3.2. Removing Menu Items for Individual Users

The menu configuration files for a given user are located in the $HOME/.config/menus/ directory. The *.menu files are XML configuration files that allow you to override the system menu defaults.

For example, to remove the Calculator menu item from the Accessories submenu, edit the applications.menu file in the $HOME/.config/menus/ directory, adding a new <Menu> section using the <Exclude> element as shown:

<!DOCTYPE Menu PUBLIC "-//freedesktop//DTD Menu 1.0//EN"
"https://www.freedesktop.org/standards/menu-spec/1.0/menu.dtd">

<!-- File created by desktop-file-utils version 0.8 -->
<Menu>
  <Name>Applications</Name>
  <MergeFile>/etc/xdg/menus/applications.menu</MergeFile>


<!-- Removes the Calculator from the Accessories submenu -->
  <Menu>
    <Name>Accessories</Name>
    <Exclude>
      <Filename>gnome-gcalctool.desktop</Filename>
    </Exclude>
  </Menu>
<!-- END of Calculator removal content -->

</Menu>

The *.desktop file that corresponds to a given menu item can be found in the /usr/share/applications/ directory. The gnome-gcalctool.desktop file corresponds to the Calculator menu item. Note that the name of the submenu (Accessories, in this case) can be determined from the files located in the /usr/share/desktop-directories/ directory.

Similar methods can be used to remove other items from the Applications menu and its submenus.

	Note
	The user's session must be restarted for the menu changes to take effect.