For Nautilus to be used with Ubuntu Studio, first it needs to be installed:

• In “Ubuntu Software Centre” Search for “nautilus” (use a lower case n).
• Go to “More Info” for “File manager and graphical shell for GNOME”
• If “Brasero Disc Burner” is CHECKED, then leave that checked.
• Leave “Tool to manage well known user directories” CHECKED
• Select the “Install” button
• Once this is done and the “Remove” button appears → close the Ubuntu Software Centre

Thunar is extremely deeply integrated into the Xfce Desktop … so we need to leave Thunar in place as the Desktop Manager. (Let Thunar handle any file selection, etc., when configuring the Desktop.)

So to Start Nautilus as only a File Manager – and instruct it to not try to also manage the desktop – the nautilus --no-desktop command should be used. The below instructions will add this option to the File Manager selection in the Preferred Applications setup utility:

• Settings Manager » Preferred Applications »“Utilities” tab
  • File Manager » select “Other…” from the drop-down
  • Enter nautilus --no-desktop into the “Choose a custom File Manager” pop-up
    • Note: for the above command, make certain to use a lower case n on “nautilus”– so you can tell this entriy for nautilus apart from the “Nautilus” entry already in the drop-down list