Desktop Icons NG

Current version: 47.0.2

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This is an extension for Gnome Shell that adds icons to the desktop. It is a fork of the original, Desktop Icons, but it adds:

Drag'n'Drop, both inside the desktop, between desktop and applications, and nautilus windows
Allows to use "Open with..." option with several files
When hovering or clicking on an icon with a name too large to fit, it shows the full name
Doesn't hang the compositor when there is too much activity in the desktop folder

Downloads

GIT Repository

History of versions

version 47.0.2 ()
Added support for dark themes (Sundeep Mediratta)
Reformatted all the code using Eslint (Sergio Costas)
Fixed thumbnails generation when using the external program (Sergio Costas)
Fixed some extra little bugs (Sergio Costas)
version 47.0.1 ()
New version scheme
Cleaned the code (Sergio Costas and Sundeep Mediratta)
DBus proxy creation is now asynchronous, speeding up the start (Sergio Costas, based on code from Sundeep Mediratta)
Now it can show the thumbnails for XCF (Gimp) files (Sergio Costas)
Fixed rubber band initiation (Sundeep Mediratta)
Fixed window displacement when dragging from the top bar (Sergio Costas)
Make the extract folder for "Extract here" (Sundeep Mediratta)
Checks if it runs under XWayland
version 47 ()
Pass the primary monitor index through DBus (Sergio Costas)
Added keyboard navigation support (Sergio Costas)
Code cleanups (Sergio Costas)
Removed File-Roller dependency (Sergio Costas and Marco Trevisan)
Added an Ubuntu installer (Sergio Costas)
Fixed rubberband bug in the borders when there is a dock or bar (Sergio Costas and Sundeep Mediratta)
Now doesn't fail the desktop detection when returning from lock screen (Sergio Costas)
version 46 ()
Fix the relaunching of the desktop process to avoid high CPU usage if it fails (Sergio Costas)
Don't launch twice the desktop process if the extension is disabled and enabled too fast (Sergio Costas)
Don't fail if there are zero monitors (Sergio Costas)
Fix icons appearing over other windows when a dialog was shown (Sergio Costas)
version 45 ()
Fix 'GDK_IS_MONITOR (monitor)' failed message (Sergio Costas)
Ensure that the desktop is refreshed periodically when a file is constantly being modified (Sundeep Mediratta)
Keep selected files when the desktop is repainted (Sergio Costas)
version 44 ()
Fixed some sentences not being translated
Fully removed the 'size-changed' signal to avoid 100% CPU usage in some situations
version 43 ()
Fixed another syntax mistake (Sergio Costas)
Unified syntax for DbusTimeoutId (Sergio Costas)
version 42 ()
Fixed a bug due to the autocompletion (Sergio Costas)
version 41 ()
Remove signals timeout when the extension is disabled (Sergio Costas)
version 40 ()
Copy instead of Move if Shift or Control is pressed (Sergio Costas)
Redirect output to the logger in real time (Marco Trevisan)
Pass timestamps to avoid focus stealing (Marco Trevisan)
Now shows an emblem when a .desktop file is invalid (Sundeep Mediratta)
Use correct scaling factor during Drag'n'Drop (Daniel van Vugt)
Fixed rubberband after hot-change of the zoom value (Sergio Costas)
Added support for asynchronous thumbnail API (Sergio Costas)
Allows to disable the emblems in icons (Sergio Costas)
Now the icons won't disappear when minimizing all windows (Sergio Costas)
Better DBus management (Sundeep Mediratta)
Now shows a message when trying to use a feature that requires an external program (Sergio Costas)
Show a dialog when a .desktop file can't be launched (Sundeep Mediratta)
Allows to theme the menus (Marco Trevisan)
Fixed passing undefined classname (Daniel van Vugt)
Show preferences also in gnome-extensions-app (Sergio Costas)
Fixed high-CPU usage when moving windows on Ubuntu (Sergio Costas)
Added support for the new ActivatableServicesChanged signal in DBus (Sergio Costas)
version 39 ()
Fixed "Allow launching" when the file doesn't have executable flag (Sergio Costas)
Ignore SPACE key to start a search (Laurentiu-Andrei Postole)
Use CSS to make the window transparent (Sundeep Mediratta)
Removed "ask to execute" dialog; now shows "Run as a program" (Sergio Costas)
Removed "run" mode for dialogs (Sundeep Mediratta)
Fix volume names (Sergio Costas)
Added support for Nemo file manager (Sergio Costas)
Fix transparency bug in the properties window (Sergio Costas)
version 38 ()
Fixed Paste in Gnome Shell 3.38 (Sergio Costas)
version 37 ()
Fixed DnD into folders of the desktop (Sergio Costas)
version 36 ()
Fixed 'icon resize' when using stacked icons (Sundeep Mediratta)
Fixed typo (Davy Defaud)
version 35 ()
Now Ctrl+Shift+N creates a folder, like in Nautilus (Sergio Costas)
Fixed bug when the extension was disabled (Sergio Costas)
version 34 ()
Fix error popup when pressing arrow keys (Sundeep Mediratta)
Fix icons appearing during desktop change animation (Sundeep Mediratta)
Avoid relaunching DING when updating the window size (Sundeep Mediratta)
Fix scripts by passing file list as parameters (Sergio Costas)
Show extensions in Nautilus scripts (Sergio Costas)
Added support for "stacking" files, grouping files of the same type (Sundeep Mediratta)
Fix clipboard support for last version of Nautilus (Sergio Costas)
version 33 ()
Synchronized version number with the one in Gnome Extensions
Fixed failure when TEMPLATES folder is not configured (Sergio Costas)
Other extensions can notify the usable work area (Sergio Costas)
Fix exception if File-Roller is not installed (Sergio Costas)
version 24 ()
Fixed "Open in terminal" option in right-click menu (Sergio Costas)
version 23 ()
Use the system bell sound instead of GSound (Sergio Costas)
Transformed DING into a Gtk.Application (Sergio Costas)
Code cleaning (Sundeep Mediratta and Sergio Costas)
Fixed loss of focus when an application goes full screen (Sergio Costas)
Fixed translation problems when installed system-wide (Sergio Costas)
Fixed pictures preview (Sundeep Mediratta)
Removed some warnings in the log (Sergio Costas)
Don't reload the desktop when a window changes to FullScreen (Daniel van Vugt)
Catch Gio exceptions from extra folders (Daniel van Vugt)
version 22 ()
GSound is now optional (Sergio Costas)
version 21 ()
New folders get a default name and, then, are renamed if the user wants (Sundeep Mediratta)
Several fixes for DnD (Sergio Costas and Sundeep Mediratta)
Removed odd symbols from windows title (Sergio Costas)
Added support for search files in the desktop (Sundeep Mediratta)
Support nested folders in scripts and templates (Sergio Costas)
Fixed a crash if a file is created and deleted too quickly (Sundeep Mediratta)
The desktop now receives the focus when there are no other windows in the current workspace (Sergio Costas)
Better error management in several places (Sundeep Mediratta and Sergio Costas)
version 20 ()
Removed gir1.2-clutter dependency (Sergio Costas)
Added compatibility with Gnome Shell 41 (Daniel van Vugt)
version 19 ()
Alt+Enter shows properties like Nautilus (Sundeep Mediratta)
Hide error windows, new folder window, dialog window and preferences from taskbar and pager (Sundeep Mediratta)
"Extract" menu item (Sundeep Mediratta)
Ignore distance in double-clicks, needed for touch screens (Kai-Heng Feng)
Dont draw green highlight around desktop when dragging and dropping files on it (Sundeep Mediratta)
Global rubberband (Sundeep Mediratta)
Smaller icon targets to allow more usable space for right click, and extra padding around rendered icons (Sundeep Mediratta)
Allows to arrange and sort icons (Sundeep Mediratta)
Don't unselect the icons after moving them (Sergio Costas)
Fixed the default location in network mounts (Juha Erkkilä)
Use the new Nautilus.FileOperations2 API (Marco Trevisan)
version 0.18.0 ()
Pretty selection (Daniel Van Vugt)
Don't draw green rectangle on screen (Sundeep Mediratta)
Support for High DPI rendering of icons (Daniel Van Vugt)
Added "Extract" and "Extract to" options (Sundeep Mediratta)
Update desktop via DBus metadata change notification (Sundeep Mediratta)
version 0.17.0 ()
Now the preferences are shown in Gnome Shell 40 (Sergio Costas)
version 0.16.0 ()
Simple shadow to improve appearance (Daniel van Vugt)
Compatibility with Gnome Shell 40 (Sergio Costas)
Don't show "Email" option if a folder is selected (Sundeep Mediratta)
Changed the text for "Preferences", to make easier to identify it as "Desktop icons preferences"
Make new folders near the place where the user did right click (Sundeep Mediratta)
version 0.15.0 ()
Allow to create a folder from a selection of files (Sundeep Mediratta)
Allow to compress a selection of files (Sundeep Mediratta)
Allow to send by mail a selection of files (Sundeep Mediratta)
Allow to show properties of a selection of files (Sundeep Mediratta)
Added support for scripts (Sundeep Mediratta)
Updates the desktop icons when the icon theme has changed (Artyom Zorin)
Now adds new icons to the main screen (Sergio Costas)
Added hotkey to show/hide hidden files in the desktop (Sergio Costas)
Added support for dual GPUs (Sergio Costas)
Improved readability (Ivailo Iliev)
Now doesn't maximize a minimized window when closing a popup menu (Sergio Costas)
Keep selected a new file created from templates (Sergio Costas)
version 0.14.0 ()
Now RETURN key in "New folder" and "Rename" only works when the "OK" button is enabled
Now doesn't use 100% of CPU when an external drive has been mounted by another user
version 0.13.0 ()
added support for fractional zoom
fixed bug when closing Gedit without saving
ensures that new icons are added in the right corner always
shows the destination of a DnD operation
fix bug when showing drives
don't show an error when aborting a DnD operation
version 0.12.0 ()
Don't fail if there is no TEMPLATES folder
Support Ctrl+A for 'select all'
Use "Home" as the name of the user's personal folder
Show mounted drives in the desktop
Re-read the desktop on error
Custom icons support
Detect changes in the size of the working area
Preserves the drop place for remote places
Better detection for focus loss
version 0.11.0 (2020/04/17)
Copy files instead of move when using DnD into another drive
Removed flicker when a file is created or removed
Fix DnD for Chrome and other programs
Template support
Allow to choose the align corner for the icons
Added "Select all" option
Added support for preview
Creates folders in the place where the mouse cursor is
version 0.10.0 (2020/02/22)
Added 'tiny' icon size
Doesn't allow to use an existing name when renaming or creating a new folder
Fixed the DnD positioning (finally)
version 0.9.1 (2020/02/06)
Now "Delete permanently" works again
version 0.9.0 (2020/01/31)
Fix bug that prevented it to work with Gnome Shell 3.30
version 0.8.0 (2020/01/19)
Fix memory leak when using the rubber band too fast
Add finally full support for multimonitor and HiDPI combined
Better precision in DnD
version 0.7.0 (2019/12/09)
Don't show ".desktop" in enabled .desktop files
Appearance more consistent with Nautilus
Allows to permanently delete files
When clicking on a text script, honors "executable-text-activation" setting and, if set, asks what to do
Honors "show-image-thumbnails" setting
.desktop files are now launched with the $HOME folder as the current folder
Allows to run script files with blank spaces in the file name
Shows an error if Nautilus is not available in the system
Shows an error if a file or folder can't be permanently deleted
Added note about configuration
version 0.6.0 (2019/10/29)
Fix icon distribution in the desktop
Show the "Name" field in the .desktop files
Better wrap of the names
Show a tooltip with the filename
Show a hand mouse cursor on "single click" policy
Add "delete permanently" option
Shift + Delete do "delete permanently"
Better detection of screen size change
Show symlink emblem also in .desktop files and in files with preview
Fix "symlink in all icons" bug
Ensure that all the emblems fit in the icon
version 0.5.0 (2019/10/15)
Fix right-click menu in trash not showing sometimes
Fix opening a file during New folder operation
Changed license to GPLv3 only
version 0.4.0 (2019/10/04)
Fix Drag'n'Drop in some special cases
Don't relaunch the desktop process when disabling and enabling fast
Temporary fix for X11 size
version 0.3.0 (2019/09/17)
Separate Wayland and X11 paths
When a file is dropped from another window, it is done at the cursor
Fixed bug when dragging several files into a Nautilus window
version 0.2.0 (2019/08/19)
Shows the full filename if selected
Use theme color for selections
Sends debug info to the journal
Now kills fine old, unneeded processes
Allows to launch the desktop app as standalone
Ensures that the desktop is kept at background when switching workspaces
Honors the Scale value (for retina-like monitors)
Hotkeys
Check if the desktop folder is writable by others
Now the settings window doesn't block the icons
Don't show hidden files
version 0.1.0 (2019/08/13)
First semi-working version version
Has everything supported by Desktop Icons, plus Drag'n'Drop