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Add the Trash Can Icon to Your Ubuntu Desktop

Ubuntu has an option for adding a Trash Can icon to the desktop, which might be a comfort for those of you migrating from Windows.

Just type gconf-editor into the Alt+F2 run dialog to open the Gnome Configuration Editor.

Now browse down to the following key:

apps \ nautilus \ desktop

 

On the right hand side, you'll see an entry called trash_icon_visible. Just check the box. You can also change the trash_icon_name if you'd like. 

And there's the icon.

The Geek is the founder of How-To Geek and a geek enthusiast. When he's not coming up with great how-to articles, he's probably writing at his personal blog. This article was written on 05/7/07 and tagged with: Ubuntu

Comments (10)

  1. kobewan

    This only works for GNOME however. The way I got it in Kubuntu (and I think it should work with any window manager/DE with slight modification) is to create a new file ~/Desktop/Trash.desktop. The contents of the file are:

    [Desktop Entry]
    Comment=Contains removed files
    EmptyIcon=trashcan_empty
    Encoding=UTF-8
    Icon=trashcan_full
    Name=Trash
    Name[en_US]=Trash
    Type=Link
    URL=trash:/

  2. The Geek

    kobewan,

    You are great! Thanks for that.

  3. RedPanda

    I have been looking for this some time, and you just posted it a few days after I discovered the site. Thanks a lot!

  4. ADC

    Thanks! The guide helped!

  5. hena

    You guide ROCKS! Thanks!

  6. mean

    thanks man!

  7. Sander

    Thanks!

  8. SoulSmasher

    thanks for this great tuorial, ive translated to turkish and wrote there too, also given your link as source, hope that's ok for u :)

  9. Naser

    Thanks for that tip :) I can't believe its not nearly as hard as other Ubuntu processes/procedures

  10. Myk Melez

    It's not just for comfort (I'm a longtime Linux user), it's also a usability issue. The icon on the bottom bar is too small to be a good drop target, and it's usually obscured by the icon of the file I'm dragging, so I'm constantly failing to drop a file onto it. A big Trash icon on my desktop is much easier to drag files into. Thanks for the tip!


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