Xfce Forum

Fragrant1470

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2025-03-01

Posts: 16

How to show app icons in application finder?

In the Application Finder, on my default installation, each app had a big icon and app name, and the path below the app name in smaller font (irrc). To be honest, I changed some appearance settings, and now they're gone. I could not manage to get them back, updating the settings I recall. Having only the app paths is unreadable.

Image: https://www.idrive.com/idrive/sh/sh?k=h7l1a1l5a6.

Instructions on uploading images are unclear. It says to include a link inside the tag, and it will be displayed, but it implies it has to be uploaded on XFCE somewhere first, but there is no way to do that.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,939

Re: How to show app icons in application finder?

It appears you are running xfce4-appfinder in collapsed mode. If you click the down arrow at the end of the entry field, you should get the icon display.

Alternatively, if you are starting it from a shortcut, edit the shortcut to remove the "--collapsed" parameter so it starts in icon mode by default.

Instructions on uploading images are unclear. It says to include a link inside the tag, and it will be displayed, but it implies it has to be uploaded on XFCE somewhere first, but there is no way to do that.

The image hosting site needs to support bbcode. It appears that iDrive does not. In that case, simply displaying the link like you have will suffice. Or alternatively, use an image hosting site that supports bbcode.

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k3dAR

Member

From: Czech Republic

Registered: 2022-07-27

Posts: 112

Re: How to show app icons in application finder?

not sure if is default in Xubuntu or also in main Xfce and/or other distros, but here is hotkeys:
Alt+F2 - show in collapsed mode (without icons, but with command history)
Alt+F3 - show in normal/expanded mode (with icons, without command history)

Fragrant1470

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2025-03-01

Posts: 16

Re: How to show app icons in application finder?

not sure if is default in Xubuntu or also in main Xfce and/or other distros, but here is hotkeys:
Alt+F2 - show in collapsed mode (without icons, but with command history)
Alt+F3 - show in normal/expanded mode (with icons, without command history)

Hmm, where are hotkeys for appfinder stored by default? I'm on Debian 12.

eriefisher

Wanderer

From: ON, Canada

Registered: 2008-10-25

Posts: 713

Re: How to show app icons in application finder?

Hmm, where are hotkeys for appfinder stored by default? I'm on Debian 12.

Settings>>Keyboard>>Application Shortcuts

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I AM CANADIAN!
Siduction
Debian Sid
Xfce 4.20 with Wayland/Labwc

Fragrant1470

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2025-03-01

Posts: 16

Re: How to show app icons in application finder?

Hmm, where are hotkeys for appfinder stored by default? I'm on Debian 12.

Settings>>Keyboard>>Application Shortcuts

Ah, I asked because I thought they're in a special place for appfinder. Yes, these are the defaults.

I launch appfinder through Applications > Run program and then it's collapsed by default. How can I change this?

eriefisher

Wanderer

From: ON, Canada

Registered: 2008-10-25

Posts: 713

Re: How to show app icons in application finder?

/usr/share/applications/xfce4-run.desktop

Open as root in a text editor and change the "Exec" line by removing "--collapsed".

---

I AM CANADIAN!
Siduction
Debian Sid
Xfce 4.20 with Wayland/Labwc

Fragrant1470

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2025-03-01

Posts: 16

Re: How to show app icons in application finder?

Yes, that worked!

/usr/share/applications/xfce4-run.desktop

Open as root in a text editor and change the "Exec" line by removing "--collapsed".

k3dAR

Member

From: Czech Republic

Registered: 2022-07-27

Posts: 112

Re: How to show app icons in application finder?

/usr/share/applications/xfce4-run.desktop

Open as root in a text editor and change the "Exec" line by removing "--collapsed".

but this way, change be replaced by default in future xfce4-appfinder package updated ;-)

so i recommend one:

GUI way - in menulibre (Menu Editor)
- search: xfce4-run
- in "command" field remove "--collapsed"
- click on Save icon

CLI way
- mkdir -p ~/.local/share/applications
- cp /usr/share/applications/xfce4-run.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/
and remove "--collapsed" in ~/.local/share/applications/xfce4-run.desktop

For revert change simply:
rm ~/.local/share/applications/xfce4-run.desktop

BTW: menulibre internaly doing exact same as descibed in CLI way