xfdesktop does not update the appearance of its desktop elements if xfsettingsd gets launched or restarted after xfdesktop is up and running. So the user selected GTK theme won't get applied in this case. $ xfdesktop --version This is xfdesktop version 4.11.2git-5ecc3ad, running on Xfce 4.10. Built with GTK+ 2.24.22, linked with GTK+ 2.24.22. Build options: Desktop Menu: enabled Desktop Icons: enabled Desktop File Icons: enabled
Fixed in: http://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfdesktop/commit/?id=1516cb96c6ec9b20b63f05e7bcc4af8594d43129