Any new window that gets opened appears on the bottom of the window stack, not on top. This happens with all new windows, whether started from the menu, from the panel, from within a program (i.e. Terminal), or as a new application window (i.e. open new window in firefox).
Can you elaborate a bit? I cannot reproduce the issue. Giving some details on your settings might be a start.
/general/activate_action bring /general/borderless_maximize true /general/box_move false /general/box_resize false /general/button_layout O|HMC /general/button_offset 0 /general/button_spacing 0 /general/click_to_focus false /general/cycle_draw_frame true /general/cycle_hidden true /general/cycle_minimum true /general/cycle_workspaces false /general/dbl_click_time 400 /general/double_click_action hide /general/easy_click Hyper /general/focus_delay 157 /general/focus_hint true /general/focus_new false /general/frame_opacity 81 /general/full_width_title true /general/inactive_opacity 100 /general/keytheme No alt move /general/maximized_offset 0 /general/move_opacity 100 /general/placement_mode center /general/placement_ratio 10 /general/popup_opacity 100 /general/prevent_focus_stealing true /general/raise_delay 250 /general/raise_on_click false /general/raise_on_focus false /general/raise_with_any_button false /general/repeat_urgent_blink true /general/resize_opacity 100 /general/restore_on_move true /general/scroll_workspaces false /general/shadow_delta_height 0 /general/shadow_delta_width 0 /general/shadow_delta_x 0 /general/shadow_delta_y 0 /general/shadow_opacity 66 /general/show_app_icon false /general/show_dock_shadow true /general/show_frame_shadow false /general/show_popup_shadow false /general/snap_resist false /general/snap_to_border true /general/snap_to_windows true /general/snap_width 10 /general/theme Daloa /general/title_alignment center /general/title_font Sans Bold 9 /general/title_horizontal_offset 0 /general/title_shadow_active false /general/title_shadow_inactive false /general/title_vertical_offset_active 0 /general/title_vertical_offset_inactive 0 /general/toggle_workspaces false /general/unredirect_overlays false /general/urgent_blink false /general/use_compositing false /general/workspace_count 1 ** (xfconf-query:5178): WARNING **: Unable to convert GValue to string /general/workspace_names (null) /general/wrap_cycle false /general/wrap_layout false /general/wrap_resistance 10 /general/wrap_workspaces false
/general/focus_new false See bug #4795: "Avoid placing unfocused windows on top of the current focused window when not focusing new windows (Bug #4795)."
*** Bug 4965 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 5479 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
when you open new windows you want to see them. you are opening them _because_ you want to see them!! new windows don't need focus, but they do need to be raised. please fix this bug.
Please. Wait a minute. It is not appropriate to disregard this bug as Invalid. That is simply untrue. Xfce window manager has always allowed new windows to be created without focus and on top. This, alone, proves this behavior is worthy of bug status--even if you don't like it for your own desktop. Call it legacy behavior if you are spiteful, but it is still an *error* to alter it. Furthermore, this is a perfectly normal, reasonable, legitimate, and, I suggest, superior behavior. If all new windows get focus, then all of the unexpected windows that pop-up (from IM clients, IRC, things that run in the tray, optical media burns, etc.) will steel focus while one is working on something else. It is a natural mode of operation for use with focus-follows-mouse which means, "when my mouse is in my xterm, don't switch to that other alert window." Look, I cannot live with Xfce without this feature. I don't know how you can either, but I'm not saying you are wrong to do so. Why can't we have this behavior restored? I don't see how the Xfce development team has any cause to deny this fix.