Are you an avid user of Ubuntu’s desktop icons extension but wish it did just a little bit more? If so, there’s an enhanced GTK4 version you need to check out.
The perfunctorily-titled ‘Gtk4 Desktop Icons NG’ extension is a direct fork of the regular Desktop Icons NG extension that Ubuntu has shipped with since Ubuntu 21.04 (trivia: that extension is itself a fork of the original desktop icons extension created by GNOME developers).
So what’s special about it?
For many, the most compelling “feature” of GTK4 Desktop Icons NG is that it — at last! — does what many have longed for it to do: drag and drop apps from the Ubuntu Dock to the desktop to create desktop shortcuts.
You need to hold shift while dragging to create a shortcut on the desktop and keep the app in the dock, or you can hold ctrl while dragging out an icon to create a desktop shortcut and remove the app from the dock. These are regular .desktop launchers you can amend, edit, deny launch permissions to, etc.
This GTK4 fork also makes it easy to create symlinks to files you drag out of Nautilus and drop on to the desktop area. How east? Like, hold alt while dragging and dropping easy. Not holding alt continues to wholesale move the file too, as per the standard version, so do get the best of both worlds.
GTK4 Desktop Icons NG also lets you you drag files from the desktop on to dock icons to open the file in that app (if the app supports it, of course). This feature is super handy and is said to work with the Ubuntu Dock, Dash to Dock, and Dash to Panel.
You can also drag and drop files from the desktop and on to the Trash icon in the Ubuntu Dock to bin ’em instantly – neat. Similarly, drag files from the desktop onto the icons of mounted drives to copy those files to that location instantly – also neat.
Other features:
- Uses async functions where possible
- Right-click context menus no longer appear under the Ubuntu Dock
- Improved multi-monitor support, including option to put icons on non-primary display
- GSconnect extension integration
- Improved gesture switching for workspaces
GTK4 is a big draw, as are the new features, but there are lower-level refinements and code cleanups included. These don’t result in things I can easily screenshot but they all to improve the underlying performance and stability of this extension.
“This fork […] and the original DING can both be installed together, but only one can be activated at a time in the extension Manager. They use different install directories and GSettings schemas, therefore preferences set in one will not carrry through to the other,” notes the project Gitlab page.
On Ubuntu you do get a duplicate trash can (with a totally different icon) by default, but this can be disabled in the extension’s preferences. There you can also access a bunch of other settings, toggles, and switches to customise behaviour to suit your workflow.
Like the sound of it? To try it out on Ubuntu 22.10 (or any other Linux distribution shipping GNOME Shell 42 or above) you can install it from the GNOME extensions website directly or by using a desktop app like Extensions Manager. According to the developer this desktop icons extension works best with Wayland.