This solution works only for Ubuntu 20.04 with the GNOME Desktop installed, not unity.
For Ubuntu 20.04, you need to look for a GNOME Shell extension that manage the desktop icons. The extension "Desktop Icons" seems to be installed by default in some cases for that purpose. I assume you’re using it or maybe another one called "DING".
To know which is installed and active on your computer for Ubuntu 20.04 and more, just launch "Extensions" from Activities or open a terminal and type gnome-extensions-app
. If you can’t find both of them, make sure the package gnome-shell-extension-prefs
is installed.
This will open a new window where you can see informations about your gnome extensions and manage them.
Desktop Icons
If you see on the extensions window that Desktop Icons is enabled, click on its settings button. You can now select the icon size between small
, standard
and large
.
If you want to customize even more and choose your own dimensions for those three options, see this answer for Ubuntu 20.04. Keep in mind that the extension’s directory name begins with desktop-icons@
and is usually either at :
/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions
if it’s been installed by the system (or apt
…),
~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions
if it’s been exclusively installed by the user for his own personal use, generally through this website.
DING
If you’re using Desktop Icons NG (DING), right-click on your desktop and choose "Settings" (or something similar…). Now you can change the icon size to either tiny
, small
, standard
or large
.
If you want to customize even more and choose your own icon dimensions, go to the extension’s directory. Its name starts with ding@
and it’s usually at ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions
.
Now, in the ding@…
directory, edit enums.js
, lines 19 to 21 and set your own values:
var ICON_SIZE = { 'tiny': 36, 'small': 42, 'standard': 50, 'large': 66 };
var ICON_WIDTH = { 'tiny': 70, 'small': 80, 'standard': 95, 'large': 100 };
var ICON_HEIGHT = { 'tiny': 70, 'small': 80, 'standard': 88, 'large': 104 };
Finally, restart the gnome shell by hitting <ALT+F2> keys and typing r
.
See also: How do I install and manage GNOME Shell extensions?
ctrl-+
to change sizing inside file explorer windows w/o affecting desktop icon size)