Replace ‘Activities’ with System Logo Menu in Gnome (Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS)

Last updated: August 21, 2021

For users switching from macOS, there’s a GNOME Extension to replace the top-left corner ‘Activities‘ with system logo menu.

So the top-left corner will display your selected logo icon instead of the ‘Activities’ button. When you click on it, a drop-down menu opens with options to quick access:

  • About system page.
  • System Settings.
  • Software Center.
  • Activities.
  • Force Quit App – it runs xkill so mouse pointer turns to a fork icon. Click any app window will kill it! Or right-click to cancel.
  • Terminal.
  • Gnome Extensions App.

This will make one more click to access the ‘Activities’ overview screen. You can however press Win/Super key instead, or enable “Activities Overview Hot Corner” (hit top-left corner via cursor) in Gnome Tweaks under ‘Top Bar’ settings.

Install the Logo Menu Extension:

The extension works on all recent Gnome releases shipped in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 21.04, Ubuntu 21.10, Debian 11, Fedora 34, CentOS 8, Arch Linux, and more.

For Ubuntu, firstly open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install the browser integration package for installing Gnome Shell extensions via your web browser. As well, install the Gnome Extensions App to manage them.

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell gnome-shell-extension-prefs

Next go to the extension page via the link button below, turn on the slider icon to install it:

If you don’t see the toggle icon, install the browser extension via ‘click here to install browser extension’ link and refresh the web page.

Restart Gnome Shell if the ‘Activities‘ button does not change. To do so, either press Alt+F2, type r, and hit Enter, or log out and back in.

And finally press Win/Super key on keyboard, search for and open ‘Gnome Extensions App‘. Then click on the gear button to configure the extension:

  • choose desired icon, since it defaults to Fedora logo.
  • adjust the icon size.
  • specify executable for terminal and software center (For Ubuntu, it’s snap-store by default).

Twitter

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 Please comment to let me know if the tutorial is outdated!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 [email protected] Buy me a coffee: Buymeacoffee | https://ko-fi.com/ubuntuhandbook1 |

5 responses to Replace ‘Activities’ with System Logo Menu in Gnome (Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS)

  1. It works beautifully on Manjaro 21.1 Pahvo (Gnome) except that, of course, “pamac-manager” should be inserted to replace “gnome-software” for the “Software Center” to execute. Thanks Jim. Cheers

    • It does support changing the backend of ‘Software Center’. Go to extension settings page, you’ll see the option there.

  2. On Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS everything works except it does not open the software center,
    already tried with different commands but I can not.
    What command should I enter?