# Xfwm

Related articles

- Desktop environment
- Window manager
- Xfce
- Xorg

From Xfwm - Introduction:

  The Xfce 4 Window Manager is part of the Xfce Desktop Environment... The window manager is responsible for the placement of windows on the screen, provides the window decorations and allows you for instance to move, resize or close them. xfwm4 adheres strongly to the standards defined on freedesktop.org.

  Consequently, special features such as making windows borderless, or providing an icon for the application must now be implemented in the application; you can no longer use the window manager to force different behaviour.

  xfwm4 includes its own compositing manager, which takes advantage of the new X.org's server extensions. The compositor is like a WM on its own, it manages a stack of all windows, monitor all kinds on X event and reacts accordingly. Having the compositing manager embedded in the window manager also helps keeping the various visual effects in sync with window events.

## Installation

Install xfwm4 from the official repositories.

### Starting Xfwm

To run xfwm as stand-alone, edit your `~/.xinitrc` and add the following line

    exec xfwm4

It can also be started with its compositor turned off by adding the following line instead of the one above

    exec xfwm4 -compositor=off

## Configuration

### Changing settings through the binaries provided

Most of the xfwm settings can be accessed through the three binaries provided by the xfwm4 package from the official repository. These are `xfwm4-settins`, `xfwm4-tweaks-settings`, and `xfwm4-workspace-settings`.

#### Change the default theme, keybinding, focus settings, and workspace settings

To change the xfwm default theme, keybindings, focus settings and a few other options, execute:

    xfwm4-settings

Additional settings relevant to the topics above can be changed by executing

    xfwm4-tweaks-settings

To edit the number of workspaces and their names, execute

    xfwm4-workspace-settings

#### Extra settings provided by the xfce settings manager

Install xfce4-settings from the official repositories

Warning: Installing `xfce4-settings` may change the default applications for certain tasks. See xdg-open to set the default applications to your liking.

### Additional Themes

Install xfwm4-themes from the official repositories

The themes installed will be shown in the `xfwm4-settings` window.

## Tips & Tricks

### Hide the titlebar when window is maximized

Currently, Xfwm doesn't support this. So aur package xfwm4-titleless-dev is needed. If you want to use it with Xfce(xfce4-panel, actually), xfce4-windowck-plugin is also recommended to install.

After installation, run `xfwm4-tweaks-settings` and switch to `Accessibility`, then you will found a new check box -- Simply check it.

Note: xfwm4-titleless-dev conflicts with original xfwm4.

## Troubleshooting

### No icons shown in browser for downloaded items

This is fixed by installing xfce4-settings from the official repositories.

Category:

- Window managers