[How to] Disable the ‘resize grip’ in Ubuntu 11.04

By , Published May 5, 2011

Ubuntu 11.04 saw ‘resize grips’ introduced to the bottom right corner of GTK+ applications in order to make resizing windows that little bit easier.

Not everyone is a fan of the “look”, though. Indeed, in some applications it tends to stick out like a sore thumb!

Disabling the grip, whilst costing you a more precise target for resizing, is an easy ‘hack’ to accomplish.

  • Open your Home folder
  • Press CTRL+H to reveal ‘hidden’ files
  • Locate the file named ‘.gtkrc-2.0′ (or create it if it is not there)
  • Right click on it and open with Gedit/text editor
  • Add the following code:
style "default-style"
{
  GtkWindow::resize-grip-height = 0
  GtkWindow::resize-grip-width = 0
}

class "GtkWidget" style "default-style"

To re-enable the Grip just delete the above code from the file.

Anup via Tipform

Related posts:

  1. How to add Quicklists for Opera in Unity
  2. A smattering of Natty updates: Software centre adds reviews, Dash gets improved, more
  3. Python Window Organizer €“ organize your windows using the keyboard
Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
  • http://www.facebook.com/cespinal17 Carlos Alberto Espinal

    Keep those How tos coming!… Just want to see what Unity is capable in terms of customization.

    • http://twitter.com/drakonen Drakonen

      This has noting to do with unity, this is plain GTK :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/cespinal17 Carlos Alberto Espinal

    Keep those How tos coming!… Just want to see what Unity is capable in terms of customization.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FUL7WV2GJLQ3F7FHQKZOIS7OE4 Moraru

    Hey, no PPA for Firefox 5 beta 1 for Ubuntu?
    For Windows it was already launched: http://filehippo.com/download_firefox/

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FUL7WV2GJLQ3F7FHQKZOIS7OE4 Moraru

    Hey, no PPA for Firefox 5 beta 1 for Ubuntu?
    For Windows it was already launched: http://filehippo.com/download_firefox/

  • http://profiles.google.com/edoardo.elidoro Edoardo Maria Elidoro

    Thank you so much, I use Kubuntu and for the GTK+ application that “resize grip” was just an ugly, black corner.

  • http://profiles.google.com/edoardo.elidoro Edoardo Maria Elidoro

    Thank you so much, I use Kubuntu and for the GTK+ application that “resize grip” was just an ugly, black corner.

  • http://profiles.google.com/edoardo.elidoro Edoardo Maria Elidoro

    Thank you so much, I use Kubuntu and for the GTK+ application that “resize grip” was just an ugly, black corner.

  • http://profiles.google.com/edoardo.elidoro Edoardo Maria Elidoro

    Thank you so much, I use Kubuntu and for the GTK+ application that “resize grip” was just an ugly, black corner.

  • http://twitter.com/gagsays gagsays

    thanks for this little but definite sore-remover hack.

  • http://twitter.com/gagsays gagsays

    thanks for this little but definite sore-remover hack.

  • http://twitter.com/gagsays gagsays

    thanks for this little but definite sore-remover hack.

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for this. The grip was showing on my embedded terminal and CoverGloobus, and really annoyed me.

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for this. The grip was showing on my embedded terminal and CoverGloobus, and really annoyed me.

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for this. The grip was showing on my embedded terminal and CoverGloobus, and really annoyed me.

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for posting this, I was just about to move to arch because of this

    • Anonymous

      or windoze ;-)

      • http://twitter.com/onderbakirtas Önder Emre BAKIRTAŞ

        Or you’re trolling.

        • Anonymous

          aren’t we all but trolls in the big comments thread that is life?

  • http://www.facebook.com/amobley1124 Adam Mobley

    I hadn’t noticed this before now and now that I have, I want to keep. I am not sure why this is such a major annoyance. I find it very useful

    • http://0rAX0.deviantart.com rAX

      Here’s why.

      • http://www.martinsmucker.com Michael Martin-Smucker

        Yup, I have nothing against the idea of a universal resize gripper, but I’ll be glad to turn off the current implementation because it has a tendency to overlap buttons.

        • The Negative Shape

          you can use compiz ‘love handles’ anyway. the current implementation is just ugly :S

          • http://profiles.google.com/basniakgm112 Jonathan Basniak

            That’s very interesting. I mean, the idea seemed pretty neat given the scroll bars did seem “nifty”. But yeah, nice to know that problem happens. “Love Handles’? Mmm.. will have to give this a look. :P

        • The Negative Shape

          you can use compiz ‘love handles’ anyway. the current implementation is just ugly :S

      • dRewsus

        Mine shows in the panel obscuring the power icon

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1807442308 Joseph Abbey

      I really didn’t notice either, in the beta it wasn’t there though
      yearoflinux.com

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FX5ITOLLHVNOY673XBRGCKF3DI Freddi

    Such a grip existed in most (all?) applications already in 10.10, but it just didn’t cover icons or text or any other content. I have no clue why it was made so annoying like it is now.

    Thanks for the hack!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3WB7KLM5PIZ5KDIIAVW5Q2LTG4 Michael De

    The grip is seriously nasty especially when it starts to cover up buttons and other elements. I mean, that’s mostly the fault of developers that place buttons and other elements too close to the bottom right corner, but still. I must say, though, showing and hiding the grip in KDE is configurable in via the GUI and the grip is, in any case, much NICER looking in KDE. I mean, I just can’t speak highly enough of the UTTER SLICKNESS that is KDE.

  • Dietmar Wolf

    I didnt notice either.

  • http://twitter.com/explodingwalrus Carl Draper

    This is the least annoying thing about 11.0.4. The worst (apart from Unity) is the silly little disappearing scroll bars

    • Anonymous

      +1
      At first I thought they might be a decent idea but they seem so pointless and they look silly to me.

      • http://profiles.google.com/alanlock001 Alan Lockwood

        And here is where the overlay scrollbars lose: Try to scroll down the brushes list in Gimp: It won’t let you. Since the 2 little buttons (up and down) are out of the “pop-up style” window that shows the brushes, this window closes when you try to click on the button (up or down). And since i’m using a tablet, i still have to keep the mouse handy when drawing just to scroll with the mouse wheel. :S
        FAIL
        Troll-data: Seems like they didn’t test Gimp now it’s out from the basics. xD

        • Anonymous

          I find then easier on a tablet. Personal preference I guess.

        • Dimitar Dimitrov

          Works fine here.

    • Anonymous

      +1
      At first I thought they might be a decent idea but they seem so pointless and they look silly to me.

    • Anonymous

      Overlay scrollbars are quite neat. I never actually use the scrollbars – I always scroll with the mouse wheel or touchpad, or maybe using pgup/pgdn/home/end.

    • Anonymous

      Overlay scrollbars are quite neat. I never actually use the scrollbars – I always scroll with the mouse wheel or touchpad, or maybe using pgup/pgdn/home/end.

    • The Negative Shape

      -1 :O
      Guess its a bit like marmite then. I liked them so much I added animations for them :D

    • The Negative Shape

      -1 :O
      Guess its a bit like marmite then. I liked them so much I added animations for them :D

    • http://www.facebook.com/jordan.badangayon Jordan M. Badangayon

      @twitter-44823886:disqus : the overlay scrollbar is very useful.. especially for someone who uses a touchpad..

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KVEONPHBR53ZYKT62BAKEKA54M adi

        How are they useful? What functionality do they offer?
        They added auto-hiding scroolbars that save a few pixels of screen and added a launcher-bar of 48px on the left side! So, where’s the advantage?
        I don’t hate Unity, not even the scroolbars. I use them, i like them. But, to say that they are “very useful” is too much. Let’s be honest, they’re not useful, they are just “eyecandy”.

  • Anonymous

    What happened to borderless windows?
    Wasn’t that one of the reasons for these resize handle?
    I though MS had agreed to get borderless into natty cos those black lines bordering the windows are horrible.

    Anyhow, back to the point. Will this “hack” get rid of the black and nasty looking resize handles on oxygen-gtk?

  • Anonymous

    What happened to borderless windows?
    Wasn’t that one of the reasons for these resize handle?
    I though MS had agreed to get borderless into natty cos those black lines bordering the windows are horrible.

    Anyhow, back to the point. Will this “hack” get rid of the black and nasty looking resize handles on oxygen-gtk?

  • http://www.copperfish.net/ copperfish

    Thanks for this! I anything irritated me with 11.04 it was the way the grip covered up UI elements. I like it, but not in its current implementation.

    I’m getting used to the rest of the 11.04 issues but not this one!

  • http://profiles.google.com/danteashton Danté Ashton

    Totem/Banshee in full-screen mode still has it :(

    • http://twitter.com/chaeMil Michal Mlejnek

      i dont have it in banshee or in totem. only in windowed mode and i love it! i want to see something similar in unity 2D bcs im using it right now on my netbook

    • http://twitter.com/chaeMil Michal Mlejnek

      i dont have it in banshee or in totem. only in windowed mode and i love it! i want to see something similar in unity 2D bcs im using it right now on my netbook

  • http://profiles.google.com/danteashton Danté Ashton

    Totem/Banshee in full-screen mode still has it :(

  • http://profiles.google.com/animaletdesequia Dàrent Animaulet

    This is really annoying, it’s like they’re trying to say “eh, if you’re too stupid to know how to resize your windows, there’s a hint!” specially considering than you can resize a window from any corner, not only the bottom right… seriously, every time i install a new ubuntu release i spend some hours adding features, but in natty i’ve spent the same amount of hours removing stupid things like this. Was it so difficult to make a menu gui in system > preferences to configure all this litle things?

    • http://dylanmccall.blogspot.com/ dylan-m

      It’s because people kept complaining about how hard it was to resize windows with the Ambiance theme (and they had a reasonable point). Hence the invisible border and the resize grip to take care of the problem.

      It would be nice if it looked prettier, though. A transparent background would go a long way.

    • http://twitter.com/thoeger Thøger Juul Thorsen

      It’s not for stupid people, it’s because of Fitts’ law: you need a fairly large area to point the mouse at to not make the resizing tedious and time-consuming. Sure, the aesthetics of the implementation is not to a straight A, but the functionality is definitely welcome.

      Also, if they started making a settings knob or slider for any little thing that people might have different preferences about, we’d be back to Gnome 1.x.

    • http://twitter.com/thoeger Thøger Juul Thorsen

      It’s not for stupid people, it’s because of Fitts’ law: you need a fairly large area to point the mouse at to not make the resizing tedious and time-consuming. Sure, the aesthetics of the implementation is not to a straight A, but the functionality is definitely welcome.

      Also, if they started making a settings knob or slider for any little thing that people might have different preferences about, we’d be back to Gnome 1.x.

    • http://twitter.com/thoeger Thøger Juul Thorsen

      It’s not for stupid people, it’s because of Fitts’ law: you need a fairly large area to point the mouse at to not make the resizing tedious and time-consuming. Sure, the aesthetics of the implementation is not to a straight A, but the functionality is definitely welcome.

      Also, if they started making a settings knob or slider for any little thing that people might have different preferences about, we’d be back to Gnome 1.x.

  • http://profiles.google.com/ragnis.armus Ragnis Armus

    They should just make this grip invisible.

  • Anonymous

    I don’t understand why everyone is so bothered by this. The scroll wheel was invented in 1995. Who still drags scrollbars with the mouse? Even using the arrow keys is easier.

    • http://profiles.google.com/idkness Micah Butler

      The people who are still trying to figure out what the scroll wheel does and find pressing the arrow keys repetitive…

      I use two fingers on the touchpad if I don’t have my usb mouse with me, and use the scroll wheel when I do have it.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KVEONPHBR53ZYKT62BAKEKA54M adi

      Well, what do you do when you want to quicky navigate to a section in a document? Roll the scroll wheel for 2 minutes or just drag the scrool for 2 seconds?

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KVEONPHBR53ZYKT62BAKEKA54M adi

      Well, what do you do when you want to quicky navigate to a section in a document? Roll the scroll wheel for 2 minutes or just drag the scrool for 2 seconds?

  • Anonymous

    I don’t understand why everyone is so bothered by this. The scroll wheel was invented in 1995. Who still drags scrollbars with the mouse? Even using the arrow keys is easier.

  • http://twitter.com/jasbutut ari

    Yes, this resize-grip cover buttons at some applications. If they can make overlay scrollbar they should make overlay resize-grip too. So we can have borderless window with overlay scrollbar and resize-grip (overlay scrollbar automatically change to resize-mode when it is over the corner of window).

    Anyway, Alt+F8 always handy for resizing window.

  • http://twitter.com/jasbutut ari

    Yes, this resize-grip cover buttons at some applications. If they can make overlay scrollbar they should make overlay resize-grip too. So we can have borderless window with overlay scrollbar and resize-grip (overlay scrollbar automatically change to resize-mode when it is over the corner of window).

    Anyway, Alt+F8 always handy for resizing window.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QAMU7VOOCWYK5WT6PMLHLSMSFU Anup

    Wow.. did not think it would really be posted.

    However, this tip really belongs to http://askubuntu.com/users/15328/user15328

  • http://profiles.google.com/fusionfile August Karlstrom

    Providing a method to resize windows is the job of the window manager. The problem with Ubuntu 11.04 is that I see these resize grips even I use a different window manager, like Blackbox where windows already have large enough resize areas. The new resize grip should be tied to the window manager in Unity, not all of them.

  • http://profiles.google.com/fusionfile August Karlstrom

    Providing a method to resize windows is the job of the window manager. The problem with Ubuntu 11.04 is that I see these resize grips even I use a different window manager, like Blackbox where windows already have large enough resize areas. The new resize grip should be tied to the window manager in Unity, not all of them.

  • http://profiles.google.com/fusionfile August Karlstrom

    Providing a method to resize windows is the job of the window manager. The problem with Ubuntu 11.04 is that I see these resize grips even I use a different window manager, like Blackbox where windows already have large enough resize areas. The new resize grip should be tied to the window manager in Unity, not all of them.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_WELU3BIGOVOBPPAELS3LMWO6N4 louis-alexandre

    i do not understand why people are complaning about how it is difficult to resize windows…

    Maybe these people do not know “alt”+”middle-click” that works on more than the half of the window, so you have a huge, enormous area easy to select…

    Personnaly i use this method exclusively, so no need of borders or others blocks like this one.
    Moreover it’s maybe one of the first things i learnt when i came to linux…

    so i’m switching to netbsd… ;-)

  • Kandace Kamberg

    Thank you!! <3

  • Jimothy Jones

    Thanks for this, it helped me fix it in Arch.

 
How To