XFCE problem grouping windows

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rod-q
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XFCE problem grouping windows

Post by rod-q »

Hello. I want to group windows like it was Windows 10. However, when I click on the pinned taskbar window, it opens a different windows instead of using the same one. It looks ridiculous and not functional with the repeated windows, like something malware do on Windows lol. Anyone knows how to fix this? Thank you so much

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ThaCrip
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Re: XFCE problem grouping windows

Post by ThaCrip »

If you mean in the panel to have them all 'stack' on each other of the same type (like file manager to file manager etc) I think the following will work for you as someone mentioned it to me a while ago for Xfce...

'Panel > Items > Window Buttons' (doubt click Window Buttons). then on Window Buttons window that opens up go to 'Behaviour > Window Grouping' and switch 'Never' to 'Always'.

once you do that any new file manager windows you open for example will all stack on the same type on the taskbar as you will see the icon along with the number of windows open.

NOTE: say you got two or more open File Manager windows for example... you don't click the 'File Manager' icon as that will continue to open further windows, you want to click the 'Thunar' ones that are already open in the taskbar, which will now be stacked onto the same one on the taskbar instead of separate ones like it is by default.

p.s. but if you really want it to function more like Windows 10, Cinnamon is best since it even highlights open window just like Windows 10 does when hovering mouse over them you can see a preview highlighted temporarily of all open windows. this is a bigger reason why I like Cinnamon over Xfce on my primary desktop computer. here is a quick screenshot (which is Cinnamon) as to see this I simply hover my mouse pointer over the file manager with the five open windows and then to see a preview I simply move mouse up and across each one and it will temporarily show a preview of each, but won't open it until I click it, just like Windows does.
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rod-q
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Re: XFCE problem grouping windows

Post by rod-q »

Thanks for answering! I'm already grouping them, sorry if I expressed myself poorly. What I wanted to do was to make, for example, the Firefox opened on the taskbar to be in the same icon of the pinned Firefox (like in Windows), not an extra one like you see on the print I posted above Is this only avaliable on Cinnamon?
ThaCrip
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Re: XFCE problem grouping windows

Post by ThaCrip »

rod-q wrote: Tue Jun 15, 2021 6:10 pm What I wanted to do was to make, for example, the Firefox opened on the taskbar to be in the same icon of the pinned Firefox (like in Windows), not an extra one like you see on the print I posted above Is this only avaliable on Cinnamon?
on my Mint v20.1-Xfce laptop I just tested by clicking the Firefox icon (which opens Firefox for general use) and it does not have two icons, just the one along with the general open window in taskbar as expected.

if you close out of Firefox, so it's not running, do you still see two Firefox icons? ; if so, you can probably just right click the icon and select 'remove' and it will immediately go away.
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rod-q
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Re: XFCE problem grouping windows

Post by rod-q »

Unfortunately if I close the second one (where it actually firefox is open), only the first one (which only serves to open a new one) is there. Probably a bug, ugh
ThaCrip
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Re: XFCE problem grouping windows

Post by ThaCrip »

rod-q wrote: Thu Jun 17, 2021 11:44 am Unfortunately if I close the second one (where it actually firefox is open), only the first one (which only serves to open a new one) is there. Probably a bug, ugh
That sounds like normal/expected behavior to me.

on Mint v20.1-Cinnamon for example... say I boot up the computer, ill see the Firefox icon like usual. now if I click it, it starts the browser and one can use it like usual. but it's just that single icon and you can see it's highlighted a bit (if it's the active window). yours seems to be similar even though you say your on Xfce. but on my Mint v20.1-Xfce installation it does not have the icon like that for the active window but more of a WinXP/Win7 etc type of look/function where it's not small icons for the open windows but more of a rectangle I guess I could say.

I suspect you may have tweaked something so it acts the way it does as, at least on Mint v20.1-Xfce, what your seeing is a little different from what I am seeing and the way mine looks in a basic sense is more of the default. so it could be a simple setting you can adjust etc but I can't tell you where it's at off the top of my head.
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rod-q
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Re: XFCE problem grouping windows

Post by rod-q »

The only thing I've tweaked is to make the taskbar icons look like Windows 10 instead of XP

But even when they looked like XP, it would open lots of XP-like sections at taskbar and the original icon would remain opened.

Anyways, almost giving up, there's very little information about this problem online. And I found in another thread that apparently there is an option to fix this that only appears in Cinnamon (in the "appearence" settings)
palo
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Re: XFCE problem grouping windows

Post by palo »

rod-q wrote: Tue Jun 15, 2021 10:45 am Hello. I want to group windows like it was Windows 10. However, when I click on the pinned taskbar window, it opens a different windows instead of using the same one. It looks ridiculous and not functional with the repeated windows, like something malware do on Windows lol. Anyone knows how to fix this? Thank you so much

Image
Mixing in the comparisons Cinnamon and XP it is a little confusing but I think you are trying to say that you have a launcher for apps like say Firefox in your panel. When you open Firefox it adds a Firefox window button to the panel instead of using the launcher to indicate an open window. If I am understanding correctly there is no apparent fix for that - the main reason I don't have window buttons and launchers on the same panel. Best solution for me is just not use launchers. Menu with favorites works fine.
ThaCrip wrote: Thu Jun 17, 2021 1:27 pm That sounds like normal/expected behavior to me.
Yep

You might want to consider using a dock such as plank or https://github.com/nsz32/docklike-plugin
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