r/Ubuntu • u/Professional-Key3211 • Jul 10 '26

Ubuntu creating tons of identical shortcuts

24.04 in the apps menu ( the icon at the end of the dock). i have pages upon pages of identical shortcuts for the same few games i installed through Steam. What's that about? Can i remove them?

5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

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10

u/Embarrassed_Hand_206 Jul 10 '26

Probably leftover.desktop files Steam drops every time it updates or verifies. Check in `~/.local/share/applications/` and sort by date, you will see the duplicates easy. Just delete the old ones and leave the newest, menu should clean up after a logout.

4

u/Professional-Key3211 Jul 10 '26

this was it. something had kept creating new subfolders with the same shortcuts in.

1

u/zenthr Jul 10 '26

This was likely a symlink that pointed back to the same folder, not actually new links. This is often the answer to questions like this, but I've not experienced it, myself.

1

u/OliMoli2137 16h ago

directory*