Walk the Ubuntu Settings tree without touching your PC
Twenty-two panels sit in a single scrolling column on the left, and every one of them opens into a page you can read in a few seconds. That flat arrangement is unusual, and it is easier to appreciate when nothing on your own machine changes. The simulator reproduces the panel list and its nesting so you can wander freely.
At a glance
Ubuntu runs here as a working laptop. You navigate it the way you would the physical thing: tap a row, land on its screen, go back, take a different branch. Every number below was counted directly from that tree.
- 22top-level entries
- 490rows in total
- 4levels deep
- 2versions
| Device family | Computers |
|---|---|
| Frame shown | Laptop |
| Versions | 24.04 LTS, 22.04 LTS |
| Deepest path | 4 levels below the main list |
| Interface languages | 12, switchable while you browse |
| Account needed | No — it runs entirely in your browser |
How Ubuntu organises Settings
GNOME puts everything at one level. Wi-Fi, Network, Mobile Network, Bluetooth, Displays, Sound and Power sit at the top as hardware concerns; Multitasking, Appearance, Apps, Notifications and Search follow as behaviour; Online Accounts, Sharing and the input panels for Mouse & Touchpad, Keyboard, Color, Printers and Wacom Tablet come next; Accessibility, Privacy & Security and System close the list. There is no category page in between, so nothing is hidden behind a group heading. The design bet is that a searchable flat list beats a tidy hierarchy, and with 22 entries that bet mostly pays off.
Depth is where the tree earns its 490 rows. A panel such as Sound opens straight into Output Device, Configuration, Input Device, Volume Levels and Alert Sound, and some paths continue two more levels down before they stop. Displays keeps Multiple Displays, Primary Display and Night Light together because they answer the same question about screens. Newcomers usually stumble over the split between Wi-Fi, Network and Mobile Network, which look like one topic and are three separate panels. Compared with a phone settings app, the labels are blunter and the wording assumes you already know what a proxy is.
Three settings worth finding
Settings > MultitaskingWindow and workspace behaviour lives in its own panel rather than inside Appearance, which surprises people arriving from other desktops. It covers hot corners, active screen edges and how workspaces are created. Knowing the panel is separate saves a long hunt through display options.
Settings > Displays > Night LightColour temperature shifting is filed under Displays with Multiple Displays and Primary Display rather than under Appearance. If evening screen glare bothers you, this is the page that schedules a warmer tint, and it sits two clicks from the top of the list.
Settings > Privacy & SecurityOne panel gathers the switches other systems scatter, covering areas such as screen lock, location access and diagnostic reporting. Walking it in the simulator lets you see the full inventory of what can be turned off before you decide which of them matter on a real install.
Versions of Ubuntu you can open
You can load 2 builds of Ubuntu. That matters when you are writing instructions for someone whose device is a release or two behind yours.
How this menu got here
GNOME rebuilt its control centre around single-purpose panels rather than a grid of icons, and later releases redrew the panel list again so that related pages sit closer together. Ubuntu ships that work with its own theming on top. The two versions in the simulator, 24.04 LTS and 22.04 LTS, are both long-term-support releases, and the newer one carries the reorganised panel list and the Multitasking page that the older release does not present in the same way.
Who this is useful for
Support staff who answer Ubuntu questions by phone can rehearse a click path before reading it aloud. Teachers preparing a first-week Linux lesson can capture a panel without provisioning a lab machine. Someone weighing a move from Windows or macOS can see how much of the familiar furniture exists and where it was renamed. Writers checking a step in an old tutorial get an answer in seconds.
What is real and what is sample data
The structure is the real thing: menu names, their order, how they are grouped and what sits inside each one. That is why this article can quote a path such as Settings > Multitasking and expect it to match your laptop.
The state cannot be. A device name, an address, a build number, a network name, a storage figure, whether a particular switch is on or off — those belong to a physical laptop, not to a menu tree. The simulator fills those in with obvious sample values. Use them to learn where a figure lives; look at your own laptop to learn what it says.
Try it yourself
Give yourself a task — change a language, find a privacy switch, locate a build number — and do it in Ubuntu here first. The step recorder will keep the route for you. When the question is really Ubuntu versus something else, open them side by side rather than reading two separate menus from memory. If you already know what the setting is called, the site-wide search will tell you which section hides it here.
Open Ubuntu in the simulatorFree, no account, works offline — 490 settings rows across 2 versions.Key points
- Ubuntu shows 22 top-level entries and 490 rows in total, nested up to 4 levels.
- Menu names and their order come from the settings tree itself, so the paths quoted here match the real laptop.
- Device-specific figures on screen are placeholders; the structure around them is not.
Questions about Ubuntu settings
Is this the real Ubuntu Settings menu?
The menu titles, their order and their nesting are taken from the open source that Ubuntu and GNOME publish, so the structure you tap through matches the shipping system. Device state is different. Network names, hardware entries and switch positions are clearly marked sample values, because those belong to a physical machine rather than to the source.
Which Ubuntu versions can I compare?
Both 24.04 LTS and 22.04 LTS are available, and you can switch between them to see how the panel list changed. Long-term-support releases are the ones most organisations standardise on, so a side-by-side look is usually enough to answer whether a setting moved or simply picked up a new label.
Do I need to install anything?
No. Everything runs in the browser with no account, no download and no connection to a real machine. That also means nothing you tap changes any device. You can leave a panel half-explored, reload the page and start again, which is why it works well for practice and for teaching.