Using the Run dialog box and the Configuration Editor

In Ubuntu, Nautilus is the default file manager. It also handles drawing the desktop and icons, such as folders, files, archives, and removable media. Nautilus has the ability to display your computer icon, your home folder icon, a network icon, a trash icon, and icons for any mounted volumes, such as CDs, DVDs, and external hard drives or flash cards.

However, in many Linux distributions (such as Ubuntu), many of these options are disabled. If you dig into Nautilus's preferences (the logical place to do this, since Nautilus does paint the desktop), there doesn't seem to be a way to show or hide them, depending on your personal preference.

Fortunately, Linux is nothing if not customizable, so changing this behavior is not that difficult. We only need the Terminal (or Run Dialog) and the Configuration Editor.