gnomehome-directory
I'm using Gnome Shell and have the desktop turned off. So there are no icons and it's not clickable except for the right click which offers to change my wallpaper. There's still a folder for the desktop in my home folder which is now serving no purpose. How can I get rid of it?
I tried changing ~/config/user-dirs.dir and /etc/xdg/user-dirs.defaults to not include the desktop but the folder remains there after a reboot.
There are two possible solutions (as far as I can tell):
~/.config/user-dirs.dirs in a text editorXDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop" to point to some other locationXDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/.config/desktop")
$HOME/Desktop) and you'll end up in the same situation that you are already in :-)
This is a more advanced method that will disable desktop management entirely (including desktop folder creation and display).
xfconf-query --channel "xfce4-session" --property "/sessions/Failsafe/Client4_Command" --type string --set ""
If you wish to re-enable desktop management later on, do the same steps as above but use the command xfconf-query --channel "xfce4-session" --property "/sessions/Failsafe/Client4_Command" --type string --set "xfdesktop" instead.
Best Answer
Apparently the changes I made to
/etc/xdg/user-dirs.defaultsworked. It didn't remove the folder nor did it give me the option to delete it with a right click, but I was able to drag the Desktop folder into another and there I was able to delete it.