Apple recommends that the Desktop file be rebuilt on occasion to avoid depreciating system performance, slower file searching and even occasional system crashes. I, myself, have seen strange behavior magically disappear from the rebuilding of the Desktop file. The problem is that it's a chore that hardly anyone remembers to do.
Spring Cleaning is a shareware system extension that remembers to rebuild the desktop for you. During the boot process, Spring Cleaning checks all of the currently mounted drives for a Desktop file that is older than thirty days (fifteen days for this trial version). If one is found, it will bring up a dialog, telling you how old the Desktop file is and ask you if you would like it rebuilt.
Try out Spring Cleaning for thirty days. If you like it, send in $5.00 (please make checks or money orders payable to Clarence Locke) and Iﾕll send you a floppy disk with versions of Spring Cleaning that will check for Desktop files of ages 30, 60 and 90 days as well as the next major release of the product for free.
I have planned the following upgrades to Spring Cleaning:
- Control Panel for user-definable Desktop file age comparison.
- Automatically check any newly-mounted volume for an old Desktop file.
Please feel free to send me your ideas and/or feedback.
