Xfce Forum

puneet336

Member

Registered: 2024-01-10

Posts: 8

Window grouping = "Never" as XFCE Session default instead of "Always"

We have recently enabled support for the XFCE (Xfce 4.16) desktop in our datacenter. We use TigerVNC sessions to access the XFCE sessioons and we noticed that the application windows are now being grouped .

As soon as session is launched, seems the XFCE is enabling grouping by default.
grep grouping ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-panel.xml
      <property name="grouping" type="uint" value="1"/>

To be clear,  in the example  https://cdn.xfce.org/slider/panel_mobile.png , Thunar application has (2)  which means 2 Thunar instances were launched. We see similar when we launch multiple instances of text editor like gvim,

We are planning to deploy XFCE as default desktop environment in our infra and this can be very annoying to ~100 more users.

We know that each user can disable the windows grouping  using Settings > Settings Manager > Panel > Items > Windows Buttons > Window grouping = Never

But we would like the "Never" to be system wide default instead of "Always". Users are free to override the default using Settings Manager.

Could you please guide us that which system setting / file / configuration would help me in accomplishing that ?
I have tried using Rocky Linux 8.10  and RHEL 8 , seems default behavior of XFCE is same.

Please advice

Last edited by puneet336 (2024-08-01 17:10:07)

puneet336

Member

Registered: 2024-01-10

Posts: 8

Re: Window grouping = "Never" as XFCE Session default instead of "Always"

changes need to go in /etc/xdg/xfce4/panel/default.xml
   <property name="plugin-1" type="string" value="applicationsmenu"/>
    <property name="plugin-2" type="string" value="tasklist">
      <property name="grouping" type="uint" value="1"/>
    </property>
    <property name="plugin-3" type="string" value="separator">

      <property name="grouping" type="uint" value="1"/> should be       <property name="grouping" type="uint" value="0"/>

gogogadget

Member

Registered: 2023-03-19

Posts: 28

Re: Window grouping = "Never" as XFCE Session default instead of "Always"

changes need to go in /etc/xdg/xfce4/panel/default.xml

Yes, but this file will be overwritten every time xfce4-panel package is updated.

yay -Qo /etc/xdg/xfce4/panel/default.xml
/etc/xdg/xfce4/panel/default.xml is owned by xfce4-panel 4.18.6-1

I'm not sure if /etc/skel can be used for existing users, that would be the best solution.

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EndeavourOS
Xfce+gtk3-classic (no CSD)+Picom