Compiz

To enable compiz, I suggest to follow the instructions at this site. I did not remove the search box, but used the same script for starting the tray icon and compiz every time the system starts. To do this, you need to add the fusion command before the one starting the search box and make sure that it is started in the background by adding an ampersand at the end of the line.

When selecting themes, pay attention that the theme is applied automatically to Xfce when you navigate the list. Also, for me, some of the themes would not work. I navigated until I found something I liked, there are quite a few ones to choose from.

PS: xfce actually have better ways to control startup applications, I haven't tried it yet, but I believe that this would work better.