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I want to know if there is a way to remove application launchers in GNOME's activities menu:

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I also want to know If I can make folders (or groups) like the existing utilities folder in the picture:

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After I install applications they always install other dependencies which I don't want to browse through every time I am searching for an application.

In Openbox this was exeptionally well done using ~/.config/openbox/menu.xml where I specified exact file / folder structure which benefited my productivity.

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    Please post the second part (i.e. folders in Activities) as a separate question if possible because it sounds like a separate issue. Ping me if you do so.
    – pomsky
    Nov 12, 2017 at 16:58

5 Answers 5

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App launchers shown in GNOME Activities are located either in /usr/share/applications/ or ~/.local/share/applications/ as .desktop files.

You can hide an individual app launcher from Activities by adding an extra NoDisplay=true line to the corresponding .desktop file.

It is generally not advisable to edit the .desktop file located in /usr/share/applications/. Instead copy the file to ~/.local/share/applications/ first and make the change to the copied file.

If you can't find the right .desktop file in any of the two locations mentioned above, try /usr/local/share/applications too.

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  • Is it possible to screw anything if I just delete everything from there and manually ad them myself? Also is it possible that they get overwritten on system upgrades?
    – 71GA
    Nov 12, 2017 at 17:31
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    Theoretically it shouldn't cause any issue with the app itself. But as you have suspected, an application update will create/overwrite the .desktop file(s).
    – pomsky
    Nov 12, 2017 at 17:35
  • Probably .desktop files in .local/share/applications won't get overwritten on upgrade while the ones in /usr/share/applications will.
    – 71GA
    Nov 12, 2017 at 17:39
  • @71GA Yes, that's why it's advisable to create a local copy first and make the changes there.
    – pomsky
    Nov 12, 2017 at 17:40
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    A minimalist solution would be creating a same-name .desktop file at ~/local/share/applications/ with only the "NoDisplay=true" line. I create this file and create several symlinks to mask the apps that I don't use.
    – wuxb
    Mar 19, 2019 at 2:29
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In my case, the application's identity was in ~/.local/share/applications but it was obfuscated through a name like

chrome-hmbjbjdpkobdjplfobhljndfdfdipjhg-Default.desktop

making it difficult to find by name (in my case, the icon was named "Zoom"). For me, the solution was to run

cd ~/.local/share/applications
grep -rn Zoom

with "Zoom" replaced with the icon name. Once you have found the file, you can view its contents to uninstall the program it is linked to as well.

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    It is a mistery to me why they need to overcomplicate things at GNOME.
    – 71GA
    Feb 17, 2021 at 8:09
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The GUI way could be to install "Alacarte". It's super easy to manage and remove app launchers from the menu.

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  • Does "Alacarte" keep launchers removed even after updates?
    – 71GA
    Apr 16, 2020 at 17:50
  • If the application doesn't automatically create a .desktop file or launcher for itself then yes, it will still be removed after updates. BUT almost every applications creates a .desktop/launcher file upon install my guess is that the launcher will come up. I haven't tried it yet.
    – Gagan Yadav
    Mar 21, 2021 at 16:43
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The package menulibre provides the possibility to hide launchers with a simple switch:

(It's in french here, you'll find this option in your language)

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Don't forget to save your modifications with the following top-left icon:

enter image description here

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    Beware: this method also removes applications from showing up in gnome's type-to-search list of applications!
    – Jonathan W.
    Sep 11, 2021 at 22:47
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This was too easy and yet I didn’t know either and had to search far and wide. You can easily make new ‘app icon folder groups’ by dragging an icon over a second icon. When you see it highlight release it and now both icons will be in the group that you can click on and name. Keep adding icons in the same manner. It works the same on an iPad. It never occurred to me it would be so simple! Removing icons seems to be much harder, and I can’t figure out why PopShop is suddenly creating extras.

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