How can I remove "Show Desktop" from the Alt-Tab (application) switcher?

13.04 and newer

For 13.04, 13.10 and 14.04, to enable or disable the "Show desktop" option in application switcher you can use unity-tweak-tool

12.10

For 12.10, a new setting has been added to CCSM to enable or disable the "Show desktop" option in application switcher.

Run this command in a terminal to install CCSM:

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Now open CCSM and go to Ubuntu Unity plugin.

Switch to Switcher tab. Then tick the check box next to Disable Show Desktop in the switcher option.

It can be done!

I've uploaded a Unity build for 12.04 that fixes this (no Show Desktop in the Alt-Tab switcher).

• To install, open a terminal and:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:izx/askubuntu -y
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity

• You can enable the "Show Desktop Icon" setting in the Unity Plugin in Compiz (using ccsm) to get the icon on the Launcher on the left:

  

• If/when a new Unity update is released, Update Manager will download it automatically. I will try to "fix" the update and put it in the PPA as soon as possible; please add a comment to this answer to alert me if you upgrade and "Show Desktop" re-appears in the Switcher!

How did you do it?

I modified the Unity Source. It consists of two steps:

1. Comment out line 900 in plugins/unityshell/src/LauncherController.cpp, which by default adds the "Show Desktop" icon to the switcher:

// results.push_back(pimpl->desktop_icon_);

2. Change line 1638 in plugins/unityshell/src/unityshell.cpp from:

     if (!(results.size() == 1 && results[0]->GetIconType() == AbstractLauncherIcon::IconType::TYPE_DESKTOP))

   to

     if (!results.size() == 0))

   • While the list of Alt-Tab switcher icons was at least 1 before (the show-desktop icon), now it is 0 and we need to modify this to show the switcher only when there is at least one item in the list (i.e. at least one app running).

In 14.04, I was able to accomplish this in CompizConfig Settings Manager.

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

By visiting:

• "Desktop" section of the listing in the wide, white, right area →
• "Ubuntu Unity Plugin" item →
• "Switcher" tab →
• "Disable Show Desktop in the Switcher" item.

This was a default, uncustomized C.C.S.M. straight from the repos.