News, Tutorials, Howtos for Ubuntu Linux
Ubuntu 25.10 no longer includes the “Startup Applications” utility! Here’s a beginner guide shows how to run apps, custom scripts or commands automatically at login through alternative methods.
Ubuntu has a “Startup Applications” tool, allowing to easily add, remove, and edit items that run at user login. Due to upstream (meaning GNOME) changes, it has finally been dropped in 25.10.
Startup Applications tool no longer available in 25.10
After first time launching the onscreen keyboard in the login screen, the ‘onboard’ onscreen keyboard automatically starts up every time when I login, or backup from suspend.
The software does not offer an option to enable / disable the auto startup feature. So here’s how to stop Onboard onscreen keyboard from auto-launching using the Startup Applications utility.
1. Open terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T or searching for “Terminal” in Unity Dash. When it launches, run command:
sudo sed -i "s/NoDisplay=true/NoDisplay=false/g" /etc/xdg/autostart/*.desktop
Type in your password (no visual feedback due to security reason) when it asks. The command will show hidden startup applications in the Startup Applications utility including Onboard.
2. Launch Startup Applications utility, find out “Onboard” and un-check or remove it:
3. (Optional) You may re-hide these hidden startup applications by running the command below in terminal:
sudo sed -i 's/NoDisplay=false/NoDisplay=true/g' /etc/xdg/autostart/*.desktop
That’s it. Enjoy!
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 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!
