Auto arrange desktop icons

[NHellFire]

Would be nice to have an "auto arrange" setting for desktop icons (like Windows has). Currently if you use "organize by name", then disconnect a USB device, there'll be a space where the icon was. An "auto arrange" option that automatically does "organize by name" when there's changes would be perfect.

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[netpipe]

i would also like to see an option where it can be removed from the right click menu. i've organised the desktop alot of times by mistake.

[davidhedlund]

For starters, this could be scheduled from cron with a new gsettings schema. What do you think about it?

[lukefromdc]

We already have "organize desktop by name" as an option in the desktop right-click menu that comes up if you right click on the desktop.

Personally, I prefer manual arrangement of desktop icons but recognize that different users need different options

[davidhedlund]

We already have "organize desktop by name" as an option in the desktop right-click menu that comes up if you right click on the desktop.

Is it possible to execute it from a bash script?

[lukefromdc]

There are no command line options for managing desktop view preferences. Note that we are a small team and probably would not prioritize something like this unless there is evidence of considerable demand for it. If someone codes this up and submits a PR for it though we will take a look at it. Also note that we can use more team members, ideally with varied workflows and skills

[davidhedlund]

There are no command line options for managing desktop view preferences. Note that we are a small team and probably would not prioritize something like this unless there is evidence of considerable demand for it. If someone codes this up and submits a PR for it though we will take a look at it. Also note that we can use more team members, ideally with varied workflows and skills

I just wanted to confirm that I could not script it. Thank you.

[davidhedlund]

If someone codes this up and submits a PR for it though we will take a look at it. Also note that we can use more team members, ideally with varied workflows and skills

Apparently, the file manager Nemo can auto-arrange desktop items, see instructions here.

Perhaps the source code can be re-used?

• https://github.com/linuxmint/nemo

[lukefromdc]

Note that there have been CONSIDERABLE changes in Nemo's desktop handling, which has been split out from the rest of the file manager following what Nautilus did quite a while before they scuttled managing the desktop entirely. They could have kept the nautilus desktop as easily as I ported Caja to show icons on a wayland desktop, but the devs themselves don't use it.

Obviously implementing this would be done by allowing the same code used in navigation windows to arrange icons, but with a default to manual arrangement which seems to be what most users prefer.