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In the Classic Mac OS, whenever you introduce a new application or document to your hard drive, the Mac OS Desktop stores its associated icons in an invisible database called the Desktop file. Every time you move, copy, or rename a file, that information is stored in the Desktop database as well. When you delete a file, it is removed from the Finder, but the information pertaining to wait remains in the Desktop database. Over time, a lot of superfluous and invalid information tends to built up in the Desktop database, eating up hard drive space and slowing down Finder performance, because the Finder has to search through more data to find the correct file. Consequently, the prudent Classic Mac OS User of yore would from time to time perform a maintenance task referred to as "rebuilding the Desktop," which sounds ambitious, but really amounts to resetting the Desktop database, purging it of superfluous file names and locations, and invalid or obsolete icon references, as well as getting information about new items at have been introduced since the last Desktop rebuild. To rebuild the Desktop (in the Classic Mac OS), simply ihold down the Command and Option keys at startup. A dialog box will appear asking whether you want to rebuild the Desktop. Click OK. A progress bar will track the progress of the rebuild. MicroMat's free Tech Tool utility does an even more efficient job of rebuilding the Classic Desktop than the Mac OS itself does, because it deletes the Desktop database files, forcing the Finder to completely rebuild them from scratch, thereby providing a more thorough cleanup that a standard Desktop rebuild. Tech Tool offers the option of saving and restoring Get Info comments, which would otherwise be lost when the Desktop files are deleted. Now, OS X does not accumulate an invisible database of icons and file information pertaining to deleted files, so traditional Desktop rebuilds are passé with X, but not for Classic Mode. Happily, the Classic Preference panel in OS X has a convenient "Rebuild Desktop" button that rebuilds the Classic Desktop file of applications and documents/application locations, and you don't even need to have Classic started up to use it. Then there's SubRosaSoft's RebuildDesktopX, a freeware utility for cleaning various caches on OSX that store information relating to the application binding, icons, etc. Not exactly the same as the old Desktop rebuilds in Classic, but probably worth running once in a while, especially since it's freeware. 
For the UNIX literate, this program executes the following commands;
I tried out RebuildDesktop X, and it seemed to work fine doing what it is advertised to do. I had hoped that it would restore some of my System files icons that the now-defunct Pepper text editor had commandeered with Pepper icons over a year ago, but unfortunately no joy. Oh well. 
System requirements:
RebuildDesktopX is freeware
For more information, visit:
Thanks! Why Mac Users Are Slow to Adopt OS X The thread about slow OS X adoption, which was started by John Manzione of macnet2.com, has spawned a lot of comment. Gene Steinberg of the Mac Night Owl weighed in a couple of days ago, and yesterday Low End Mac's Dan Knight posted a lengthy essay on the topic. Some snippets:
"... we'll have 15 million OS X users at the end of 2004. Adding 5 million OS X users per year -- both those buying new Macs and those migrating from the classic Mac OS on old hardware -- we should have 30 million OS X users by Macworld San Francisco 2008, at which point the G3 and the earliest Macs officially supported under OS X will be a decade old.
"From the acquisition of NeXT to the point where a majority of Mac users are using OS X will also be about a decade. The time from the first release version until almost all Mac in use have OS X is about six years.
"Maybe then it will be appropriate to hold a funeral for OS 9 -- except that it will probably still be lurking on OS X 10.7 and 10.8 as the classic environment, much as 68k emulation remained in the classic Mac OS long after the last 680x0-based Mac was discontinued.
"...if Apple wants to gain converts, they need to make OS X as easy, as elegant, as simple, as powerful, as friendly, and as comfortable as the best OS these people have ever used -- the classic Mac OS.
"Anything less will slow the migration." From Bruce Williamson Charles, Thanks very much for publishing my letter. I really appreciated the response from Chris Kilner about my Blue & White G3 and will be adding another 256 MB of RAM to see if that solves the problem. I work as a Mac consultant and yesterday was helping a client diagnose a problem with her flat-panel iMac. At some point I was working in OS 9 and momentarily forgot where several different menu items were located! Other than "my forgetter getting better" as one person said, I think it was a definite sign of how ready I was for the elegance and excellence of OS X! OS X and whatever else comes after will ALWAYS be a work in progress but for now I am very satisfied. One of your readers hit it right on the head. It's not so much about what goes slower in OS X that was so fast in OS 9, but rather it's about what are we are going to be able to do with OS 10.2 apps that were unthinkable before. As Elizabeth Statmore, co-founder and VP of Marketing for Circus Ponies, says on their web site (http://www.circusponies.com) — "Basically, we couldn't keep our sticky little fingers off the Cocoa development tools. OS X gave us ways to make complex things simple and impossible things fun. We couldn't do that on other platforms."
The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here: Note: Letters to Moore's Mailbag may or may not be published at the editor's discretion. Correspondents' email addresses will NOT be published unless the correspondent specifically requests publication. Letters may be edited for length and/or context. Opinions expressed in postings to Moore's MailBag are those of the respective correspondents and not necessarily shared or endorsed by the Editor and/or Applelinks management. If you would prefer that your message not appear in Moore's Mailbag, we would still like to hear from you. Just clearly mark your message "NOT FOR PUBLICATION," and it will not be published. CM
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