How to set the desktop to $HOME/Desktop?

1. Create a new folder that you want to use as your folder.

   For example, type mkdir ~/Desktop in a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T to open one) to create a folder named Desktop in your home directory.

2. Edit your configuration.

   Edit the file ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs. You can do this by opening a terminal, then enter:

   gedit ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs
   

   Change the entry for XDG_DESKTOP_DIR to your new desktop folder, or add it, if the entry does not exist. After your edit, the file should look like this:

   XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop"  
   XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Download"  
   XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Templates"  
   XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/Public"  
   XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/Documents"  
   XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/Music"  
   XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Pictures"  
   XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/Videos"
   

3. Log out and then log in again and your desktop should show the specified folder.

You can use xdg-user-dirs-update command to set Desktop.

 xdg-user-dirs-update --set DESKTOP $HOME/NewDesktop

But at first check out your locale names

 cat  ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs

For English locale they are:

 XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop"
 XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/Documents"
 XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads"
 XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/Music"
 XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Pictures"
 XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/Public"
 XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Templates"
 XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/Videos"

You can set any of the above

 xdg-user-dirs-update --set DOWNLOAD ~/Internet

in order for the changes to take effect nautilus -q.

For more info check out https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/XDG_user_directories