Making Fedora Linux Look a Little More Like Windows: Using GNOME Tweaks and GNOME Shell Extensions with the Dash to Panel plugin by Jonathan Buchholz on May 25, 2022

There are a few simple modification that you can make to stock GNOME to make the transition from Windows to Linux a little easier. They are pretty simple: adding a couple of additional buttons to the window titlebar and combining the application launcher and system tray to make the taskbar more similar to that found in Windows. Below are screenshots of before and after the tweaks. Look carefully for the aforementioned changes:

Before Dash to Panel
Stock GNOME 42
After Dash to Panel
After changes. Notice the additional buttons in the titlebar and the addition of a Windows-like taskbar.

As you can see, the changes are subtle, but can make a Windows user feel a lot more at home using the GNOME desktop environment. Here are the steps to replicate these changes on Fedora:

Update all packages

$ sudo dnf update

Install GNOME Tweaks

  1. $ sudo dnf install gnome-tweaks
  2. Open GNOME Tweaks
  3. Navigate to: Window Titlebars > Titlebar Buttons
  4. Turn the following settings on:
    • Maximize
    • Minimize

Install Dash to Panel

  1. Visit the Dash to Panel page
  2. Install the GNOME Shell integration by selecting Click here to install the browser extension and following the subsequent instructions
  3. Refresh the page
  4. Switch the toggle labeled OFF to ON
  5. Select Install

Don't worry—just updates.

RSS feed