Recommendations for GNOME Extensions (2024)

Tingfeng 3 min read August 27, 2024 [General] #linux #gnome

The GNOME desktop environment for Linux is simple, stable, and user-friendly. However, the maintainers tend to make some bizarre design decisions that reduce its usability. Thankfully it supports third-party extensions like a web browser.

Here are some extensions that I found useful, along with recommended settings. These should be compatible with most popular Linux distributions.

Initial Setup: Sync With Firefox

First, install the Gnome Shell Integration Firefox extension https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/gnome-shell-integration/. This lets you configure your GNOME extensions via the web browser.

If you have a Firefox account, sync Firefox with your Firefox account (recommended).

Finally, update all existing gnome extensions with the above Firefox extension.

Recommended Extensions

TIP: When updating extensions, the process will "fail" with an "error". X.Org users can overcome this by pressing the Alt-F2 key combination and running the single-letter command r to restart GNOME Shell (all windows will maintain their position and running programs will keep their state). If you are on Wayland, you will have to log out and log in again.

ArcMenu

Gives you a graphical start menu like on Windows systems.

General submenu -> Disable ArcMenu Hotkey
Menu submenu -> Menu Theme -> Disable Override Theme
Menu submenu -> Power Options -> Enable Log Out..., Lock, Restart..., Power Off...
Menu Button submenu -> set Padding to 0, Icon Size to 26

Clipboard History

For heavy users of the copy-paste function. Remember to enable "private mode" when copying passwords or sensitive credentials.

Set Max number of items to 1000
Set Max clipboard history size (MiB) to 1024
Disable Paste on Selection
Disable Keyboard shortcuts

Color Picker

For sampling colors from the screen like the Photoshop Eyedropper tool.

Dash to Panel

Gives you a taskbar like on Windows systems.

Position submenu: Set Panel thickness to 32
Style submenu: Set App Icon Margin to 0, App Icon Padding to 4
Behavior submenu -> Enable Isolate Workspaces
Action submenu -> Set Scroll panel action & Scroll icon action to Do Nothing
Fine-Tune submenu -> Set Tray Item Padding to 0

GTK4 Desktop Icons NG

GNOME does not have desktop icons by default. This extension re-enables desktop icons.

No overview at start-up

GNOME displays the overview mode (which I hardly use) by default upon login.

NoAnnoyance (fork)

GNOME often displays the "Window is ready" notification, which is more annoying than useful.

Tiling Assistant

Gives you window snapping like on Windows 7+ or macOS 15+.

General -> Under Tiling Popup Disable Open after tiling a window

User Themes

Allows custom user themes. However, you should probably read this article first.