The Unwanted Dashboard
The Ubuntu System Monitor (the Linux equivalent to the Windows Task Manager) is an excellent tool for viewing CPU usage, RAM consumption, and killing frozen applications. However, if you previously added the System Monitor to your startup applications list—perhaps because you wanted to keep an eye on a specific memory leak—it can quickly become an annoyance. Having the large graphical dashboard pop up in the middle of your screen every single time you boot or log into your computer forces you to manually close it before you can begin your actual work.
How to Remove System Monitor from Startup Applications
The easiest way to stop any graphical application from launching at boot in the default GNOME desktop environment is through the built-in Startup Applications utility.
1. Press the Super key (the Windows key on most keyboards) to open the Activities overview, or click the Show Applications grid icon in the bottom-left corner of the dock.
2. Type Startup Applications into the search bar and press Enter to launch the utility.
3. The “Startup Applications Preferences” window will appear, displaying a list of all user-level programs configured to launch when you log in.
4. Scroll through the list and locate System Monitor (or `gnome-system-monitor`).
5. You have two options here:
- To disable it temporarily: Simply uncheck the box next to System Monitor. This leaves the configuration in the list but stops the app from launching.
- To remove it permanently: Click on “System Monitor” to highlight it, then click the Remove button on the right side of the window.
6. Click Close.
The next time you reboot your Ubuntu machine, your desktop will load clean and empty, without the System Monitor interrupting your login process.
How to Remove Startup Entries via the Terminal
If you are managing an Ubuntu machine remotely via SSH or prefer the command line, you can delete the autostart configuration file directly. User-specific graphical autostart files are stored as `.desktop` files in a hidden directory in your home folder.
1. Open your terminal.
2. Navigate to the autostart directory by running:
cd ~/.config/autostart/
3. List the files in the directory to confirm the System Monitor entry is present:
ls
4. Look for a file named something like gnome-system-monitor.desktop. If you see it, delete it using the `rm` command:
rm gnome-system-monitor.desktop
By deleting this configuration file, you guarantee the application will not launch the next time your user account logs into the graphical desktop environment.