Xfce

Xfce is an open source and freely distributed project that provides users with a standards-compliant and lightweight desktop environment for GNU/Linux operating systems. It has been designed from the ground up to be fast, while still being easy to use and visually appealing for the modern Linux user.

It's comprised of a window manager, desktop manager, panel, session manager, application finder, file manager, and setting manager. A default Xfce layout uses a top panel from where users can access the main menu and launch applications, and a dock (hidden by default) for launching your favorite programs.

Comes with its own applications

By default, the project comes with its own applications, among which we can mention the Thunar file manager, Midori web browser, Xfburn CD/DVD/BD burning software, Xfce Terminal terminal emulator, and Orage calendar. In addition, it includes the Ristretto image viewer, Xarchiver archive manager, Leafpad text editor, and Parole media player.

Supported CPU architectures and operating systems

The project can be installed on several UNIX-like platforms. It is known to compile on Linux, OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD, Solaris, Cygwin on Windows, and Mac OS X operating systems. Supported architectures include x86, x86_64, PPC, Sparc, Alpha, and others. Xfce is distributed by default in many Linux operating systems, including the well known Xubuntu.

Among other popular Linux distribution that use Xfce as their default desktop environment, we can mention Manjaro Linux Xfce, Salix OS, SolydX, Emmabuntüs, Linux Lite, PC/OS, and SalineOS. We should also mention that anyone can install the Xfce desktop environment alongside any other open source graphical interface for GNU/Linux OSes, directly from their default software repositories. Switching between them is easy from the login screen.

Bottom line

All in all, Xfce is a very accessible, easy to use and low on resources traditional desktop environment designed from the ground up to be deployed on GNU/Linux operating systems for low-end machines.

What is new in this release:

• Wrong g_return_if_fail macro used
• Fix icon moves and deletions
• Don't cache the pixbufs in single workspace mode
• Clear all pixels from drag highlight box (Bug 10450)
• Speed up template sub-menu loading code (Bug 7834)
• Always move files from the trash (Bug 3983)
• Fix template sub-menu loading code (Bug 10138)
• Fix menu popups via the command line
• Use the Path key of desktop files if a path is not set (Bug #8741)
• Correctly display settings defaults
• Fix some memory leaks
• Include the chronological option in the combobox
• Allow the font size to go to 0.
• Tooltip options in xfdesktop-settings
• Add a chronological backdrop cycle option
• Additonal backdrop cycle options
• More removable device icon types (Bug 4056)
• Add icons in an idle callback
• Right click issues persist (Bug 9323)
• Migrate backdrop settings from previous versions (Bug 10380)
• Set warnings as fatal
• Update manpage (Bug 7576)
• Allow renaming of multiple icons
• Translation updates: Arabic (ar), Bulgarian (bg), Chinese (China) (zh_CN), Chinese (Taiwan) (zh_TW), Dutch (Flemish) (nl), English (Australia) (en_AU), French (fr), Hungarian (hu), Icelandic (is), Italian (it), Kazakh (kk), Korean (ko), Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Portuguese (Brazilian) (pt_BR), Russian (ru), Serbian (sr), Spanish (Castilian) (es), Thai (th), Turkish (tr), Ukrainian (uk), and Uzbek (uz).

What is new in version 4.12.3:

• Wrong g_return_if_fail macro used
• Fix icon moves and deletions
• Don't cache the pixbufs in single workspace mode
• Clear all pixels from drag highlight box (Bug 10450)
• Speed up template sub-menu loading code (Bug 7834)
• Always move files from the trash (Bug 3983)
• Fix template sub-menu loading code (Bug 10138)
• Fix menu popups via the command line
• Use the Path key of desktop files if a path is not set (Bug #8741)
• Correctly display settings defaults
• Fix some memory leaks
• Include the chronological option in the combobox
• Allow the font size to go to 0.
• Tooltip options in xfdesktop-settings
• Add a chronological backdrop cycle option
• Additonal backdrop cycle options
• More removable device icon types (Bug 4056)
• Add icons in an idle callback
• Right click issues persist (Bug 9323)
• Migrate backdrop settings from previous versions (Bug 10380)
• Set warnings as fatal
• Update manpage (Bug 7576)
• Allow renaming of multiple icons
• Translation updates: Arabic (ar), Bulgarian (bg), Chinese (China) (zh_CN), Chinese (Taiwan) (zh_TW), Dutch (Flemish) (nl), English (Australia) (en_AU), French (fr), Hungarian (hu), Icelandic (is), Italian (it), Kazakh (kk), Korean (ko), Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Portuguese (Brazilian) (pt_BR), Russian (ru), Serbian (sr), Spanish (Castilian) (es), Thai (th), Turkish (tr), Ukrainian (uk), and Uzbek (uz).

What is new in version 4.12.1:

• Wrong g_return_if_fail macro used
• Fix icon moves and deletions
• Don't cache the pixbufs in single workspace mode
• Clear all pixels from drag highlight box (Bug 10450)
• Speed up template sub-menu loading code (Bug 7834)
• Always move files from the trash (Bug 3983)
• Fix template sub-menu loading code (Bug 10138)
• Fix menu popups via the command line
• Use the Path key of desktop files if a path is not set (Bug #8741)
• Correctly display settings defaults
• Fix some memory leaks
• Include the chronological option in the combobox
• Allow the font size to go to 0.
• Tooltip options in xfdesktop-settings
• Add a chronological backdrop cycle option
• Additonal backdrop cycle options
• More removable device icon types (Bug 4056)
• Add icons in an idle callback
• Right click issues persist (Bug 9323)
• Migrate backdrop settings from previous versions (Bug 10380)
• Set warnings as fatal
• Update manpage (Bug 7576)
• Allow renaming of multiple icons
• Translation updates: Arabic (ar), Bulgarian (bg), Chinese (China) (zh_CN), Chinese (Taiwan) (zh_TW), Dutch (Flemish) (nl), English (Australia) (en_AU), French (fr), Hungarian (hu), Icelandic (is), Italian (it), Kazakh (kk), Korean (ko), Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Portuguese (Brazilian) (pt_BR), Russian (ru), Serbian (sr), Spanish (Castilian) (es), Thai (th), Turkish (tr), Ukrainian (uk), and Uzbek (uz).

What is new in version 4.10.3:

• Wrong g_return_if_fail macro used
• Fix icon moves and deletions
• Don't cache the pixbufs in single workspace mode
• Clear all pixels from drag highlight box (Bug 10450)
• Speed up template sub-menu loading code (Bug 7834)
• Always move files from the trash (Bug 3983)
• Fix template sub-menu loading code (Bug 10138)
• Fix menu popups via the command line
• Use the Path key of desktop files if a path is not set (Bug #8741)
• Correctly display settings defaults
• Fix some memory leaks
• Include the chronological option in the combobox
• Allow the font size to go to 0.
• Tooltip options in xfdesktop-settings
• Add a chronological backdrop cycle option
• Additonal backdrop cycle options
• More removable device icon types (Bug 4056)
• Add icons in an idle callback
• Right click issues persist (Bug 9323)
• Migrate backdrop settings from previous versions (Bug 10380)
• Set warnings as fatal
• Update manpage (Bug 7576)
• Allow renaming of multiple icons
• Translation updates: Arabic (ar), Bulgarian (bg), Chinese (China) (zh_CN), Chinese (Taiwan) (zh_TW), Dutch (Flemish) (nl), English (Australia) (en_AU), French (fr), Hungarian (hu), Icelandic (is), Italian (it), Kazakh (kk), Korean (ko), Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Portuguese (Brazilian) (pt_BR), Russian (ru), Serbian (sr), Spanish (Castilian) (es), Thai (th), Turkish (tr), Ukrainian (uk), and Uzbek (uz).

What is new in version 4.10 Pre1:

• Dependency Changes:
• GTK+ dependency >= 2.20 and GLib >= 2.24.
• Libxfce4util soname changed.
• Garcon has a new libxfce4util dependency.
• Exo has a new libxfce4ui dependency.
• Libxfce4util only depends on glib (was gobject).
• Xfce-utils is not needed anymore. Functionality has been moved in xfce4-session, libxfce4ui, xfce4-appfinder or is removed.
• Xfce4-session does not (optionally) depend on xfce4-panel anymore. The plugin has been integrated with the actions xfce4-panel plugin.
• Xfce4-session does not check for consolekit, hal, upower and polkit. It has soft dependencies on consolekit and upower (communication over DBus).
• Xfce4-session does not (optionally) depend on gconf anymore.
• Development Tools (xfce4-dev-tools):
• Add support for LT_PREREQ (bug #6920).
• Remove spec file and rpm build target.
• Do not create a gzip tarball.
• Never use xdt-autogen in autogen.sh.
• Fix FSF address and add missing licenses.
• Only use -fstack-protector on Linux systems.
• Don't use -g3 for full debugging.
• Support xldscope for Sun Studio.
• Skip -Wredundant-decls on OpenBSD.
• Disable --as-needed on OpenBSD (bug #7546).
• Use pkg-config macro for detection (bug #7787).
• Port exo-csource to xdt-csource (bug #6449).
• Utility Library (libxfce4util):
• Make licenses static. You can only use xfce_get_license_text(...).
• Remove unused .h files.
• Remove xfce_strip_context(), use g_strip_context().
• Remove XfceDesktopEntry.
• Don't generate enum types.
• Only link against glib.
• Set version string to 4.10.
• Remove spec file and rpm build.
• Missing fallback for AC_RUN_IF_ELSE() when cross-compiling (bug #8166).
• Fix XfceRc group parsing with brackets in name (bug #8150).
• Reduce XfceRc structure size from from 216 to 176 bytes.
• Use some macros and drop unneeded strlen's in XfceRc.
• Use GSList in xfce-resource.
• Bump verinfo to 6:0:0.
• Widget Library (libxfce4ui):
• Open docs.xfce.org when Help in xfce4-about is clicked.
• Cache header icons and avoid large icons in XfceTitledDialog.
• Restore glade directory information in .pc file.
• Update translator credits.
• A lot of improvements in the shortcuts code.
• Add Alt + F1 as a shortcut for applications menu.
• Remove unused code from the internal header widget.
• Add xfce4-about from xfce-utils package.
• Use xdt-csource instead of exo-csource, depend on xdt 4.9.0.
• Update to new xfce4-appfinder commands.
• Fix build against 3.9 Glade (bug #7334).
• Add shortcuts for XF86WWW and XF86Mail.
• Simplify the xfce_gdk_screen_get_active fucntion.
• Add xfce_dialog_show_help function.
• Extension Library (exo):
• Drop gtk 2.24 api (bug #8461).
• Bump libxfce4ui dependency for help function.
• Send exo-open startup-id to child instead of using it (bug #7093).
• Add preferred app helper for Chromium (bug #8398).
• Remove package manuals and link to online documentation.
• Queue an icon view resize if the requesitions don't match.
• Add new API exo_icon_view_get_item_{column,row}.
• Add keynav-failed to ExoIconView.
• Show Preferred Application in settings category.
• Don't destroy already destroyed widget.
• Translation updates: Chinese, Portuguese, Lithuanian, Norwegian, German, Bulgarian.
• Do not insert symlink icons in the icon chooser.
• Use libxfce4ui instead of support library.
• Drop the python bindings.
• Use new libtool macros and versions (bug #6920).
• Remove spec file and rpm build.
• Silenty save to local application is permission denied to origional file in exo-desktop-item-edit.
• Support hexadecimal xid and center exo-desktop-item-edit on parent.
• File Manager (thunar):
• Fix crash when trying to thumbnail a file with unknown content type.
• Fix properties dialog crash with files with unknown content type.
• Fix crash when hovering a CD drive with a special icon (bug #7309).
• Use portable abicheck.sh from xfconf.
• Avoid segfaults due to interpreting display names as format strings.
• Improve the UI according to bugs #7496 and #7497.
• Treat backup files as hidden as with thunar-vfs (bug #7615).
• Fix crash when opening a mountable drive with no media (bug #7308) in a way that does not break SMB shares (#bug 7774).
• Fix segfaults in case icons are missing or not found (bug #7880).
• Allow exec bit of MS-DOS executables and MSI to be changed (bug #3545).
• Prevent falling back to an unexpected locale (bug #4746).
• Show translated names of desktop files (bug #7393).
• Fix sorting of filenames with large numbers (bug #5356). Patch by Eric Koegel.
• Respect ThunarIconFactory::show-thumbnails. Fixes a regression.
• Fix crash when removing an ancestor of the current folder (bug #8168).
• Fix handling %U when launching multiple files with an app (bug #7456).
• Improve sorting of file names that include numbers (bug #5359, bug #8022, #4269, #5286).
• Add a "Skip All" button to the file overwrite dialog (bug #4263).
• Compress icons and images.
• Remove the manual.
• Use 32 instead of 36 pixels for small icons.
• Show Thunar settings in category.
• Don't update UI more then fourth per second in deep count job.
• Fix sorting of applications in chooser dialog.
• Depend on Gtk 2.20 and Glib 2.24 and drop some workarounds.
• Fix removing custom application launchers again.
• Prevent looping in some renamers.
• Fix segfault when plugin returns a NULL suffix.
• Remove spec file, rpm build and update libtool.
• Lowercase the thunar executable and install a Thunar symlink.
• Make the clipboard persistence (bug #7060).
• Use glib functions for get/set cwd (bug #7522).
• Don't interpret file display names as format strings
• Paste files in correct order (bug #6504).
• Fix truncated strings when loading and storing emblems (bug #7171).
• Only erase top-level items from trash (bug #7147).
• Don't interpret file display names as format strings (bug #7128).
• Ship stock_folder-copy.png and stock_folder-move.png icons with Thunar itself (bug #6851).
• Fix segfault when calling strcasecmp with NULL parameters (bug #7206).
• Only change the Name field when renaming desktop files (bug #7155).
• Force desktop file reload after changing the Name field.
• Fix memory leak caused by not destroying the rename job.
• Allow installation of helper scripts in a custom location using the --with-helper-path-prefix=PATH configure option.
• Improve thumbnailing by avoid sending thumbnail requests while theuser is scrolling in a directory.
• Cancel thumbnail requests when leaving a directory.
• Avoid regenerating thumbnails when files are copied, moved, linked or trashed.
• Update the thumbnail cache when files are deleted permanently.
• Application Finder (xfce4-appfinder):
• Add Help button to preferences dialog.
• Make sure the header icon does not shrink (bug #8489).
• Set single line label for icon sizes is small (bug #8490).
• Add option to disable the background service.
• Block maximize and fullscreen in collapsed mode (bug #8491).
• Chain-up unmap.
• Start in collapsed mode if xfrun4 symlink is used.
• Select entry when Ctrl+L is pressed.
• Quit the mainloop when receiving an exit signal.
• Avoid xfconf error when closing windows on quit.
• Add icon view mode and add preferences to set icon sizes.
• Only show categories with items.
• Add keybinds to switch modes (Ctrl-1 and Ctrl-2).
• Improve reloading of items and directories.
• Add popup menu to edit, hide and revert desktop files.
• Add refcount debugging.
• Remove xfrun from the utility menu.
• Fix some segfaults.
• Add option to save custom command matches.
• Insert and reload history command in model.
• Change treeview filter prio to avoid window resize.
• Add left/right navigation to the treeviews.
• Add a custom completion match function.
• Use long option, looks better in code completion.
• Drop usage of new Gdk keycode api (bug #8044).
• Fix launching in collapsed mode.
• Don't ignore arguments of the desktop file command.
• Always allow up/down unless the completion menu is shown.
• Fix segfault when loading default actions.
• Rewrite of the the application finder to merge the functionality of the appfinder as we know it in 4.8 and xfrun4 (start with --collapsed).
• Panel (xfce4-panel):
• Panel: Don't destroy window when focussed and Alt+F4 is pressed (bug #7378).
• Panel: Use new help function to redirect to docs.xfce.org.
• Docs: Remove mallard documentation.
• Docs: Don't install the gtkrc README.
• Clock: Don't use sigval_t (bug #8297).
• Panel: Add support for pluggable dialogs.
• Panel: Save changed plugin ids if a plugin failed to load.
• Directorymenu: Fix prefered app not working without snotify (bug #8298).
• Launcher: Small=FALSE in deskbar mode with label visible.
• Actions: Limit size of action buttons to row size.
• Panel: Removed item size checks.
• Clock: Fixing clock orientation in vertical/deskbar mode.
• Pager: Fixing infinite loopin in the WNCK pager aspect ratio workaround.
• Pager: Fixing plugin->size updates.
• Pager: Fixed workspace ordering in the vertical mode.
• Pager: Workaround for aspect ratio error in WNCK pager in deskbar mode.
• Pager: Changing orientation depending on the panel mode.
• Clock: Changing default value of rotate-vertically to TRUE.
• Pager: Fixed preprocessor macro.
• Pager: Removing broken workaround for aspect ratio in deskbar mode.
• Pager: Making use of a fixed libwnck version (>=2.31.0).
• Revert "Use realtime POSIX timers for the clock."
• Revert "Clock: Don't use sigval_t (bug #8297)."
• Launcher: Show the desktop file in the tooltip (bug #8536).
• Panel: Make string in about translatable (bug #8545).
• Panel: Don't ask for panel when inserting items (bug #8544).
• Panel: Reply to the caller for plugin events (bug #7365).
• Applicationsmenu: Fall-back to xfdesktop for xfce4-popup-applicationsmenu (bug #7365).
• Applicationsmenu: Recurse application menu selection-done gignal (bug #8541).
• Panel: Add (un)lock option to panel menu (bug #6980).
• Panel: Add confirmation before creating launchers from dnd (bug #6926).
• Applicationsmenu: Allow non-squared icons in applications button (bug #7381).
• Panel: Save plugin-ids when removing and moving items in ed.
• Tasklist: Bringing back 4.8 max-button-size property.
• Tasklist: Capping buttons height when button labels are visible.
• Tasklist: Reverting "ceil" to "floor" (as in 4.8).
• Actions: Query visibility and save as strings.
• Panel: Add option in preferences dialog to disable struts (bug #7202).
• Showdesktop: Allow middle-click to shade windows (bug #7177).
• Panel: Add style property to control size of autohide window.
• Panel: Make compositing settings insensitive (bug #7862).
• Tasklist: Add option to disable mouse scrolling (bug #6996).
• Tasklist: Make the plugin shrink instead of expand (bug #7389, #7129).
• Drop AC_PROG_LIBTOOL and AC_DISABLE_STATIC for LT_PREREQ and LT_INIT.
• Clock: Use realtime POSIX timers for the clock.
• Actions: Merge functionality of xfce4-session plugin.
• Applicationmenu: Show menu on button-press-event (bug #8047).
• Migrate: Add version based config migration.
• Clock: Fix typo in tooltip (bug #8137).
• General: Add deskbar mode and nrows property to plugins.
• General: Add small property for plugins.
• Separator: Remove new line option.
• General: Make plugins work with deskbar mode and small property.
• Panel: Change drop highlighting to a red line.
• Applicationmenu: Reload menu on directory changes.
• Panel: Make sure the panel has a position on startup (bug #8287).
• Panel: Work with a unique id for each panel.
• Panel: Remove autosaving on exit and with timeout.
• Panel: Only save what is required and when needed.
• Docs: Update to latest version.
• Session Manager (xfce4-session):
• Add accelerators to logout dialog buttons (bug #6982).
• Add support for starting assistive technologies.
• Remove optional dependency for gconf.
• Remove Xfce4-tips.
• Remove early xfsettingsd autostart and add it to the session.
• Fix crash if save timeout for a client is triggered (bug #7320).
• Add a way to delete sessions (Bug #5730).
• Drop usage of G_CONST_RETURN macro.
• Add Xft.xrdb, startxfce4, xinit, xfce.desktop and xflock4 files from xfce-utils.
• Explicitly link to libm where needed (bug #7953).
• Remove the xfce4-panel logout menu plugin.
• Don't try to remove the $HOME directory (bug #8154).
• Remove manual and link to docs.xfce.org.
• Show dialog in settings category.
• Link to gmodule (bug #8340).
• Improve fadeout code with compositing enabled.
• Start screensaver with autostart.
• Support the TryExec key for autostart in the settings dialog.
• Rework the logout dialog code.
• Cleanup the power management code.
• Let xfce4-session handle the dbus-launch checking.
• Add support for launching xfce4-session in consolekit.
• Add --with-ck-launch support to startxfce4.
• Add option to lock the screen on suspend/hibernate.
• Remove unused icons.
• Show all applications in autostart (bug #8014).
• Drop gpg-agent and ssh-agent handling.
• Settings Manager (xfce4-settings):
• Xfsettingsd: Don't set large dpi in xrdb (bug #8415).
• Include xscreensaver in the manager dialog.
• Complete theme installation script.
• Settings editor: Set sensitivity of save button on init.
• Xfsettingsd: Properly round display refresh rate to find match.
• Add mime icons in the mime-editor treeview.
• Store window and column sizes in xfconf.
• Add cateogry based settings manager.
• Re-add support for pluggable dialogs and enable them always.
• Rework settings editor.
• Clear out keyboard shortcuts before resetting to defaults (bug #8138).
• Use daemon() for xfsettingsd if available.
• Hide the xfconfd-already running message completely.
• Excluded items with NoDisplay=true in the settings dialog.
• Remove duplicated accelerators (bug #7734).
• Add theme dnd-installation by dropping in a treeview.
• Drop AC_LIBTOOL in favor of LT_PREREQ and LT_INIT.
• Wait for the window manager before setting workspace names.
• Add option to disable numlock restoring (bug #8302).
• Add Help button and make existing buttons work with wiki.
• Add new MIME Type editor.
• Depend on Gtk+ 2.20 and Glib 2.24.
• Merge xfce4-settings-helper into xfsettingsd.
• Add support to xfsettingsd for pointing device properties.
• Rework the mouse dialog and add support for basic synaptics and wacom settings.
• Add option to enable assistive technologies during login.
• Add fontconfig monitoring (bug #5011).
• Improved debugging with XFSETTINGSD_DEBUG=1.
• Configuration Manager (xfconf):
• Use sh as interpreter in tests.
• Add hook to skip the xfconf tests.
• Make the abicheck work on Solaris and PPC64 (bug #7416).
• Fix licenses and use new FSF address.
• Fix compiler warnings on Solaris.
• Avoid GCC 4.6 compiler warning.
• Add toggle option to xfconf-query.
• Remove unusable import and export options from xfconf-query.
• Translate all error strings in xfconf-query.
• Cleanup Makefile.am files a bit.
• Improve --version output in xfconf-query.
• Cleanup #includes.
• Drop usage of the G_CONST_RETURN macro.
• Desktop Manager (xfdesktop):
• Fix menu without desktop icons.
• Enable pseudo-transparent backgrounds again.
• Prevent multiple instances of xfdesktop from running (bug #8488).
• Change xfdesktop's menu icon to "applications-other" (bug #8500).
• Keep the image width to something sensible for xfdesktop-settings (bug #7086).
• Use the preferred file manager when opening folders (bug #6537).
• Drop AC_PROG_LIBTOOL for LT_PREREQ and LT_INIT.
• Remove docs and link to wiki.
• Thumbnail desktop icon previews using tumblerd.
• Added a check for GDK_GRAB_INVALID_TIME in xfdesktop_popup_grab_available to mitigate slow menu popups on a right mouse click (bug #7172).
• Add the code required to perform a paste on the on the desktop (bug #3804).
• Display correct trash icon on menu and desktop.
• Fix for shift + drag selections/
• Icon positions are saved/restored per resolution.
• Backdrop image cycling on a timer.
• Modified xfdesktop_icon_view_drag_drop to allow all selected files to drag and drop (bug #5025).
• Fix for moving files instead of copy when src isn't writable.
• Fix typos in the README file.
• Unmounted volumes are semi-transparent.
• Stretch background across all monitors setting (bug #5690).
• Arrange icons on the desktop menu item (bug #2833).
• Single click option to open items on desktop (bug #1797).
• Require libexo and update min requirements in readme.
• Comments in .desktop files are displayed in the tooltip (bug #8509).
• Window Manager (xfwm4):
• Add tiling feature (bug #6648).
• Navigate with arrows in task switcher (bug #4752).
• Show dialogs in settings category.
• Do not cancel pending focus transition and use actual meaningful timestamp to avoid setting focus on wrong window in focus follow mouse (Bug #8323).
• Remove docbook documentation.
• Remove older themes from main package (moved to xfwm4-themes now).
• Add patch for themeable tab-window (bug #8238).
• Use themeable icons for the settings manager and the menu, rework the default icons for the settings manager and the window menu and add SVG version.
• Reintroduce the double-click timeout.
• Drop AC_PROG_LIBTOOL in favor of LT_PREREQ and LT_INIT.
• Simply double click detection logic.
• Add special icons for the button layout in settings.
• Remove some XFlush() calls.
• Upon restart, restore the previous selected workspace.
• Improve horizontal/vertical maximization toggle so that de-maximizing in either direction while fully maximized gives the expected maximization result.
• Change the default theme to differentiate from 4.8.
• Update mouse cursor theme and size dynamically (bug #6854).
• Optimize transients for group evaluation while withdrawing windows.
• Increase timeout for other WM to exit with "--replace",
• Rework focus and fullscreen windows to make xfwm4 simpler and more predictable.
• Get rid of old GNOME 1.x protocol.
• Get rid of legacy fullscreen emulation.
• Theme Engine (gtk-xfce-engine):
• Improved menu theming
• Theme gtk-tooltip (bug #8494).
• Scale radio and check boxes (bug #8456).
• Draw inset border around default button (bug #8454).
• Changed rendering of GtkSpinButton.
• Pixel align checkboxes in the Gtk+-3.0 engine.
• Link against libm (bug #6253).
• Added Gtk+-3.0 theming engine.
• Changed drawing routines to use cairo.

What is new in version 4.6 Beta 2:

• Development tools (xfce4-dev-tools):
• Add support for git (and git-svn) to the xdt-commit script (bug #4491).
• Utility Library (libxfce4util):
• Increment library version to avoid having a 4.6 library version older then the one in 4.4.
• Place G_GNUC_INTERNAL before function declaration for Sun Studio compatibility (bug #4580).
• Updated translations: Jari Rahkonen (fi), Abel Martin (es)
• Widget Library (libxfcegui4):
• add libxfce4kbd for keyboard-shortcut support
• Fix format-string vulnerabilities in 'message_dialog' and 'xfce_confirm'
• Improve SessionManagement support
• Update translations (de, es, pt_BR, eu, ku, cs, id, fi, sq, nb_NO)
• Extension Library (exo):
• Make Preferred Applications dialog pluggable into the new settings manager.
• Menu Library (libxfce4menu):
• Updated translations: ca, da, ku, nb_NO, sq, tr.
• Window Manager (xfwm4):
• Add support for restart style SmRestartImmediately.
• Add support for NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW.
• Add client windows to save set to avoid loosing all windows in case of crash.
• Rework the window menu to improve consistency with libwnck menu (bug #4531).
• Simplify management of transients.
• Add support for keyboard shortcuts (bug #4492).
• Add new option do disable blinking of urgent windows.
• Fix possible crash when the dbl_click_action setting gets unset.
• Fix workspaces names not being set in the workspace settings GUI.
• Do not display warnings for values that are not configurable via xfconf (typically theme settings).
• Draw focus in tabwin to make sure the selection is visible even with themes that do not show selected items.
• Add key shortcut for reverse cycling (bug #2778)
• Desktop Manager (xfdesktop):
• Display 'Audio' and 'Video' categories in the multimedia submenu.
• Fix multiple image selection in settings dialog file chooser (bug #4522).
• Panel (xfce4-panel):
• Remove signal disconnect left after the patch of bug #4474.
• Fix xrandr problem so it's possible to change the panel's monitor after a monitor has been removed (bug #3620).
• Panel does not adhere to 'fullwidth' property when using vertical orientation after restarting (bug #4456).
• Implement SmRestartImmediately (bug #4516).
• Reverse the order of the launcher menu when the panel is on the top of the screen (bug #4450).
• Don't spawn zombies (bug #4490).
• Quote commands in the launcher when selecting an application (bug #4507,bug #4549).
• Restore panel workspace names after panel restart (bug #4589).
• Update the tooltip of the clock when it is visible.
• Session Manager (xfce4-session):
• Hook up Help button in settings dialog.
• Implement support for the RestartImmediately restart style hint.
• Fix possible crash with uninitialised GError (bug #4202).
• Link libxfsm against all required libs to avoid link-time errors (bug #4429).
• Make splash engines store their settings in Xfconf.
• Handle the ProcessID SM property properly.
• Add a session editor to the settings dialog.
• Fix compilation on some Linux systems with a broken linux/ioprio.h header (bug #4515).
• Fix a possible crash on amd64 (bug #4510).
• Add support for suspend and hibernate via HAL. Initial patch from Michael Casadevall (bug #2672).
• When restoring clients on startup, be sure to set their current working directory if the cwd was set as a part of their saved state.
• Add SaveSession kiosk capability (bug #2998).
• When a client requests interaction, don't continue to kill all other clients while it's still interacting. And then don't ignore it when it wants to cancel shutdown. Also fixes a similar problem when interaction is requested during a phase 2 save-yourself (bug #4284).
• Settings Manager (xfce4-settings):
• Add an option to disable keyboard settings.
• Default to "Rodent" icon theme instead of "hicolor" (bug #4545)
• Use XfcePosixSignalHandler in xfce4-settings-helper to handle signals, since calling gtk_main_quit() from a signal handler may not be safe.
• Make xfce4-settings-helper connect to the session manager and use the SmRestartImmediately facility to make sure it keeps running. Disable the autostart .desktop file if we were restored from a saved session. Attempt to acquire an X selection on startup to ensure multiple copies of the helper aren't running (bug #4577).
• Configuration Manager (xfconf):
• Add xfconf_channel_new_with_property_base() to restrict a channel to a subset of the property tree.
• Add a dbus message filter to xfconfd that catches dbus daemon disconnect signals and flushes channels before xfconfd gets killed (bug #4487).
• Change libxfconf GObject bindings API slightly to use gulong IDs for each binding to be used when removing bindings. Extend the unbind functions a bit.
• Bump libxfconf interface version due to incompatible change.
• Add libxfconf perl bindings.
• Remove xfconf_channel_remove_property() and xfconf_channel_remove_properties().
• Only treat the XML file under $XDG_CONFIG_HOME as a "user" file, and treat all others as system files. This fixes the problem where Xfce-installed defaults get read *after* the user's config when Xfce is installed to a user-writable prefix (bug #4592).
• Fix build on Cygwin and other platforms that actually care about library link order (bug #4559).
• File Manager (thunar):
• Fix build on MacOS X (bug #4433).
• Don't create Thunar -> thunar symlink on case-insensitive filesystems (bug #4430).
• Add thunar-wallpaper-plugin for setting the wallpaper on xfdesktop >= 4.5.90
• Mixer (xfce4-mixer):
• Use xfconf_channel_reset_property() instead xfconf_channel_remove_property().
• Rename stock icons and install them as application icons to $(pkgdatadir)/icons/hicolor. Remove stock code.
• Change step and page increment size of the panel plugin to 1%.
• Fix license headers to use GPL everywhere.
• Use "multimedia-volume-control" icon in the desktop entry.
• Fix build with GStreamer < 0.10.14.
• Translation updates: Carles Munos Gorriz (ca), Abel Martin (es), Csecsey Karoly (hu). Andhika Padmawan (id), Terje Uriansrud (nb_NO) Gokmen Gorgen (tr).
• Utilities (xfce-utils):
• Migrate xfce4-session splash settings to xfconf.
• Be sure $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/autostart exists when creating .desktop file to disable xfconf migration script.
• Migrate xfwm4 keyboard shortcuts to new xfconf format.
• Application Finder (xfce4-appfinder):
• Fix runtime warnings and toplevel menu items always being displayed on top of every category.
• Translation updates: Carles Munoz Gorriz (ca), Abel Martin (es), Maximilian Schleiss (fr), Andhika Padmawan (id), Terje Uriansrud (nb_NO)

What is new in version 4.6 Beta 1:

• Xfwm4 can now detect if a program is unresponsive. It will show a dialog to let the user kill it.
• Xfce4-session will start up significantly faster by using parallel startup.
• It is possible to configure the keyboard-layout.
• Toggling event-sounds with libcanberra + gtk 2.14 is now possible (meaning: you can turn them off).