xfwm4, idesk and xloadimage

[reg]

Will try to make this quick....

Am running XFCE and want desktop icons so I am also running idesk. 

Now no matter what I do, other than killing xfwm4, I cannot set the backgorund to be used on the root window. 

I'm confused....since the idesk icons are visible it does not appear that xfwm4 lays down a window on top of the root window like xfdesktop did (I am not running xfdesktop)...but xloadimage has no effect...actually it does but I must kill xfwm4 in order to see the effect. 

I've seen screenshots of xfce4 using idesk and having both icons and a custom background but just can't quite get it together. 

Anyone?