diff --git a/widget.c b/widget.c
index 9580194..dfa4c95 100644
--- a/widget.c
+++ b/widget.c
@@ -219,7 +219,7 @@ struct Selection {
 };
 
 struct Widget {
-	int start;
+	bool start, isset;
 	int redraw;
 
 	/* X11 stuff */
@@ -1476,6 +1476,8 @@ cleanwidget(Widget *widget)
 	struct Selection *sel;
 	void *tmp;
 
+	if (!widget->isset)
+		return;
 	thumb = widget->thumbhead;
 	while (thumb != NULL) {
 		tmp = thumb;
@@ -3280,6 +3282,7 @@ widget_set(Widget *widget, const char *title, char **items[], size_t nitems, Scr
 {
 	size_t i;
 
+	widget->isset = true;
 	XUndefineCursor(widget->display, widget->window);
 	cleanwidget(widget);
 	widget->items = items;
diff --git a/xfiles.c b/xfiles.c
index 3b6d628..b7158c2 100644
--- a/xfiles.c
+++ b/xfiles.c
@@ -933,7 +933,7 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[])
 		path = *argv;
 	initthumbnailer(&fm);
 	if ((fm.widget = widget_create(APPCLASS, name, saveargc, saveargv, resources)) == NULL)
-		errx(EXIT_FAILURE, "could not initialize X widget");
+		exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
 #if __OpenBSD__
 	if (pledge("stdio rpath proc exec", NULL) == RETURN_FAILURE)
 		err(EXIT_FAILURE, "pledge");