Arch Linux

Anniekin

Member

Registered: 2010-03-23

Posts: 55

How-to bind your 'windows' key to the Xfce menu

Hi all,

I found the following info from another forum.

Anyone know a way to make it open the taskbar menu instead of the desktop one?

A few folks on irc found this useful, so I thought I'd post it here. This allows you to bind your 'windows' key to the desktop right-click menu or middle-click menu, for example.

By default, the windows key is considered Super_L, a modifier key. Therefore you'd have to bind a command to windows+[some_key], which is not what we want. So what you want to do is re-map your windows key so that it's not a modifier. The easiest way to do this is to use xmodmap like so:

Code:

xmodmap -e "keycode 115 = Menu" &

"Menu" above specifies that when you press the windows key, it will pop-up the app's menu. We will later overwrite this to pop-up an Xfce menu. The 115 above is the keycode for the windows key. It should work for most people, but you can verify what it is for you with xev.

Now that you've changed your windows key to Menu, you can use it with one of the following shortcuts:

Code:

xfdesktop -menu     <-- pops up the right-click menu
xfdesktop -windowlist    <-- pops up the middle-click window list

If this all works out for you, you may wish to put the xmodmap command in your .xinitrc or .xsession file so that it will execute on startup. It definitely works with xfce-4.4 (svn) and I've heard it works in 4.2 as well (it should anyway).

Mod edit - replaced code tags with quote tags to improve readability. tomk

Adrimor

Member

From: Hand-over-fist, Pencilmania

Registered: 2008-11-12

Posts: 10

Re: How-to bind your 'windows' key to the Xfce menu

Try replacing "xfdesktop -menu" with "xfce4-popup-menu".

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I type ~7 times faster than I think. Apologies all around.

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: How-to bind your 'windows' key to the Xfce menu

Long time since I used xfce, but when I did I was able to bind the menu action to Super_L directly i.e. without the extra xmodmap step above.

Adrimor

Member

From: Hand-over-fist, Pencilmania

Registered: 2008-11-12

Posts: 10

Re: How-to bind your 'windows' key to the Xfce menu

^ Yeah, just tried using the "Keyboard" -> "Application Settings" dialog. Just set the command to "xfce4-popup-menu" and then hit the Windows key, OP, and you'll be good to go.

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I type ~7 times faster than I think. Apologies all around.

Unia

Member

From: Stockholm, Sweden

Registered: 2010-03-30

Posts: 2,486

Website

Re: How-to bind your 'windows' key to the Xfce menu

You can also try xdotool. Add it as a launcher to your panel and add this as command: "xdotool key keycombo"

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If you can't sit by a cozy fire with your code in hand enjoying its simplicity and clarity, it needs more work. --Carlos Torres

skishchampi

Member

Registered: 2013-01-28

Posts: 1

Website

Re: How-to bind your 'windows' key to the Xfce menu

"xfce4-popup-applicationsmenu" instead of "xfce4-popup-menu", worked for me.

I am a new arch user. Please, pardon stupid comments.