How to remove "Apps Available for Download" from the applications lens?

Is there some way to modify the Applications lens in Unity so that we can remove the "Apps Available for Download" section?

The section is really annoying for normal use. We don't have to know why we can download some random games every time we want to start an application.

Also, it may make the lens even faster as it will only have to display installed applications rather than creating some random list.

Solution 1:

This is possible in Unity version 5.0, which will be part of Ubuntu 12.04.

To get rid of the "Apps Available for Download" section:

1. launch dconf-editor (which is part of the dconf-tools package)
2. navigate to /desktop/unity/lenses/applications
3. uncheck the display-available-apps box

(There's also a display-recent-apps option available to disable the corresponding section.)

And yeah, I'm the author of that patch :-)

Related:

• How to remove "frequently used programs" from menu dash?

Solution 2:

Unfortunately, I'm afraid this is not possible in 11.04 or 11.10, but it is possible in 12.04.

Solution 3:

12.10

MyUnity unfortunately up to now is not able to do this due to the new version of Unity in 12.10 (see this related question).

You can use Unsettings to do this. Here you can find the .deb package and if you want you can also add the ppa.

To disable the "Apps available for download", go to the Dash menu and switch off Apps for download.

12.04

(click to install)

Configuration of Display Available Apps to download is directly configurable from the Dash

1. Open the Dash
2. Click the lens as Application Lens
3. Click the down arrow to reveal the Filter Results options

• To switch off the display of applications to download click the Local Apps source
• To turn on the display of applications to download click the Software Centre or All

Configuration of Display Available Apps and its counterpart Display Recent Apps is now available directly via the GUI configuration application MyUnity

The image shows the option turned off - you can click as shown to switch-on the Dash display of available applications.

Related:

• How to remove "frequently used programs" from menu dash?