal extension, but updating the system will reinstall it and you will have to remove it again. Holding it with sudo apt-mark hold gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons seems to prevent updates from installing.

Either go to here to turn off the Desktop Icons GNOME Shell extension, or use the Tweaks application to do the same thing.

Click on the gear (settings) icon to change the settings for select desktop icons.

This worked for me by Patrick Dark

To remove the home icon and trash icon execute these two commands in a terminal:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.desktop-icons show-home false
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.desktop-icons show-trash false

That's all.

I hope this helps