Xfce Forum

jvdurme

Member

Registered: 2012-01-10

Posts: 6

Option to change behaviour of "Show Desktop" button (always minimize)

It would be great to have an option to alter the behaviour of the Show Desktop button of the panel (or just the Show Desktop function as a whole).

What happens now:

1. Open a few applications with windows
2. Press the Show Desktop icon in the panel
3. All windows get minimized and Desktop is shown
4. The Show Desktop button is now 'active' and shows a white border around it
5. Open another app with a window
6. Pressing the Show Desktop button again opens all windows again

What I would like to expect

6. Pressing the Show Desktop button again should minimize all windows again. Now it needs two presses.

So basically, I would like to see that the Show Desktop button always has the "minimize all windows" function when at least one window is open.
Which is the Windows and Gnome 2 behaviour.

Gnome 2 solves it like this:

1. Open some windows
2. Press Show Desktop icon in the panel
3. All windows get minimized and Desktop is shown
4. The Show Desktop button is now 'active' (as in xfce panel)
5. Open another app with a window
6. The Show Desktop button has now been deactivated as it detects a new open window
7. Pressing the Show Desktop button again minimizes all open windows

Would it be possible to change the xfce Show Desktop behaviour like this or at least add an option to change this behaviour so that the user can choose how it functions?

Thanks!

J.

EDIT: I'm using Unity with the XFCE4 panel. So perhaps it's an issue of Unity. Can someone confirm?

Last edited by jvdurme (2012-02-04 14:38:53)

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Xubuntu 12.04 Alpha 2

jvdurme

Member

Registered: 2012-01-10

Posts: 6

Re: Option to change behaviour of "Show Desktop" button (always minimize)

It's also an issue of the Xubuntu Show Desktop functionality.
Using:

wmctrl -k on

for now. Works for me.

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Xubuntu 12.04 Alpha 2

rudametw

Member

Registered: 2012-05-07

Posts: 4

Re: Option to change behaviour of "Show Desktop" button (always minimize)

+1.

The same behavior is seen with the keyboard shortcut configured here:
XFCE Settings -> Window Manager -> Keyboard -> Show Desktop

So basically, I would like to see that the Show Desktop button always has the "minimize all windows" function when at least one window is open.
Which is the Windows and Gnome 2 behaviour.

Show desktop does as you explained for new windows and windows that were already minimized before you pressed the "Show Desktop" button. Yet remarkably, it does what you expect (i.e., works properly in my opinion) for windows that were minimized by the "Show Desktop" button itself.

An example of when it works "right":
1) Open 3 windows
2) Click "show desktop" --> Show desktop is 'active', everything is hidden
3) Click on window1     --> Show desktop becomes 'inactive', shows window1
4) Click "show desktop" --> Show desktop is 'active', everything is hidden
5) Click "show desktop" --> Show desktop is 'inactive', shows window1 (YEAH!!!)

I feel this should be the default behavior for ALL windows, not only the ones that Show Desktop "learns/knows about". The current behavior is awkward, although some people might prefer it. Ideally, it should always minimize if any window is open. If no windows are open, it should un-minimize only the last windows that were minimized.

It would be nice if it was configurable.
It would also be great if it only worked on the current workspace, not all of them at the same time.

Regarding

It's also an issue of the Xubuntu Show Desktop functionality.
Using:

wmctrl -k on

for now. Works for me.

It's ok if you never bring the windows back up. When you want to bring the last windows you hid back up you'd have to call

wmctrl -k off

but it falls back on the broken behavior above.

Furthermore, wmctrl seems to break focusing for me with applications embedded into the background that never minimize (e.g., terminals with devilspie). It unfocuses them and I have to click on something somewhere else then back to regain focus. Terrible for terminals since my hands are on the keyboard, not the mouse. When I hide the panel and have a fullscreen terminal there's nothing else to click on!