The Superfluous Desktop
Ubuntu utilizes a feature called “Workspaces” (virtual desktops) to help users organize their open windows. In the GNOME desktop environment, if you press the Super (Windows) key or click “Activities” in the top corner, the screen zooms out to an overview, prominently displaying a sidebar of all your available workspaces. Furthermore, GNOME uses “Dynamic Workspaces,” meaning it constantly creates new, empty virtual desktops as you fill the existing ones. If you are a user who prefers to keep all their windows on a single, physical monitor and never uses virtual desktops, this constant visual clutter and expanding sidebar is highly unnecessary.
Restricting Virtual Desktops
To clean up the Activities overview and stop Ubuntu from automatically showing and creating dynamic workspaces, you must lock the system to a single, static workspace.
Click the system menu in the top-right corner of your screen (where the battery icon is) and click the gear icon to open the Settings app. In the left-hand navigation sidebar, click on Multitasking. Look at the right-hand panel for the “Workspaces” section. First, change the primary setting from “Dynamic Workspaces” to Fixed number of workspaces. A new option will appear allowing you to specify the exact number of virtual desktops. Click the minus (-) button until the “Number of Workspaces” is set to exactly 1. By restricting the system to a single desktop, the workspace sidebar will completely disappear from the Activities overview, drastically simplifying the interface and preventing Ubuntu from automatically generating new virtual screens.