Help Desk Geek – Help Desk Tips For IT Pros

In a recent article, we discussed a number of different GNOME Shell extensions that made life better for the user by adding new features to GNOME Shell (or tweaking existing features to make them more useful).  In this article, we’ll highlight a handful of GNOME Shell extensions that don’t add features; in some cases, the extensions actually remove them!

This, in our minds, is a good thing.  Without extensions, GNOME Shell isn’t exactly customizable.  In fact, it’s pretty locked down.  With extensions, on the other hand, practically every default interface can be modified, if not removed entirely.  The extensions in this article take what we feel are some unnecessary or occasionally intrusive elements of GNOME Shell, and either change them or remove them entirely.

The first annoyance we discovered upon first booting up GNOME Shell was the clock.  For years, the clock (whether in Linux, Mac OS X or Windows), as been in a corner.  In Linux and Mac OS X it was the upper-right corner, while Windows used the lower-right corner.  Suddenly, in GNOME Shell, the clock is in the middle of the panel, just sitting there, isolated, away from any other menus or icons.

Thanks to the Frippery Move Clock extension (which you can grab from here), you can put the clock back where it “belongs,” in the upper-right corner.

The only thing the extension does it move the clock, but in our mind it’s worth it.  Sure, we’d eventually get used to looking in the middle of the panel for our clock, but that’s behavior we’d rather not have to learn, and thanks to this extension, we don’t have to!

In GNOME Shell, when you hit the Windows key, up pops the search interface, as well as a Dock, called the Dash.  It’s nice; it lets you place your commonly-used programs in it, so you don’t have to search.  The “problem” with it, when compared to typical docks, such as Docky or even Ubuntu’s Unity Launcher, is that it isn’t always visible.  Thanks to an extension we discussed in our previous article, called Favorites Menu, we can have the contents of the Dash in a handy menu right on the panel.  That means we don’t need the Dash, and thanks to Hide Dash (located here), we can get rid of it.

This means that instead of using some screen real estate for the Dash, like this:

With Hide Dash, we don’t see it anymore.

One other feature you might not really appreciate is that your username is always listed at the top of the Status Menu.

Chances are you logged into the computer yourself, so are aware of what user (namely: you), is logged in.  With the Remove User Name extension, which can be installed via this page, you can get rid of the name, while keeping the menu.

Our next extension gets rid of one of the most useless interface elements GNOME Shell offers: the Panel App Menu.  If you’re running a program (we’re using GNOME Tweak Tool, which is identified as Advanced Settings, in the following screenshot), you’ll notice a menu in the panel.

Clicking the menu, however, always gives you but a single option, to quit the program.  That’s not very useful.  Thanks to the Remove Panel App Menu extension, however (which can be grabbed from this page), you can get rid of it entirely.

We’ve mentioned the Dash and search interface, which can be accessed by clicking the Windows key; it can also be accessed by moving the mouse into the upper-left corner of the screen.

That’s fine, except some users have chosen to have their close, maximize and minimize buttons on the left side of the window, which means they might accidentally open the Dash interface, when trying to close a window.  Not cool!

Thanks to the No Topleft Hot Corner extension (installable from here), that’s no longer an issue.  Simply install the extension, and then you can put the mouse cursor in that corner all you want, the Dash will never make an appearance.

The only thing to consider regarding this extension is that it doesn’t always work.  If you’ve installed the Frippery Applications Menu, which we discussed in our previous article, you’ll find that the No Topleft Hot Corner extension doesn’t work.  In this case, you either get the Applications menu with the hot corner, or the standard Activities entry, with no hot corner (as shown above).  It’s not that bad of a deal, but it is something to consider if you have that extension installed already.

And if you do have a ton of extensions installed, it’s definitely recommended to install GNOME Tweak Tool, which will allow you to keep all of your extensions installed, even if you occasionally turn a few of them off.

As mentioned, none of these extensions really “adds” anything to GNOME Shell, except by way of addition through subtraction.  Still, being able to get rid of certain features is no mean feat, but thanks to these helpful extensions, it couldn’t be simpler.