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Don't offer to create Icon widget when dropping .desktop files

When dragging-and-dropping apps from Kickoff/Task Manager/etc. to the desktop, no fewer than four options can be presented, one of them being "Add Icon". This one is a particularly poor choice because it becomes a widget that looks like a normal file, but does not behave according to the normal file semantics:

  • It can't be drag-and-dropped or selected the same way
  • It always opens on single-click
  • It's harder to figure out how to remove
  • It can overlap normal desktop icons

Fixing these issues is not really possible due to the nature of what an Icon applet simply is; they are baked into its nature as a widget. As such, Icon widgets are not very well suited for being on the desktop most of the time, so let's remove the option from the drop menu.

There is no effect when using the "Desktop" containment since there it creates an icon widget automatically, and there are no files or folders to look similar and confuse you.

CCBUG: 446031

@teams/usability


When dragging a Flatpak app from Kickoff to the desktop:

Before After
image image
Edited by Nate Graham

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