Windows has its TaskBar. MacOS X has its Dock. And Ubuntu Linux? It’s got the Launcher that (by default) is on the left side of the main window. They all serve the same basic purpose, offering a place where key apps and utilities can be launched with a single click and where running applications remain accessible even if their windows are closed or hidden. The difference is that the Mac and Windows versions are quite a bit more flexible, allowing you to drop a variety of apps, folders, even Web bookmarks onto them so you can customize it as desired. The Launcher is a much more constrained environment, which makes it all the more peculiar that Amazon somehow has its own Web site bookmark as an “app” within Ubuntu. A sponsorship?
In any case, let’s have a quick look at how to get rid of the Amazon app button (e.g. Web site shortcut) on the Ubuntu Linux Launcher, then we’ll go through the steps of adding it back afterwards in case you change your mind.
To start, here’s a subset of my own Launcher with the Amazon button included:
You can see from the tiny white triangles on each side of the Amazon logo that the “app” is running. That means that it’s actually showing within Firefox, the default web browser, but we’ll just roll with it 
To get rid of the Amazon app shortcut, simply right-click (or if you don’t have a multi-button mouse, try Control+Click) on the app icon itself. You’ll get a pop-up menu:
If you guessed “click on “Unlock from Launcher” you’re a winner! That’s it, app gone.
Now, let’s say you suddenly realized that you do need to get to Amazon a lot and it is convenient to have that in the Launcher. Okay, I don’t judge you
To restore it, you’ll want to go to the search button on the very top of the Launcher and click. A set of applications and folders show up with existing Launcher friendly shortcuts:
You can launch any of them – and any other programs or files you have on your computer – directly from this point. Launch the Amazon application and then right-click on its newly restored icon in the Launcher itself.
Yet another menu pops up:
Choose “Lock to Launcher”. And that’s it. Amazon shortcut restored, phew!
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The post How Do I Get Rid of Amazon from Ubuntu Launcher? originally appeared on Ask Dave Taylor.