Quick Links

Key Takeaways

  • To move the dock, click the system status icons in the top right, go to Settings, select "Ubuntu Desktop" option, and click the drop-down box next to "Position on Screen."
  • Other dock settings, such as auto-hide and icon size, can also be adjusted in the Settings window.

You can now move the Ubuntu desktop's launcher bar from the left side of your screen to the bottom or right instead. This doesn't require obscure terminal commands, either. You can move the launcher with just a few clicks.

Move the Dock on Ubuntu

To get started, click the system status icons in the top right corner of your screen, and then click the gear icon in the popup that appears.

Click the system status icons, then click the gear icon to open Settings.

Click the "Ubuntu" option in the sidebar of the Settings app, and scroll down to view the Dock settings.

To change the position of the dock from the left side of the screen, click the "Position on Screen" drop-down, and then select either the "Bottom" or "Right" option (there's no "top" option because the top bar always takes that spot).

The dock settings in the Ubuntu Desktop tab.

The position of the dock immediately changes and you can close the Settings window.

Dock on the bottom of the screen.

You can also adjust other dock settings while you've got the window open. For example, if you want your dock to hide itself so it doesn't always appear on your screen, enable the "Auto-hide the Dock" slider. The dock will hide itself whenever a window would appear over it, giving you more screen real estate. You can also change the size of the dock's icons from here, making them larger or smaller by dragging the "Icon Size" slider to the right or left.

If that doesn't do it for you, you can always change your desktop environment completely.