My xfce4 setup

So xfce4 resets things occasionally after update. I do have a backup of the config folder (at ~/.config/xfce4) but sometimes I prefer to recreate everything from scratch so that old settings aren’t hanging around.

Reset to default

1. Delete ~/.config/xfce4 and ~/.config/xfce4-session.
2. Restart computer and log in.
3. Choose ‘Default settings’ when xfce asks.

Settings Manager

Right click on desktop -> Applications -> Settings -> Settings Manager. Configure as follows…

Panel

1. Select ‘Panel 2’ (which is the little app panel at the bottom of the screen):
2. Hit the minus - button to delete it.
3. Select ‘Panel 1’ (which is the full width panel at the top of the screen):
4. Select ‘Span monitors’.
5. Deselect ‘Lock panel’, grab the right-hand side of the panel with the mouse and drag it to the bottom, then re-select ‘Lock panel’.

Worspaces

Increase number of workspaces to 6.

Desktop

1. Drag the window to monitor 0 (so that we’re editing settings for monitor 0).
2. Select ‘Other…’ from the Folder dropdown, browse to the folder containing wide backgrounds and choose it.
3. Style: Spanning screens.
4. Color: Transparent.
5. Change the background in minutes: 60.
6. Select ‘Random order’.

Window Manager

Style

Select ‘Daloa’ theme.

Keyboard

Double click and edit, or add, the following for each workspace:

Action: Maximise window
Shortcut: Ctrl+Alt+M

Action: Shade window
Shortcut: Ctrl-Alt-S

Action: Fill window
Shortcut: Ctrl-Alt-A

Action: Move windwos to left workspace
Shortcut: Shift-Ctrl-Alt-Left

Action: Move windwos to right workspace
Shortcut: Shift-Ctrl-Alt-Right

Action: Workspace 1
Shortcut: Alt+1

Action: Workspace 2
Shortcut: Alt+2

Keyboard

Application Shortcuts

Add the following…

Command: xfce4-terminal
Shortcut: Super+A

Command: google-chrome --profile-directory="Default"
Shortcut: Super-C

Command: thunderbird-bin --no-remote -P default
Shortcut: Super-H

Command: thunar
Shortcut: Super-T

Command: xfce4-mixer
Shortcut: Super-V

Command: amixer -D pulse set Master 1+ toggle
Shortcut: Super-M

Command: wmctrl -c :ACTIVE:
Shortcut: ctrl-q

Window Manager Tweaks

Placement

Slide the ‘Minimum size of windows to trigger smart placement’ all the way to the left towards ‘Small’.

Appearance

Style

Choose ‘Xfce’ style.

Panels

The number of panels and their placement was set via the Settings Manager -> Panel section, as detailed above.

1. Right click on the panel’s ‘Workspace switcher’, select ‘Move’ and drag it to the left next to ‘Applications’.
2. Right click on the panel’s ‘Clock’, select ‘Move’ and drag it to the right next to the ‘Action buttons’.
3. Right click on the panel’s ‘Clock’, select a ‘Custom Format’ and input ‘%d/%m/%Y %R’. This will show date and time.

Terminal

Open xfce4-terminal. Right click -> Preferences…

Appearance

1. Deselect ‘Allow bold text’.
2. Default geometry: 78 columns, 33 rows. (This allows me to fit 3x2 terminals on my screen)

Colors

1. Set ‘Presets’ to ‘Tango’.
2. Click on each colour that isn’t easy to see and half its saturation.

Last modified: 28/09/2015 Tags: xfce