I had a lot of kde and gnome stuff and other unneeded stuff installed some time ago, and that resulted in a lot of stuff in the xfdesktop menu. Quite some time after uninstalling that stuff, the "Other" category is still huge. For example, it still contains entries for for example amaya, amsn, ardour, drpython, kpdf and muse, although they aren't installed and their .desktop files aren't present in the file system. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce:
Try deleting the menu cache file in ~/.cache/xfce4/desktop/, and then run 'xfdesktop -reload'. Let me know if that fixed the problem. The cache doesn't always invalidate itself properly, and I really don't have the time to work on it right now.
Nope, didn't fix it
Then they're still on your hard drive somewhere. It doesn't make up .desktop files out of nowhere.
You're right :( Evil gnome for leaving .desktop files in .gnome/apps and evil debian for leaving .desktop files in .local/share/desktop-directories/menu-xdg >:(