After upgrading the hard drive on my desktop Linux box I decided that I would install the newest version of Linux Mint on it. Although I love Ubuntu I find Mint to be quite refreshing and less time consuming to get all set up, as a result my 3 most used linux boxes are now all running Mint. Despite how well configured Mint is “out of the box” I do find myself tweaking it extensively just as I would any OS. After installing it I promptly moved the main panel to the top and removed the MintMenu, as I am not a fan of it, and decided that this time instead of my usual setup I would try using Docky for Gnome-Do as my application launcher.

I am one of those people who loves a clean desktop, I hate it when files and up scattered upon it and do not like how some icons are “glued” to the desktop by default in every operating system. So when I went to remove these icons from my desktop I found that I couldn’t just delete them as I had expected. I even tried doing it through the terminal, expecting to find symlinks in the ~/Desktop/ directory but it was empty. At that point I figured I’d have to bust out the gconf-editor, having done so in the past to remove the mounted drives from the desktop. It turns out there is a more simple solution in Linux Mint.

After digging around I found the Desktop Configuration Tool. If you are using the MintMenu then you can find it under

• MintMenu
• Preferences
• Desktop Configuration Tool

Once it is loaded you will see that it is a very simple utility, on your first tab all you have to do is uncheck Computer, Home, and Mounted Volumes. From there just click Apply and close the window, and you’re done!

Brad Fettes

A seasoned Senior Solutions Architect with 20 years of experience in technology design and implementation. Renowned for innovative solutions and strategic insights, he excels in driving complex projects to success. Outside work, he is a passionate fisherman and fish keeper, specializing in planted tanks.