There are a number of hidden options that cannot be set by the Xfce Settings Manager. These require use of a text editor.

Icon View Text Appearance

The colors of the icon text and the icon text background, as well as the opacity of the icon text background, can be customized by putting directives simiar to the following in your ~/.gtkrc-2.0 file:

style "xfdesktop-icon-view" {
    XfdesktopIconView::label-alpha = 75

    base[NORMAL] = "#00ff00"
    base[SELECTED] = "#5050ff"
    base[ACTIVE] = "#0000ff"

    fg[NORMAL] = "#ff0000"
    fg[SELECTED] = "#ff0000"
    fg[ACTIVE] = "#ff0000"
}
widget_class "*XfdesktopIconView*" style "xfdesktop-icon-view"
        

The first entry sets the opacity of the rounded text background. The three “base” entries set the text background color, and the three “fg” entries set the text color.

The “NORMAL” entries set the color for the regular, unselected state. The “SELECTED” entries set the color for when the icon is selected, and the desktop has keyboard focus. The “ACTIVE” entries set the color for when the icon is selected, but the desktop does not have keyboard focus.

You can open the menu or window list from the commandline as well. This can be useful for keyboard shortcuts. To open the menu run the command xfdesktop –menu, and for the windowlist use xfdesktop –windowlist. To cause the current running instance to quit, run xfdesktop –quit.