In this article, we will guide you through the process of disabling the Activities Overview on Ubuntu 18.04, specifically for systems with dual monitors. The Activities Overview is a feature of the GNOME 3 desktop environment that provides a bird’s eye view of all your open windows and allows you to switch between them. While this feature can be helpful, some users prefer a more streamlined interface.
To disable Activities Overview on Ubuntu 18.04 with dual monitors, you can replace or hide the Activities button using GNOME Shell extensions like "Applications Menu" or "Arc Menu". Alternatively, you can disable the shortcut keys that trigger the Overview or disable the hot corner using GNOME Tweaks or a terminal command.
Replacing or Hiding the Activities Button
One of the easiest ways to disable the Activities Overview is to replace or hide the Activities button. GNOME Shell extensions such as the “Applications Menu” or “Arc Menu” can replace the Activities button with a more traditional menu.
To install these extensions, you can visit the GNOME Shell Extensions website. Alternatively, you can hide the button altogether using the “Hide Activities” extension.
If you choose to hide the button, you might want to install an alternative launcher program like ULauncher, Albert, or Rofi for quick access to your applications.
Disabling Shortcut Keys
Another method to disable the Activities Overview is to disable the shortcut keys that trigger it. The Super key (usually the Windows key on most keyboards) and certain other keys can open the Activities or Applications overview.
To disable these keys, open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run the following commands:
gsettings set org.gnome.mutter overlay-key ''
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings panel-main-menu "[]"
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.keybindings toggle-overview "['']"
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.keybindings toggle-application-view "['']"These commands use the gsettings command-line interface to change GNOME settings. The set command changes a setting, and the first argument after set is the schema and key to change. The second argument is the new value. For example, org.gnome.mutter overlay-key '' disables the Super key for opening the overview.
Disabling the Hot Corner
By default, the hot corner is disabled on stock Ubuntu. However, if it’s enabled and you want to disable it, you can use GNOME Tweaks or a terminal command.
To disable the hot corner using GNOME Tweaks, open GNOME Tweaks, navigate to the “Top Bar” section, and turn off the “Activities Overview Hot Corner” option.
Alternatively, you can disable the hot corner by running the following command in the terminal:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface enable-hot-corners falseThis command changes the enable-hot-corners key in the org.gnome.desktop.interface schema to false, effectively disabling the hot corner.
Conclusion
These steps will largely remove the Activities Overview from your view. Remember, these instructions are specifically for Ubuntu 18.04 and may not work on other versions. If you need to undo these settings, you can reset them to default by using similar commands but replacing set with reset and omitting the last argument.
For example, to reset the overlay key, you would use gsettings reset org.gnome.mutter overlay-key. We hope this guide has been helpful in customizing your Ubuntu experience to suit your preferences.
Yes, the methods described in this article can also be used to disable the Activities Overview on Ubuntu 18.04 with a single monitor.
To install GNOME Shell extensions, you can visit the GNOME Shell Extensions website at https://extensions.gnome.org/. From there, you can browse the available extensions and install them with just a few clicks.
Yes, you can re-enable the Activities Overview by reversing the changes you made. For example, if you replaced or hid the Activities button using an extension, you can disable or remove the extension to bring back the Activities Overview. Similarly, if you disabled shortcut keys or the hot corner, you can re-enable them by reverting the changes you made in the GNOME settings.
These methods are specifically for Ubuntu 18.04 with the GNOME 3 desktop environment. While they may work on other versions of Ubuntu or other Linux distributions using GNOME 3, it’s always a good idea to check the specific instructions or consult the documentation for your particular version to ensure compatibility.
Yes, you can customize the appearance of the Activities Overview by installing and applying GNOME Shell themes. GNOME Tweaks, which was mentioned in this article, also allows you to change various aspects of the GNOME desktop environment’s appearance, including the shell theme. Additionally, you can explore other customization options available in GNOME settings and extensions.
