4.6. Removing Desktop Icons

To remove one or more of the default icons from the desktop, unset the appropriate key

/apps/nautilus/desktop/*_icon_visible

as shown in Figure 4-8.

Figure 4-8. Removing the Computer Desktop Icon

To prevent the appearance of icons representing mounted media such as cdroms, unset the following key

/apps/nautilus/desktop/volumes_visible    

as shown in Figure 4-9.

Figure 4-9. Removing Desktop Volumes Icons

To eliminate all icons from the desktop, unset the following key

/apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktop    

as shown in Figure 4-10.

Figure 4-10. Removing All Desktop Icons

NoteNote
 

Unsetting this key also removes the desktop background menu, thereby eliminating access to the Open Terminal menu item. This is a recommended step for disabling command line access as described in Section 4.4 Disabling Command Line Access.