Arch Linux

lifux

Member

Registered: 2025-12-03

Posts: 1

Xfces gone genious customizable titlebar & -buttons? Older Xfce maybe?

Hi,

I wasn't using Arch and Xfce for a few years (wasn't its/their fault). One detail I loved was the customizable titlebar. Just a right-click I believe, and there where loads of buttons and options available to extend or alter the   _ □  X -Microsoft-standard. What I miss most is the ︽ button (<< pointing to the top is what I believe to remember), the always-on-top. I installed this window-manager xfwm4...none. I know there is such an option ...in a drop-down-menu.... I toggled this feature non-stop. And you always use your mouse when needing it. Even for the almost mouse-less terminal windows all the time. You have your main application in the back, an dev-IDE, a browser whatever and all the time there must be a deamon monitored pinned on the top in a tiny terminal, or just the last few lines of another terminal - its outcome, it's too much to remember, a part of a post in a forum in which someone explains, what you have to do right now, texteditorS for notes, a chat-KI supporting you, someone who wants his face to be seen when talking to you, a translator, a calculator/wolfram-alpha/matlab, a part of a page of an ebook with the crucial information for this task to be done in this moment, the part of the pdf with the details on what you have to accomplish right now.... and...many...many...more!!!

It's so much that it is was brilliant to toggle this feature on and off that way but seemingly people don't mind digging out needed windows out of all these layers because of an accidental or even necessary click on a maximized window.

/edit
the key of this, if i didn't described well enough (what I probably just couldn't), you were able to click around, use , your applications with loads of supporting bonuses in front of - practically IN it. Because what supports you now might be disruptive by taking your sight and space for other windows very soon. These dynamics just SHOUT for such window functions!
/edit

Be forgiving please... I'm grieving... for a button....
Sorry for whining anyway....

So...
(1) What happened?
(2) Can I get this button back?
(3) Should I get an older Xfce? Would that make sense after all?

Thanks a lot good people!

Last edited by lifux (2025-12-03 20:20:06)

correctmost

Member

Registered: 2024-01-20

Posts: 21

Re: Xfces gone genious customizable titlebar & -buttons? Older Xfce maybe?

If you run xfwm4-settings, there's a "button layout" section on the initial tab that lets you customize the window buttons.  Are you referring to the "shade" (up arrow) button?

archaea

Member

Registered: 2025-10-20

Posts: 20

Re: Xfces gone genious customizable titlebar & -buttons? Older Xfce maybe?

Are you referring to the "shade" (up arrow) button?

No, they are seeking a button toggle for, right-click the titlebar > toggle between "Always on Top" and "Same as Other Windows".

I use Xfce for the last 10 years and I don't recall such button in xfwm4, but Xfce does not necessarily require using xfwm4, it is possible to use Xfce with some other window managers.

Alternatively, KDE's kwin window manager settings has option for "Keep above" button.