When you search for something in the Unity Dash, you may wish to remove some of the applications listed, or add some that are either hidden by default, or simply don’t exist.
With Alacarte
Install Alacarte
First, you will need to install a menu editor. This is what we will be using to edit our application results. We will be using Alacarte.
If asked, confirm that How To Ubuntu (this site) should be allowed to open the Ubuntu Software Centre. This does now allow us to install software at any time. You will always have to click install yourself. You may need to enter your password to install this piece of software.
The Install button is located in the top-right corner of the Ubuntu Software Centre. Now, we must open the editor.
Edit Application Results
You can open Alacarte by searching the Dash for Menu, and Clicking Main Menu. Now we can enable (un-hide), disable (hide), and permanently delete items and whole categories from here.
Categories can be found in the left-hand column. You can uncheck items or categories to hide them, and check to make them searchable again. This will not install or uninstall any software, however we recommend unchecking items rather than deleting them.
Here, we are enabling Software Sources.
Terminal for You
Make a folder for the items
This folder will just be a nice, quiet, hidden place that the Dash already checks.
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/applications
Copy the Launcher
cp /usr/share/applications/software-properties-gtk.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/
Add and or Remove
gedit ~/.local/share/applications/software-properties-gtk.desktop
Here, we’re using the Software Sources launcher, as this is hidden by default, but might be useful to have visible for more direct access. Now we just need to change the NoDisplay value from true to false.
NoDisplay=true
NoDisplay=false
Now you can find Software Sources in the Dash. If it is not immediately available, try logging out and in again to refresh it. Reverse to hide an item.
Terminal for Everyone
We’re going to edit the root file for the Software Sources launcher, as this is hidden by default, but might be useful to have visible for more direct access. Editing like this will enable (or disable) the launcher for everyone.
gksudo gedit /usr/share/applications/software-properties-gtk.desktop
Now we just need to change the NoDisplay value for this.
NoDisplay=true
NoDisplay=false
Now you can find Software Sources in the Dash. If it is not immediatly available, try logging out and in again to refresh it. Reverse to hide an item.