Desktop Icons

[Nikolas Arend]

Keith Powell wrote:
> Mathias Brodala wrote:
>   
>> Hello Keith.
>>
>>     
>>> The desktop icons are all just 'folders' and I would like to change them 
>>> to the usual home, wastebin, etc, icons. Also, I would probably like to 
>>> add a couple of new ones. But I can't find how to do it.
>>>       
>> All icons on the desktop have to be placed in ~/Desktop. They will appear
>> immediately.
>>
>>
>> Regards, Mathias
>>
>>     
>
> Hello Mathias.
>
> Thank you for your reply.
>
> Putting the icons in ~/Desktop doesn't solve my problem. I just get the 
> desktop full of rows of icons and can't do anything with them! If I keep 
> them inside a "fonts" folder, the folder appears on the desktop. Perhaps 
> I didn't explain it very clearly - sorry!
>
> At the moment, on the desktop there are a set of icons which look like 
> folders. I would like to change them. For instance, I want the 'home' 
> icon to be the standard 'house'. The 'wastebin' to be the standard icon 
> which looks like a wastebin, and so on.
>
> Usually, if I right click on the desktop icon and go to properties, the 
> icon can be changed. But not with xfce.
>
> Also, I can't find a way of adding any more desktop shortcuts - for 
> example, a mail program and a web browser.
>
> I have spent ages trying to sort it, but can't. I know that it's 
> possible as I have looked at the desktops shown in the forum.
>
>   
I'm not sure what you mean by "putting icons on the desktop".
Normal files will be shown as a file with the respective icon defined by 
its mime type and the icon theme you chose. To add application 
launchers, you have to create a link to a .desktop file (e.g. to those 
in /usr/share/applications/) or create one yourself in the ~/Desktop 
directory (current versions of xfdesktop let you create one by the 
right-click menu, I think). To access a folder you can simply create a 
link to that folder. Double clicking on it will open that folder in the 
default file manager (Thunar in your case I guess).

HTH,   Nick.