glitch on desk top

[garyjcarr]

I have a tiny icon sitting on my desktop that I cannot move, delete or open.Any ideas on removing it? Is the solution in Activity monitor? I went there but don't have a clue where the problem might be.
254878

[spinnerlys]

Have a look at Activity Monitor ( Applications / Utilities / ) and select All Processes and sort by PROCESS NAME to see what the culprit may be.

image below uses sorting by CPU as an example
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4141/4745264042_9c23afdbc9_b.jpg

Then use the Print feature via CMD+P to save a PDF document of the Activity Monitor and attach it to your next post via the http://forums.macrumors.com/images/editor/attach.gif button.

[garyjcarr]

Have a look at Activity Monitor ( Applications / Utilities / ) and select All Processes and sort by PROCESS NAME to see what the culprit may be.

image below uses sorting by CPU as an example
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4141/4745264042_9c23afdbc9_b.jpg

Then use the Print feature via CMD+P to save a PDF document of the Activity Monitor and attach it to your next post via the http://forums.macrumors.com/images/editor/attach.gif button.

Thanks for the quick reply. How do you recognize the culprit? What should I be looking for?

[SkyNite]

Are you able to drag a selection rectangle around the icon to select it? If so, you can Get Info on it and change its permissions so that you are the owner and can read/write. Then you may be able to command-backspace to delete it.

[garyjcarr]

I went into Activity monitor and there were no faults. I drew the square around the icon and went to GET INFO and this showed up. A folder with over 100 gigs.
I checked permissions and it had me as read and write. When I held down command / delete nothing happened.

[spinnerlys]

Do you store any files or folders on the Desktop?
The Desktop is located at Macintosh HD / Users / YOU / Desktop.

[xgman]

110GB? That is a pretty big folder. Very odd.

[garyjcarr]

That's interesting. I went to HD/ USERS / and my name was listed twice as gary carr1 and gary carr2 and both had minus signs in red and when I clicked it on and went to GET INFO I did not have permissions to read or write. I would assume I have to go to permissions. Could you help me ou there?

[spinnerlys]

Under what user name are you currently logged in?

[garyjcarr]

I'm logged in under garyjcarr. Weired but the glitch dissapeared however my permissions are still negative.

[SkyNite]

I went into Activity monitor and there were no faults. I drew the square around the icon and went to GET INFO and this showed up. A folder with over 100 gigs.
I checked permissions and it had me as read and write. When I held down command / delete nothing happened.

Your Get Info window is showing your Desktop folder, so you were not able to select the mystery icon in question.

Of course the Desktop folder is huge; you have all your photos in folders on the desktop waiting to be transferred, right?

Don't worry about (or mess with) those other folders in the Users folder right now. They are user folders not associated with your current account.

Are you sure this is actually an icon, and not part of your Desktop picture? What happens when you change the Desktop image?

[garyjcarr]

I tried that - same thing however like I said it's gone. You are right about the desktop folder. When I drew a rectangle and went to GET INFO it displayed the desktop folder I guess automatically. So I have no idea what the UFO was. Thanks for the advice - I won't fool around with permissions if I don't need to.

[SkyNite]

I won't fool around with permissions if I don't need to.

That's a good idea. Anyway, 'glad it's resolved, albeit mysteriously. :)