# Modify the jupyterlab UI

**URL:** <https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/modify-the-jupyterlab-ui/4787>\
**Category:** JupyterLab\
**Created:** [June 10, 2020, 1:47am UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/modify-the-jupyterlab-ui/4787 "2020-06-10T01:47:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![aafshar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f1d935/32.png) [@aafshar](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/aafshar)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2020, 1:47am UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/modify-the-jupyterlab-ui/4787/1 "2020-06-10T01:47:37Z")

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How can I make the following two categories of changes to the jupyterlab UI

1. Remove functionalities such as top menu bar (which contains File, Edit, etc)
2. Config it such that it opens a set of extensions on the first reload (instead of opening launcher, open my extensions)
3. Change the look and feel of it (I know about the light and dark mode, but I want to make more custom changes to the Css)

Thank you

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**Author:** ![psychemedia](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/psychemedia/32/24_2.png) [@psychemedia](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/psychemedia)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 11:09am UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/modify-the-jupyterlab-ui/4787/2 "2020-06-11T11:09:55Z")

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I’ve been wondering this too… I’m sure I recall from when JupyterLab was first mooted the implication that the JupyterLab UI would be customisable from a simple JSON config file, but I can’t find the reference where I read that?

So maybe one way to do (some) UI customisation is via the file that identifies which extensions are enabled?

Extensions can also be disabled manually using the command `jupyter labextension disable EXTENSION`, so that might be another way of simplifying the UI? Just disable anything that is an extension that you don’t want?

The [https://github.com/yuvipanda/simplest-notebook](https://github.com/yuvipanda/simplest-notebook) repo shows how to create a simple JupyterLab environment with just a file browser and notebook displays, but the set-up looks rather complicated to me!

Regarding themes, there are several different theme extensions listed on this [awesome JupyterLab extension list](https://github.com/mauhai/awesome-jupyterlab#themes).

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**Author:** ![aafshar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f1d935/32.png) [@aafshar](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/aafshar)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 4:31pm UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/modify-the-jupyterlab-ui/4787/3 "2020-06-18T16:31:38Z")

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Awesome, thanks for the description and the links. I’ll check them out 🙂

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**Author:** ![Jeff\_Zhang](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/jeff_zhang/32/2926_2.png) [@Jeff\_Zhang](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/Jeff_Zhang)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2024, 4:42am UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/modify-the-jupyterlab-ui/4787/4 "2024-04-15T04:42:14Z")

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Looking for update on this topic, I am wondering how to customize jupyter UI like google collab