The Problem

EasyEffects, the tool I use as a sound equalizer (see one of my previous posts), requires LSP (Linux Studio Plugins Project). It used to include these plugins, but after a recent update, I had to install them separately, and my app launcher rewarded me with 120 LSP icons.

You can find them in:

🗂️ /usr/share/applications/

Solution

I initially found a solution in this: reddit comment

Unfortunately, it didn’t work for me because just adding Hidden=true is not valid .desktop file on Arch Linux.

So I slightly modified the script shared by user “mthqwork”:

First, create a temporary file with the minimal valid .desktop content:

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echo -e "[Desktop Entry]\nType=Application\nName=LSP Plugin (Hidden)\nExec=true\nHidden=true" > /tmp/1

Then, for each LSP plugin file, it creates a corresponding user-level .desktop file with the Hidden flag, while ensuring it remains valid:

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find /usr -name "lsp_plugdesktop" 2>/dev/null | cut -f 5 -d '/' | xargs -I {} cp /tmp/1 ~/.local/share/applications/{}

The point is that by creating user-specific desktop files in: 🗂️ .local/share/applications/their settings take priority, allowing you to hide them cleanly from your app launcher.