The standard Ubuntu desktop environment (GNOME) includes a feature designed to speed up your workflow called the “Hot Corner.” By default, if you flick your mouse cursor into the extreme top-left corner of your screen, the desktop will instantly shrink all your open windows and display the “Activities Overview” (the same screen you see when you press the Super/Windows key). While this is useful for some, it is notoriously frustrating for others.
If you have multiple monitors, or if you frequently attempt to click the “File” or “Back” buttons in applications positioned near the top-left edge of your screen, you will likely trigger this Hot Corner constantly by accident. This violent screen transition interrupts your focus and disrupts your workflow. To stop this from happening, you can easily disable the Hot Corner feature entirely.
Disabling the Hot Corner via System Settings
In modern versions of Ubuntu (specifically those running GNOME 40 and later, such as Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and beyond), the developers finally added a simple graphical toggle switch directly into the main system control panel.
- Look at the top-right corner of your screen where your network, volume, and battery icons are located. Click anywhere in that group of icons.
- From the dropdown menu, click the Gear icon (Settings).
- When the main Settings window opens, look at the sidebar on the left and click on Multitasking.
- The very first section at the top of the Multitasking panel is labelled General.
- Look for the setting named Hot Corner (with the description “Open the Activities overview when the cursor goes to the top left corner”).
- Click the toggle switch next to it to turn it Off.
The change is instantaneous. You can immediately test it by forcefully pushing your mouse cursor into the top-left corner of the screen. Nothing will happen, and your windows will remain exactly where they are.
Using the GNOME Tweaks Tool (For Older Versions)
If you are running an older, legacy version of Ubuntu (like 20.04 LTS), the Multitasking menu does not exist in the default settings. You must use the community configuration tool to achieve the same result.
- Open the Ubuntu Software application.
- Search for and install the GNOME Tweaks application.
- Launch the Tweaks app.
- In the left-hand sidebar, click on Top Bar.
- Locate the toggle switch labelled Activities Overview Hot Corner.
- Click the switch to turn it Off.
Even with the Hot Corner disabled, you can still access the Activities Overview at any time by pressing the Super (Windows) key on your keyboard, or by physically clicking the word “Activities” with your mouse button.