20 Essential Ubuntu 22.04 Desktop Enhancements You Should Know

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) introduces twenty desktop‑focused changes compared with Ubuntu 20.04. The updates affect the display server, theme, UI layout, workspaces, launcher, dock, colour scheme, input gestures, archive handling, system indicators, power management, shortcuts, multitasking, screenshot tool, dark mode and the default Firefox package.

1. Default Wayland

Wayland is now the default display server. PipeWire provides out‑of‑the‑box screen‑sharing, and NVIDIA GPUs receive default Wayland support. Users can revert to an Xorg session from the login screen if required.

2. Light Default Appearance

The Yaru GTK theme switches to a fully light theme, dropping the previous mixed dark‑title‑bar style. Window close buttons follow the GNOME 42 libadwaita design, with subtle gray “backdots” behind the three control icons.

3. More Compact Desktop UI

Upstream GNOME Shell changes tighten margins on panels, pop‑ups and menus, reduce menu padding, and make OSD elements (volume, brightness, etc.) less obtrusive, giving Ubuntu 22.04 a more compact appearance.

4. Improved Desktop Icon Experience

The new desktop‑icon extension allows drag‑and‑drop of files and folders between the file manager and the desktop. New folders appear in the bottom‑right corner by default, but their position can be changed via the Appearance panel in Settings.

5. Horizontal Workspaces

Workspaces are added and managed horizontally, remain dynamic, and include new multitasking settings. Users can open the workspace switcher with the Super key, the Activities label, or multi‑finger gestures.

6. App Launcher Changes

The full‑screen launcher now slides up from the bottom and can be paged from either side. Users can freely rearrange app shortcuts by dragging icons, and hovering over a truncated name reveals the full title.

7. Dock Differences

The Dock now includes the trash can item, adds a separator between running and pinned icons, and offers additional appearance options (close‑panel mode, multi‑monitor behaviour) in Settings → Appearance.

8. Accent Colours

The default Yaru theme now uses orange accents instead of purple. Users can choose from ten accent colours, which affect the GTK theme, GNOME Shell theme and supported icons.

9. Touchpad Gestures

Three‑finger swipes open the Workspace Switcher or the App Launcher; two‑finger swipes page left or right. Gesture animations are 1:1 with finger movement for a responsive feel.

10. Password‑Protected Archives

Users can extract password‑protected .zip files directly via “Extract Here”. They can also create password‑protected archives in Nautilus by selecting “Compress”, enabling the password option and entering a password.

11. Microphone Mute Alert

An icon appears in the top bar when the microphone is active; a gray pattern indicates mute, providing a quick visual cue.

12. Calendar Events in the Notification Area

Events from the Calendar app appear in the notification shade/clock applet. The current day’s events are shown by default; a dot indicator marks days with events, and selecting a date shows a preview card.

13. Power Options

Three power modes are available: “Power‑saving”, “Balanced” and (hardware‑dependent) “Performance”. Modes can be switched in Settings → Power or via the status menu. On portable devices, Power‑saving activates automatically when the battery is low; the threshold can be adjusted with gsettings.

14. Show Battery Percentage

Battery percentage is displayed in the top bar out‑of‑the‑box, without requiring scripts or custom tweaks.

15. Prominent Restart Option

A clearly visible Restart entry has been added to the session menu in the status bar.

16. Keyboard Shortcut Settings

The keyboard shortcut editor is now a sub‑section of Keyboard Settings, offering faster scanning, full‑text search and a cleaner layout.

17. Multitasking Options

Settings expose many multitasking controls: choose between dynamic or fixed workspaces, disable the hot‑corner that triggers the workspace switcher, and turn off window‑snapping behavior.

18. New Screenshot Tool

Pressing Print Screen opens an interactive screenshot utility. Users can resize the capture area, take full‑screen shots, capture a specific window, or record the screen. Right‑clicking a window title bar also offers a quick “Screenshot” option.

19. Proper Dark Mode

The dark theme now correctly applies to the GNOME Shell UI, fixing the issue where parts of the interface remained light in earlier releases.

20. Firefox Delivered as Snap Only

Firefox is installed as a Snap by default. When upgrading from 20.04, the existing .deb package is automatically replaced with the Snap version.