Show / Hide all ‘hidden’ startup applications in Ubuntu 13.10

Last updated: November 7, 2013

This quick tutorial is going to show you how to display or re-hide ‘hidden’ startup applications in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander.

There’s a built-in utility in Ubuntu, which allows to add, remove, and edit additional startup applications. By default the system auto-start services are hidden, here’s how to show it in the box.

Before:

no apps startup applications utility in ubuntu 13.10

no apps in startup applications utility in ubuntu 13.10

After:

show hidden apps in startup applications

To get started, press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command below:

sudo sed -i 's/NoDisplay=true/NoDisplay=false/g' /etc/xdg/autostart/*.desktop

Then re-open the utility and you’ll see all ‘hidden’ apps.

If you just want to change some settings and then hide them again, run this command in terminal:

sudo sed -i 's/NoDisplay=false/NoDisplay=true/g' /etc/xdg/autostart/*.desktop

That’s it. Enjoy!

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I'm a freelance blogger who started using Ubuntu in 2007 and wishes to share my experiences and some useful tips with Ubuntu beginners and lovers. Please comment to let me know if the tutorial is outdated! And, notify me if you find any typo/grammar/language mistakes. English is not my native language. Contact me via ubuntuhandbook1@gmail.com Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/ubuntuhandbook1 |

One response to Show / Hide all ‘hidden’ startup applications in Ubuntu 13.10

  1. Thanks for the tutorial. I followed it exactly and removed four instances of the keyring. Re booted and opened up software centre and — pop up it came again. Really really annoying as I don’t know what the old password on it is. It didnt come up when I was using the previous version, It only reappeared after doing a clean install of 13.10. any ideas please?