How to remove user name from MeMenu in Unity (Ubuntu Natty)

The newly released Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) features Unity shell interface which displays the current user name the top right of the panel (MeMenu) that adds a personalized feeling to desktop users.

However some users might not be comfortable to have their username appears on the computer screen, especially when they are working on a publicly accessible computer or when they do not want their username to appear on screenshots or screen-casts of their desktop.

So to remove the username, one only need to open a console, and run the following command:
gconftool -s /system/indicator/me/display –type int 0

Before

Before

After

Before

Alternatively, you can also choose to display your own fullname on MeMenu. You can do that by running the following command:
gconftool -s /system/indicator/me/display –type int 2

You return to the default setting of displaying your current username, by running:
gconftool -s /system/indicator/me/display –type int 1

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[via Chicomonte]

4 Replies to “How to remove user name from MeMenu in Unity (Ubuntu Natty)”

  1. Your solution didn’t remove the white bubbletext with the x. What I did was to uninstall indicator-me via Synaptic to get rid of the username and its bubbletext. Thanks anyway.

  2. I got a message that says “Must specify a type when setting a value” when I entered “gconftool -s /system/indicator/me/display –type int 0” into the terminal. How do I rectify this?

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