gnome-panel
How does one reset the gnome panel to the initial state?
During use, gnome panel applets move and get replaced with the ones users like. After some time the panel becomes so cluttered that it requires a cleanup. The easiest way would be to reset the panel to the original state that it was in after install. Is there an easy way of doing that?
These icons are a few different things:
The Notification area
The Indicator applet (all the icons are in one single panel applet)
The Clock
The Session Indicator
Those are all panel applets. They are little programs that display on the panel. You can move them around like so:
Right click and un-check Lock To Panel, then right click again and select Move. You may need to unlock them all to move one after the others.
Note: right-clicking the notification area will bring up the context-menu of the icon you've clicked. To get it's menu, right click on the little grabbing area on the left of it:
You can check if your panel will look alright after rebooting by forcing it to restart:
killall gnome-panel
Or, if you want to get back to the original configuration, undoing all your changes (that is all the changes you have ever made):
mv ~/.gconf/apps/panel ~/gnome-panel-backup
killall gnome-panel
Open a Terminal via Applications → Accessories → Terminal to enter those commands.
Best Answer
Move the old configuration directory out of the way, and it'll get reset. Of course, to take effect, you'll have to restart the panel.