start [Xfce Docs]
Xfce Wiki
Sub domains
Docs
Archive
Wiki
Forum
Bugs
Blog
Translate
Git
You are here:
start
Xfce 4.20 Documentation
This website provides user documentation for the latest stable version of the Xfce desktop environment. Go to
Xfce 4.18
for the previous version.
Wayland support
in Xfce 4.20 is experimental. It is recommended for advanced users only, as you may encounter bugs and experience incomplete functionality.
See
component status and testing
for details.
Core Modules
Applications
External Plugins
Getting Started
Getting Started with Xfce
– Starting point for anyone who wants to use Xfce
Frequently Asked Questions
– General questions relating to Xfce and their answers
Building Xfce
– Instructions on how to compile Xfce from source
API Documentation
API
Documentation & Developer Information
How to Contribute
– Detailed information for new contributors
Bug Reporting and Fixing
Documentation for Xfce Applications
Core Modules
Application Finder (xfce4-appfinder)
– Application to quickly run applications and commands
Configuration Storage System (xfconf)
– D-Bus-based configuration storage system
Desktop Manager (xfdesktop)
– Configure the desktop background image, icons, launchers and folders
Development Tools (xfce4-dev-tools)
– A set of scripts and m4/autoconf macros that ease build system maintenance.
Helper Applications (exo)
– Manage preferred applications and edit .desktop files
File Manager (thunar)
– The fast and easy to use file manager for the Xfce Desktop
Menu Library (garcon)
– Library used for menu implementation
Panel (xfce4-panel)
– Application launchers, window buttons, applications menu, workspace switcher and more
Power Manager (xfce4-power-manager)
– Manage power sources and power consumption of devices
Session Manager (xfce4-session)
– Save the state of your desktop and restore it on the next startup
Settings Manager (xfce4-settings)
– The Settings daemon which persists many Xfce settings
Thumbnail Service (tumbler)
– A D-Bus service for applications to request thumbnails for various
URI
schemes and MIME types
Utility Sharing Library (libxfce4util)
– Library used to share commonly used non-GTK+ utilities among the Xfce applications
Widget Sharing Library (libxfce4ui)
– Used to share commonly used Xfce widgets among the Xfce applications
Widget Abstraction Library for X11 & Wayland (libxfce4windowing)
– Used to present windowing concepts (screens, toplevel windows, workspaces, etc.) in a windowing-system-independent manner.
Volume Manager (thunar-volman)
– Automatic management of removable devices in Thunar
Window Manager (xfwm4)
– Handles the placement of windows on the screen
Applications
Calendar application (orage)
– A fast and easy to use graphical time-managing application
CD Burning application (Xfburn)
– A simple CD/DVD burning tool.
Dictionary (xfce4-dict)
– allows you to search different kinds of dictionary services for words or phrases and shows you the results
File Search Utility (catfish)
– a versatile file search utility for the Xfce desktop
Image Viewer (ristretto)
– Image viewer for the Xfce desktop
Media player (parole)
– Media player for the Xfce desktop
Music Player Daemon (xfmpc)
– A graphical GTK+ Music Player Daemon (MPD) client focusing on low footprint
Notification service (xfce4-notifyd)
– Notification service for the Xfce desktop
Remote filesystem Utility (gigolo)
– A frontend to easily manage connections to remote filesystems.
Panel Profiles (xfce4-panel-profiles)
– A simple application to manage Xfce panel layouts
Screensaver Utility (xfce4-screensaver)
– A simple, secure screen saver and locker.
Screenshot application (xfce4-screenshooter)
– Take screenshots of your Xfce desktop
Taskmanager(xfce4-taskmanager)
– Easy to use task manager
Terminal Emulator (xfce4-terminal)
– Terminal emulator for the Xfce desktop
Text Editor (mousepad)
– A simple text editor for Xfce
Volume Control & Mixer (xfce4-mixer)
– A volume control application based & panel-plugin
Xfdashboard
– Provides a Gnome shell-like dashboard for Xfce
External Plugins
Battery
– A battery monitor panel plugin for Xfce4 compatible with APM and ACPI, for Linux and *BSD.
Calculator
– a calculator plugin for the Xfce4 panel.
Clipman
– A clipboard manager for Xfce
Cpufreq
– shows information about the CPU governor and frequencies supported and used by your system.
Cpugraph
– offers multiple display modes (LED, gradient, fire, etc…) to show the current CPU load of the system.
Datetime
– shows the date and time in the panel, and a calendar appears when you left-click on it.
Diskperf
– displays instant disk/partition performance (bytes transferred per second).
Docklike
– A modern, minimalist taskbar for Xfce.
Eyes
– Eyes that spy on you.
Fsguard
– checks the chosen mountpoint for free disk space.
Generic Slider
– A visual slider widget to control user-configurable variables(e.g. volume control)
Genmon
– spawns the indicated script/program, captures its output (stdout) and displays the resulting string into the panel.
Indicator
– small plugin written by Mark Trompell to display information from various applications consistently.
Mailwatch
– multi-threaded, multi-mailbox, multi-protocol plugin for checking mails periodically.
Mount
– a mount/umount utility for the panel.
Mpc
– client plugin for MPD, the Music Player Daemon
Netload
– displays the current load of the network interfaces, currently works on Linux, *BSD, Sun Solaris, HP_UX and MacOS X.
Notes
– provides sticky notes for your desktop.
Places
– a menu with quick access to folders, documents, and removable media.
PulseAudio Plugin
– Adjust audio volume and control media players on the Xfce desktop
Sample
– Sample plugin developers can use as a base for new panel-plugins
Sensors
– a hardware sensors plugin for the panel.
Smartbookmark
– allows you to do a search directly on Internet on sites like google or debian bugzilla.
Stopwatch
– Keep track of elapsed time.
Systemload
– Displays the current CPU load, the memory in use, the swap space and the system uptime.
Timer
– Lets the user run an alarm at a specified time or at the end of a specified countdown period.
Time-out
– for taking breaks from the computer every X minutes.
Verve
– A comfortable command line plugin for the Xfce panel.
Wavelan
– Display stats from a wireless lan interface (signal state, signal quality, network name (SSID)). It supports NetBSD, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, and Linux.
Weather
– Shows the current temperature and weather condition, using weather data provided by xoap.weather.com.
Whiskermenu
– A menu that provides access to favorites, recently used, and searching installed applications.
Windowck
– Place the maximized window title and windows buttons on the panel.
Xkb
– Setup and use multiple (currently up to 4 due to X11 protocol limitation) keyboard layouts.
Take a look at the
list of recommended applications
for more light-weight applications, recommended by Xfce users.
@xfce@floss.social
Check the
of this wiki to see all available wiki pages.
Tools
Recent Changes
Media Manager
start.txt
· Last modified:
2026/02/23 23:51
by
kevinbowen
Except where otherwise noted, content on this wiki is licensed under the following license:
CC Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International
Copyright 2003-2026 Xfce Development Team.