How to customize the Xfce 4.5+ menu

This page describes how to customize the menu, using Xfdesktop 4.5 or higher and libxfce4menu, for your desktop.

Xfdesktop installs a menu file, and desktop entry files for the root menu (Execute, Terminal, File manager, …). To customize your menu you will have to tweak those.

Copy the installed menu inside your home:

cp $prefix/etc/xdg/menus/xfce-applications.menu ~/.config/menus

If you choose to remove menu items out from the root menu, you have to copy the specific desktop entry files to your home, and then add/change the NoDisplay entry key inside it. More information about the recognized desktop entry keys can be found here.

Xfdesktop installs the following desktop entry files:

• $prefix/share/applications/xfce4-about-xfce.desktop
• $prefix/share/applications/xfce4-file-manager.desktop
• $prefix/share/applications/xfce4-help.desktop
• $prefix/share/applications/xfce4-logout.desktop
• $prefix/share/applications/xfce4-run-program.desktop
• $prefix/share/applications/xfce4-terminal.desktop
• $prefix/share/applications/xfce4-web-browser.desktop

To hide a specific desktop entry file copy it inside your home, for example:

cp $prefix/share/applications/xfce4-web-browser.desktop ~/.local/share/applications

and then modify or add the desktop entry key NoDisplay:

NoDisplay=true

If you checked the desktop entry file spec, you may have already notice the difference between these two entry keys. NoDisplay will hide the application from the menu but the mime/type will still be associated inside Thunar for instance. At the opposite the Hidden entry key will act as if the file doesn't exist.

If you don't have file monitoring support, run xfdesktop --reload to refresh the menu.

Enjoy!