TheMacintoshLady said: >What is the equivalent of rebuilding the desktop on X? There is no exact equivalent in OS X. In fact, what you have happening is supposed to not be possible because OS X automatically handles it. Nevertheless, as you have found out, it some rare cases it does indeed sometimes happen. The first thing to try is Dragster. Usually that will fix it. Dragster is free and you can download it from: http://www.ifthensoft.com If Dragster doesn't work, you will have to delete some files manually. Files to delete: com.apple.LaunchServices.LocalCache.csstore and 2 files with the name com.apple.LaunchServices.UserCache.csstore locations: Library/Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices.LocalCache.csstore ~home/library/caches/com.apple.LaunchServices.UserCache.csstore private/var/root/library/caches/com.apple.LaunchServices.UserCache.csstore You can make files and folders that are invisible visible under OS X with the free utility application InVisibles http://www.mac4ever.de/invisibles/ That should do it, but I would also purchase and run Disk Warrior. Randy B. Singer Co-Author of: The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th and 6th editions) How To Deal With Common Macintosh OS X Jaguar Problems http://www.macattorney.com/tutorial.html