26/04/2014

[Linux] Xfce change show desktop keyboard shortcut

Trivially, this setting can be found under System Settings->Window Manager->Keyboard shortcuts, then just double click on a shortcut to input the new one. The default value is CTRL+ALT+D.

However, it may happen that the shortcut associated with the "Minimize all open windows and show desktop" behaviour does not work after logging out of the session or restarting the PC.

It is possible to fix this issue by manually editing the configuration in .config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts.xml

Look for the line containing show_desktop_key as value and alter it suiting your needs. For example, to set the shortcut as Super+D, use:



Note that the "show desktop" behaviour differs from the standard in Xfce. Usually, after minimizing everything then opening a new window and minimizing everything again, you'd see the desktop. In Xfce instead, the minimization is treated as a toggle so the second time you minimize everything, you're actually bringing all the previously minimized windows back up.

You can verify this by adding the "show desktop" button to the panel, then toggling the shortcut and seeing that the button is depicted as pressed and stays that way until you toggle the shortcut again.

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