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Recently I deleted the folder Desktop from my $HOME directory. When I logged in again all files and directories in $HOME were shown on the desktop. So I wanted to get the folder back. What is the recommended way to achieve this? I edited ~/.config/xdg-user-dirs.dir and added the correct variable. But I guess there must be some other (more easy?) way.

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install ubuntu tweak 0.5, there is a Section under "Desktop" category called "Desktop icon settings",simply uncheck the "Show content of home folder on desktop..." and logout – Prasad RD Mar 27 '12 at 0:57

2 Answers

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  1. Create a new folder that you want to use as your folder,
    e.g type mkdir ~/Desktop in a terminal (CTRL+ALT+T to open one) to create a folder named Desktop in your home directory.

  2. Edit your configuration
    Edit the file ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs. You can do this by opening a terminal, then enter
    gedit ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs.
    Change the entry for XDG_DESKTOP_DIR to your new desktop folder, or add it, if the entry does not exist. After your edit, the file should look like this:

    XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop"
    XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Download"
    XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Templates"
    XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/Public"
    XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/Documents"
    XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/Music"
    XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Pictures"
    XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/Videos"`

  3. Log out and then log in again and your desktop should show the specified folder.
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up vote 0 down vote

Just create an new folder with the name Desktop.

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I forgot to mention this. This was my first try and it didn't work. Logged out of my GNOME session and after logging in again I had all icons on the screen as before (plus the new Desktop folder). – qbi Mar 27 '12 at 7:34
@qbi: And what if you add a folder named 'Desktop', but in your native language? GNOME likes to play around with translated folder names. – Rafał Cieślak Mar 27 '12 at 20:40
This I took for granted. – qbi Mar 28 '12 at 8:42

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