I've been having a little trouble with Xfce on Slackware-14.2 identifying the current window, especially if I have multiple terminal windows open. I think I know what is wrong. Comparing Xfce-4.12 on Slackware-14.2 with Xfce-4.10 on older Slackware (or Xubuntu), I see that the older ones change the window titlebar background color for the active window. For example, I see the active window titlebar is bright blue, or dark gray, and inactive windows have light gray titlebars. But with Slackware-14.2 and Xfce-4.12, both active and inactive windows have the same light gray titlebars.

I've tried a number of themes (Settings > Appearance > Style), and this does not change. Using the same style theme such as "Xfce-4.4", Slackware-14.1 does change the titlebar color for the active window, and Slackware-14.2 does not.

Any other Xfce users see this? Do you think it is a bug?

go to settings then window manager


click on different themes until you like one. Personally, I use Kokodi, it leaves the current window "black" and the inactive windows grey. nice and simple, nice match with the xfce-flat theme under settings/appearance as well.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks, that was helpful. I've learned that there are two separate themes: for Gtk (selected with Settings, Appearance) and for Xfwm itself (selected with Window Manager, Style). Where as the Window Manager theme determine how window decorations look, the actual colors usually come from the Gtk theme.

What seems to have happened is that at Xfce-4.12 the "Default" Window Manager theme was changed, so it no longer changes the active window titlebar color, regardless of the Gtk theme. If you pick a different Window Manager theme, like the one you suggested, Kokodi, then you can select a Gtk theme to get the title bar colors you want.

I ended up with Appearance, Style (Gtk theme) = Xfce-4.6, and Window Manager Style = Kokodi, and that seems to be much better.

Glad it helped. You can add [Solved] to the title.