How to Change the Dock Position and Move it to the Bottom in Ubuntu

Ubuntu’s default GNOME desktop comes with a sidebar launcher (or dock). This launcher’s default position is on the left side. Most people leave it as it is, but a few like to change the dock position to the bottom.

Yes! You can change the Ubuntu launcher settings and change the dock position to the bottom or even to the right side.

Let me show you how to do it.

Move the launcher in Ubuntu

Press the Windows button and bring up the activity area. Type ‘settings’ and click on the Settings application.

To change the dock position, go to Settings->Appearance. You should see some options under Dock section. You need to change the “Position on screen” settings here.

As you can see, you can change the launcher position to the left, bottom or right. The changes take place immediately. No need to log out or restart the system.

That was easy, right? It is one of the simplest ways to customize the dock in Ubuntu.

Bonus Tip: Position of dock on a multiple monitor setup

If you have a multi-monitor setup, you can choose whether to display the dock on all screens or only one of the screens.

Change Unity Launcher position in Ubuntu 16.04 (for older versions)

You can change Unity Launcher position in following two ways:

Method 1: Command line way

Open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and use the following commands accordingly:

Move the Unity Launcher to bottom:

gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Launcher launcher-position Bottom

Move the Unity Launcher to left:

gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Launcher launcher-position Left

Method 2: GUI way (using Unity Tweak Tool)

Good news is that customization tool Unity Tweak Tool has made it easier to change the position of Unity Launcher in Ubuntu 16.04.

If you don’t have it installed already, use the commands below to install Unity Tweak Tool:

sudo apt-get install unity-tweak-tool

Once installed, open Unity Tweak Tool and click on Launcher:

In here, you can see the option to change Position here under the Appearance section.

Do you like it on the left or on the bottom or on the right?

I hope this post helped you to change the launcher position in Ubuntu. Do you like it on the bottom or on the left or maybe on the right side?

You can also check out other Ubuntu customization tips. If you want more options, check out the other docks available for Ubuntu.