How to Customize Keyboard Shortcuts on the Xfce Desktop

To customize keyboard shortcuts in Xfce, open Settings → Keyboard → Application Shortcuts. From there, you can change an existing app-launch shortcut, remove one, or add a command or script and assign it a key combination. Window actions such as closing, maximizing, or moving a window use a separate screen: Settings → Window Manager → Keyboard.

Xfce keeps these two shortcut groups separate. The Keyboard dialog handles commands that launch applications; Window Manager Preferences handles actions performed by Xfwm, the Xfce window manager. That distinction matters when a combination appears in the wrong list or conflicts with another action. The steps below follow the organization in the official Xfce 4.20 Keyboard documentation; menu names and visual styling can vary slightly by distribution.

Open the Application Shortcuts list

1. Open the Xfce applications menu and choose Settings → Keyboard.
2. If you do not see the Keyboard entry, open Settings Manager and select Keyboard. You can also launch the manager from a terminal with xfce4-settings-manager.
3. Select the Application Shortcuts tab. The list shows a command in one column and its assigned key combination in another.

The other Keyboard tabs cover repeat behavior and keyboard layout. They do not manage application shortcuts. If your goal is to change a window action, go to Window Manager Preferences instead.

Change or remove an application shortcut

To reassign a key, find the command in the list and double-click its entry in the Shortcut column. When the capture dialog appears, press the new combination once. Avoid combinations already used by another application, Xfwm, or the desktop; a collision can make the wrong action run or prevent the new shortcut from working.

To delete an application shortcut, select its row and choose Remove. This removes the command-to-key binding from your user configuration; it does not uninstall the application or delete the command itself. If you later want the binding back, choose Add, enter the command again, and assign a key. Do not rely on the Window Manager screen’s reset control to restore entries from this list: it applies to Xfwm shortcuts.

Add a shortcut for an application or script

1. In Keyboard → Application Shortcuts, click Add.
2. In the command dialog, enter the application’s command. For example, xfce4-terminal launches Xfce Terminal on systems where that command is installed and available in your command path. If you are unsure of the command, use Open to browse for the application.
3. For a shell script, enter a command such as sh /home/yourname/bin/task.sh. Replace the example path with the real location. If a path contains spaces, quote it, and test the command in a terminal first so you know it runs correctly.
4. Click OK. When Xfce asks for a shortcut, press the key combination you want to use. The new entry appears in the list and is available immediately.

Choose a combination that is easy to remember and unlikely to overlap with a default. For instance, a four-key combination such as Ctrl+Alt+Shift+K can be easier to keep distinct than common combinations used by terminals, browsers, or window actions. The example is only a suggestion; check your own shortcut lists before assigning it.

Change window-manager shortcuts

For actions such as closing a window, switching windows, maximizing, moving, or resizing, open Settings → Window Manager → Keyboard. Select an action and double-click its key combination, or press Enter, then press the replacement keys. The Xfwm preferences documentation describes these as shortcuts managed by the window manager.

Use Clear to remove the key binding for the selected window action. Reset to Default restores the window-manager shortcut set, so review your changes before using it. This reset is separate from removing entries in Application Shortcuts.

If a new shortcut does not work

• Check both lists. Look for the same combination in Application Shortcuts and Window Manager → Keyboard, and consider shortcuts already used by the active application.
• Verify the command. Run it in a terminal. Check spelling, installation, permissions, and whether the command is available to your desktop session.
• Press the combination exactly as assigned. Laptop Fn keys and hardware-level keys may be handled by firmware or another system component rather than Xfce.
• Test with a simple command. Temporarily bind a known application command, such as xfce4-terminal, to distinguish a command problem from a key conflict.

For more detail, see the official Xfce Settings Manager documentation, which identifies Keyboard as the dialog for keyboard settings and application shortcuts.