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From: Dave-Platt%LADC@CISL-SERVICE-MULTICS.ARPA (Dave Platt)
Newsgroups: mod.mac
Subject: Cleaning the desktop
Message-ID: <8603191623.AA00574@ucbvax.berkeley.edu>
Date: Mon, 17-Mar-86 13:21:00 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8603191623.AA00574
Posted: Mon Mar 17 13:21:00 1986
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There are a couple of applications running around that clean up the
Desktop file by selectively purging the APPL, ICN#, BNDL# and FREF
resources.  PurgeIcons is one such, and it works quite well for me;
it's probably in the Info-Mac archives, and if it isn't I'd be glad to
post a .HQX of it.  It was written to run under MFS, and you might have
to have it in your HD20's root directory to use it under HFS (I dunno,
I haven't tried it under HFS).

If I recall the content of one of Apple's recent tech notes (43???)
correctly, the file-info text is stored in the Desktop file in resources
of type INFO, formatted as if they were 'STR ' resources.  The resource number
for any particular file is generated by hashing the filename [and (as Steve
Capps is alleged to have acknowledged) there is some slight chance that two
filenames will hash to the same resource number... thus leading to
confusion].  You could try copying the INFO resources out of your Desktop
into an otherwise-empty resource file, trashing the Desktop, permitting
the Finder to rebuild it, and then pasting the INFOs back in.  Might work,
might not... probably worth the attempt.