Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!rochester!udel!princeton!phoenix!bskendig
From: bskendig@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Brian Scott Kendig)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Rebuilding Desktop...?
Summary: Won't rebuilding the Desktop erase my info text?
Message-ID: <8407@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 13 May 89 23:01:48 GMT
References: <4580@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu> <6350@brunix.UUCP>
Reply-To: bskendig@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Brian Scott Kendig)
Organization: Princeton University, NJ
Lines: 42

In article <6350@brunix.UUCP> cs004004@cslab9d.UUCP (Jon Feinberg) writes:
>In article <4580@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu> nadeem@shire.cs.psu.edu writes:
>>
>>I am sure this is a stupid question...  But, how do I build, or
>>should I say, rebuild the desktop??
>
>Simply restart while holding the command and option keys
>down. Keep them down until you get the "Okay to rebuild?"
>dialogue. Sit back and listen to your drive make satisfying 
>crunchy sounds.

Technically, you rebuild the Desktop by holding Command and Option down
when you mount a disk from the Finder.  One of the first things the Finder
does when it gains control of the machine is to mount the hard disk you just
booted from; thus, holding down Cmd-Opt as soon as you see the menu bar is
a safe bet.  I wouldn't press them any earlier, like during the boot sequence;
a few INITs and cdevs might be confused by seeing them pressed.  If you want
to rebuild the Desktop on a floppy disk, hold down Command and Option while
you insert the disk.

The Finder mounts all the disks it finds any time control is passed to it;
therefore you don't have to reboot to rebuild the Desktop file on a hard
drive.  Just open an application and quit from it; hold down Cmd-Opt as the
Finder re-loads itself.

But, unless, I'm ignorant of some update to the system software, rebuilding
the Desktop in this manner will also delete all text I have typed in the
bottom of the "Get Info" box for each file.  Very few files these days
actually have any text entered there, but I'd like to keep the little I have.
Is there any way I can rebuild the Desktop without having it toss out
this text?

I know that a similar effect can be had by using the PurgeIcons program that
comes with 1st Aid HFS or by using the "Compact Desktop" option in
DiskExpress, but is there any other, more convenient way?  Is Apple going
to fix this nasty habit of the Finder anytime soon (nudge nudge wink wink)?

-- 
| Brian S. Kendig                                | bskendig                   |
| Computer Engineering                           | @phoenix.Princeton.EDU     |
| Princeton University                           | @PUCC.BITNET               |
| "Estu la Forteco kun vi."  - Obi-Wan Kenobi    | @somewhere_past_Betelgeuse |