HOWTO: Disable Global Application Menu in Unity on Ubuntu 11.04 Natty

Post date: 02-Aug-2011 14:30:25

HOWTO

Chances are that using Unity you've noticed that sometimes it takes too much mouse travel, just to get to an application menu item, all the way to the top of the screen. This is especially true if you use mostly non-maximized windows. Fortunately the Unity Global Application Menu can be disabled by simply uninstalling it. This won't break anything but will force Unity to leave menus in the applications. In order to do that follow these steps:

1. Launch a terminal.
2. Uninstall "indicator-appmenu":
   1. sudo apt-get remove indicator-appmenu
3. You could remove any unneeded dependencies for a good measure:
   1. sudo apt-get autoremove
4. Log out, then log in.

Enjoy your less globalized desktop.

Reverse

If you decide that you want to re-enable the global application menu at a later time you simply have to install "indicator-appmenu" again. This is done simply by doing this:

1. Launch that terminal again.
2. Install "indicator-appmenu":
   1. sudo apt-get install indicator-appmenu
3. Log out, then log in.

Done.