Cleanup Desktop? Options

[backshed]

I have OS9 & OSX on my G4, and I ran into trouble a few months ago when I was switching between the two. My computer guy said that it couldn't find the information it needed to work properly, and recommended that I "clean the desktop" regularily. Does this make sense? and how do I do this?
Thanks for the help.

[jce44]

Your "desktop" is what you see on your screen when all of your applications and folders are closed or not is use. Some people download or "save to" their desktop, because it makes it (whatever it is you're saving) easy to find.

But after a while, the desktop gets very cluttered with files and folders. This slows your processor down. Get rid of files on your desktop by placing them in an appropreately named folder within your hardrive, or, if you need access to certain files all of the time, you can create a special folder for these files and leave it on your desktop.

The less you see on your desktop, the better it is, generally speaking. "it couldn't find the information it needed to work properly"? That's a pretty generic statement for an Apple technician or repair guy. I would not hire again.

You have both OS 9 and OS X? Are they partioned on 1 drive or do you have 2 hard drives? You essentially have 2 desktops when you have 2 OS's. And this also means that there are 2 different processes to perform routine maintenance and keep them in shape.

While you're booted up in OS X, you should "Repair Permissions" once a week. Here's a link with good instructions-

Mac Attorney

For OS 9, rebuilding your desktop is good-

APPLE SUPPORT

The best (freeware) maintenance utility for OS X that I know of is Onyx. Info and download here-

MacUpdate-Onyx

And don't forget to keep your browser caches and history cleaned up too... Maybe you could shop for a "clean up" utiltiy that will work on both OS X and OS 9?

This post has been edited by jce44: Tue 29 Aug 2006, 15:06