I use XFCE Desktop Environment in Kali Linux specially in my laptop as it is lightweight, got all the goodies and plugins I need. The best about XFCE desktop environment is that it’s actually more colorful than Kali’s default GNOME Fallback desktop and runs faster in my laptop. 
XFCE is a free software desktop environment for Unix and Unix-like platforms, such as Linux, Solaris, and BSD. It aims to be fast and lightweight, while still being visually appealing and easy to use. It consists of separately packaged components that together provide the full functionality of the desktop environment, but which can be selected in subsets to create the user’s preferred personal working environment.
Olivier Fourdan started the project in 1996. The name “Xfce” originally stood for “XForms Common Environment”, but since that time Xfce has been rewritten twice and no longer uses the XForms toolkit. The name survived, but it is no longer capitalized as “XFCE”, but rather as “Xfce”. The developers’ current stance is that the initialism no longer stands for anything specific. It has been nicknamed “Cholesterol Free Desktop Environment”, even in some of its man pages.
XFCE Desktop
How to install XFCE Desktop Environment in Kali Linux
Use the following command to install XFCE Desktop Environment including all required plugins and goodies.
apt-get install kali-defaults kali-root-login desktop-base xfce4 xfce4-places-plugin xfce4-goodies
How to remove XFCE in Kali Linux
In case you want to remove XFCE, use the following command.
apt-get remove xfce4 xfce4-places-plugin xfce4-goodies
—- Back to main article: How to install/remove different Desktop Environment or Window Manager in Kali Linux 1.x
17 comments
thx
This is also my favourite blackmore ops.. Thanks for your educational posts I have follen in love with it and have read each post Bro.. KEEP IT UP.
When i do this, I sometimes crash my Kali and then i have re-install kali all again
Any addition info might help because i have crashed my system twice while trying to replace gnome with xfce … Please help
Don’t remove gnome.
Next time don’t reinstall your Linux. Use backups. I recommend fsarchiver (with qt4-fsarchiver for GUI). Make copy on pen drive or SD card (using gparted) boot from it and make compressed, safe (you can encrypt it) backup that you can restore on different devices even smaller than original (gparted can’t do that so resize source partition before u copy it on your removable device) and so much more.
Hope I’ll help some beginner looking for answer here like u helped me :)
I did this I rebooted but no change. How to change to xfce. BTW thx for tut
you need to select the environment you want at login. if you enabled autologin=true you need to change that.
You have select the environment first..then reboot(do in terminal)
$ update-alternatives –config x-session-manager
after installation try to install also whisker menu…
I didn’t knew about Whisker menu. Looks really nice. Thanks.
Comamnds for Whisker menu install? I’ve tried for debian 8 & 7 (wheezy) with error
Thanks for the post, its was very helpfull
I tried but when i reboot it don’t work
Anyone have any luck with Installing Whisker Menu?
i keep getting the same error despite reading several articles.
Here is the entire string when attempting to install:
root@kali:~# apt-get install xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin : Depends: libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.35.9) but
2.33.12+really2.32.4-5 is to be installed
Depends: libstdc++6 (>= 4.9) but 4.7.2-5
is to be installed
Depends: libxfce4ui-1-0 (>= 4.9.0) but
4.8.1-1 is to be installed
Depends: libxfce4util6 (>= 4.9.0) but it
is not installable
Depends: xfce4-panel (>= 4.9.2) but
4.8.6-4 is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
thanks in advance!
I’m tuning MacBook Air 6,2: everything seems to work fine but when I close the lid and reopen it after some time, all I get is a black screen. If I hit Spacebar, I get a blue screen, like the blue of the theme.
Help please? I’m very new to Linux so bare with me.
Set xfce as default desktop environment:
In terminal type:
update-alternatives --config x-session-manager
hit enter
than select xfce (2 or 3). Reboot.
OMG!!!! this article show how to download the DE but not to apply it, then your comment change my day, many thanks :D
I got the DE I wanted so bad know