Hide the Side Panel (Dock)
Permanently Hide the Side Panel
It is also possible to completely disable the side panel in Ubuntu 22.04. This is useful if you want to have a vanilla GNOME desktop without reinstalling the entire desktop environment. Follow the instructions below: The side panel will be disabled, and any active window will be moved to the default Gnome dock in the Overview Menu.
Hide the Top Bar in Ubuntu
Selectively Hide the Top Bar in Ubuntu
It is also possible to only hide the top bar while inside the Overview Menu. Similar to hiding your desktop icons in Gnome, you need to install and modify a Gnome extension by following the below steps.
Auto-Hiding in Action
Both elements of the desktop auto-hide based on the proximity of other windows. Firefox is running in windows mode in my screenshot and doesn’t need the space occupied by the Dock and Top Bar, so they remain visible. As Firefox’s window is moved to the left, the dock will auto-hide when they overlap. If you move the window towards the top, the same will happen with the top bar. And if you move it to the top left, they’ll disappear as the window approaches both. The same happens if you maximize a window. Image credit: Safar Safarov via Unsplash Alterations and all screenshots by Ramces Red
