How do I hide Thunderbird from the launcher while running?

Solution 1:

You can use the plug in called "Minimize to Tray" in Thunderbird to achieve that. Once installed Press F9 to minimize Thunderbird to the system tray. You will keep on receiving the Emails when it is minimized.

This works perfectly fine when you click the mail icon in the system tray.

I hope this will be helpful.

Solution 2:

The MinimizeToTray revived add-on for Thunderbird can be configured to hide the Thunderbird icon in the Unity launcher when the close button is pressed, while leaving Thunderbird running and allowing it to be accessed through the mail indicator.

It may be installed by going to Tools --> Add-ons in Thunderbird and searching for MinimizeToTray. Once it is installed, the add-on's preferences can be configured to hide Thunderbird rather than closing or minimizing it when the close or minimize button is pressed.

Configure the add-on as follows:

1. Once the add-on is installed, go to Tools --> Add-ons again and click the Preferences button for the MinimizeToTray (revived) add-on.
2. In the Minimize to tray section, select Instead of closing and when minimizing option from the list.
3. In the Unity Launcher (on the left hand side), right click on Thunderbird's entry and ensure that Keep in Launcher is not ticked.

Once this is done, clicking the close or minimize button in Thunderbird should hide it. It may be recalled using the Mail entry in the Messaging Menu. To quit the program (rather than just hiding it), use File --> Quit in Thunderbird.

Solution 3:

I have a solution that may help you, but it would require you using Compiz.

Setting it up

1. Start Compiz and enable the plugin 'Window Rules'.

2. Copy the following line

   class=Thunderbird
   

3. Paste the code into the box titled 'Skip Taskbar'. This lets you have Thunderbird active while hiding it from your Launcher.

4. There are other options within this plugin that may be of use to you. E.g, there is the option to remove the close button from the window of any particular application, in this case if you use that code, it will be Thunderbird. Though I tried this and it worked a bit odd with a bug or two with that feature, so give it a try and use it for a bit to see if that one works for you.