I don't even have a printer, but KDE 4.5 starts the "Printer Applet" each time I log in. No matter how many times I close it, it always starts again when I log in.

It's no big deal but it still wastes a small amount of memory and clutters my systray unnecessarily.

How can I disable the printer-applet?

Create a file named "printer-applet.desktop" in ~/.config/autostart with the following content:

Code: Select all

[Desktop Entry]
Hidden=true

That worked, thanks - but how do you know this? It doesn't seem straight-forward to me...

If the Hidden property is set on a *.desktop file, then the Menu will not show it, and applications shouldn't detect it either. As a result, auto started applications follow this rule also.

This is interesting.

So basically the system scans the .desktop files located in /usr/share/autostart/ and then those in ~/.config/autostart and merges options from both locations together.

Thus by creating a printer-applet.desktop in ~/.config/autostart and adding options to it I can overwrite or extend the .desktop entry from /usr/share/autostart/.

Umm, is that about right?

Yes, that is correct.

This trick prevents printer-applet from startig or it just hides it?
Is there any way to simple don't start it at all?

It stops it from starting altogether as far as I know.

If I just delete printer-applet.desktop from /usr/share/autostart won't be an easier solution?

That will apply to all users, and will be undone automatically by your package manager when you update / upgrade. In addition, it needs root access. The above solution is the most portable and reliable in the long term.

You' re right! Thanks for your reply!

bcooksley wrote:The above solution is the most portable and reliable in the long term.

You are right, this solution is the most portable and reliable, right now.
But the proper way should be adding "printer-applet" in "Applications to be excluded from sessions" section is system settings.
Unfortunately, this doesn't works for now (KDE 4.5.1)

RangerGR wrote:But the proper way should be adding "printer-applet" in "Applications to be excluded from sessions" section is system settings.
Unfortunately, this doesn't works for now (KDE 4.5.1)

If so (I don't even have it installed myself) it should be considered a bug and as such a bug-report should be filed - preferably by someone affected by the bug. Not sure if the bug is in the applet or in the sessions management system though.

Kryten2X4B wrote:

RangerGR wrote:But the proper way should be adding "printer-applet" in "Applications to be excluded from sessions" section is system settings.
Unfortunately, this doesn't works for now (KDE 4.5.1)

Not sure if the bug is in the applet or in the sessions management system though.

The bug (not sure if this is a bug) is in the sessions management system. You can add any application, lets say konsole. Start konsole and logout without closing it. In your next login, konsole will start.

RangerGR wrote:The bug (not sure if this is a bug) is in the sessions management system. You can add any application, lets say konsole. Start konsole and logout without closing it. In your next login, konsole will start.

I think it might be a bit more complicated than that. I have a few apps listed there, and they are never started on login no matter if they were running when I logged out or not. For Kontact I needed a bit of a workaround though: adding the full path rather than just the program name.