- doc
- first steps
- Introduction to GNOME and the Tails desktop
The desktop environment used in Tails is GNOME. This page describes some important features of the desktop in the context of Tails.
Top navigation bar
In the upper left corner of the screen there is one button and three menus:
- the Activities button
- the menu
- the menu
Activities overview
To access your windows and applications you can either:
- Click on the Activities button.
- Throw your mouse pointer to the top-left hot corner.
- Press the Super (
) key on your keyboard.
You can see your windows and applications in the overview. You can also start typing to search your applications, files, and folders.
Applications menu
The menu provides shortcuts to the included software and to GNOME configuration utilities.
By default, any setting that you change in Tails is lost when you shut down Tails. Only the settings that you saved in the Persistent Storage are restored when you restart Tails.
To learn about the many keyboard shortcuts in GNOME, open the Settings utility and choose Keyboard Shortcuts.
Favorites submenu
In the submenu, a few shortcuts allow you to launch the most frequently used applications:
See our documentation on browsing the web with Tor Browser
See our documentation on connecting to Tor
See our documentation on the Persistent Storage
See our documentation on reporting an error
See our documentation on emailing and reading news with Thunderbird
See our documentation on managing passwords with KeePassXC
See our documentation on chatting with Pidgin and OTR
Places menu
The menu provides direct access to different folders and storage media.
Tor status and circuits
The Tor status icon (
or 
) provides a shortcut to Onion
Circuits, which allows you to manage the Tor circuits being used by Tails.
See our documentation on Onion Circuits.
Universal access
The universal access menu allows you to activate the screen reader, screen keyboard, large text display, and other accessibility technologies.
See our documentation on accessibility.
Keyboard layouts
The keyboard layout menu allow you to change the keyboard layout and input method for non-Latin scripts.
System menu
In the top-right corner of the top navigation bar, the system menu allows you to manage your settings, connect to a Wi-Fi network, and restart your computer.
Networking
From the system menu, you can choose which Wi-Fi network to connect to.
See also the documentation on connecting to a network.
Screen locker
Click on Lock screen to lock your screen with a password.
If you set up an administration password when starting Tails, you can unlock your screen with your administration password.
Your screen will automatically lock after some time if you have set up an administration password. To disable this behavior, execute the following command in a terminal:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.screensaver lock-enabled false
Otherwise, you can set up a password to unlock your screen when locking your screen for the first time.
Suspend
Click Suspend to suspend your computer.
While suspended, your computer is not computing anymore but is still powered on, like if it was standing still but still alive.
To resume from suspend and go back to the Tails desktop, push the power button of your computer.
If you remove your Tails USB stick while suspended, your computer will not shut down immediately and will only shut down when resuming.
An attacker with physical access to your computer and capable of finding your screen locker password or setting up a cold-boot attack can compromise your Tails while suspended.
For more security, shut down Tails entirely.
Desktop shortcuts
See our documentation on reporting an error
The Files browser
To open the Files browser, you can either:
Choose .
Open one of the shortcuts from the menu.
To connect to a remote SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) server:
Choose Other Locations in the sidebar of the Files browser.
Specify an SFTP server in Connect to Server at the bottom of the right pane. For example:
ssh://user@example.com/
Click Connect.