Resetting the "Top Panel" Ubuntu 10.04

From time to time, whilst playing with multiple screens and resolutions, you may notice the 'top panel' or main menu bar on you desktop may misalign your icons. Now for a obsessive compulsive (like me), this will drive you insane.

You have two choices... do it manually by adding a new panel and replacing all the icons (in the correct order) onto it and deleting the old panel. Right clicking on the panels will let you do this.

The easier option is to reset the original panel back to default settings and then add your favourite icons. Or use "Docky" instead.

One favourite of mine is the 'eyes' to help keep track of your cursor. These cartoon-ish eyes follow your cursor wherever it goes. It's available from the 'add to panel' option when you right click on the panel.

So to reset the panel back to default, open a terminal window and cut-n-paste the following commands (one line at a time).

gconftool --recursive-unset /apps/panel

rm -rf ~/.gconf/apps/panel

pkill gnome-panel

That's it... your panel is back and you can customise it to your liking again.

A tip on adding to the panel... right click on the position on the panel that you want to add icons to. Then select 'add to panel'. The icon will appear at the position that you right clicked. Once again the obsessive compulsive will be happy.

Enjoy.