.DS_Store file keeps appearing on desktop

As subject suggests, I'm not sure what I did to make this happen but I can even drag to trash and within a few seconds another .DS_Store pops up in its place. Any thought on what's causing this or how to stop it?

Copy the following line
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO; killall Finder
Open Terminal, from /Applications/Utilities & paste it in, then press Enter
Finder should relaunch, & hopefully you'll see no more of those files.

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I have some really strange behavior on my machine:
I upgraded today from 10.4.1 to 10.4.2 and everything went smooth. After the install and the permission repair, Logc 7.1 launched with no problem and everything seemed to be fine. A little bit later when I did some work in the FInder, I noticed that I couldn't opened some folders. I got the spinning beach ball and the system seemed to be locked up even if there was no significant CPU, disk or network activity. If I were lucky, I could open the Force Quit window and relaunch the Finder. After some testing I found out that the hidden ".DS_Store" file seemed to be corrupted. If I encountered any folder which I couldn't open, I deleted its DS_Store file inside the Terminal and the folder opened again.
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Thanks

AJD1170 wrote:
A .DS_Store file keeps appearing on my desktop. It returns seconds after I have moved it to the trash. I have deleted the .DS_Store files (hidden) from wherever I have found them, but like the desktop icon, they immediately reappear. I some time ago stumbled upon the solution, but it evades me now. How do I get rid of this nuisance permanently?
You want and need those .DS_Store files.
You need to hide hidden files in terminal, copy and paste:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE ;killall Finder
Finder will create a .DS_Store file in every folder that it accesses including your Desktop folder. You witness this everytime you try and delete it.

Finder data not being written to .DS_Store file

The symptom of the problem I am experiencing is that the position of icons on my desktop (as well as icons in other folders in my home directory, as well as Finder window settings for folder in my home directory) are lost every time I log out. On a subsequent login, all of the icons "reflow" starting from the top right corner of the screen, just below the boot volume icon. I have been able to determine that this has to do with the .DS_Store file(s) in the Desktop folder and other folders of my home directory. If a .DS_Store file exists, the timestamp does not change when I change the icon layout and logout. If I delete the .DS_Store file, it is not re-created.
In my case, my home directory (and the child Desktop folder) is being mounted off an SMB share on a Windows 2003 server. My Mac is using AD authentication to the same Windows 2003 server, which is the domain controller. I'm logging in with my AD credentials, and my home directory mapping is picked up from the home directory field in AD.
Now, Googling this problem, I found a lot of people complaining about wanting to suppress the use/creation of the .DS_Store files on Windows network volumes. This led to an Apple KB article (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1629) on how to modify a default to prevent the creation of .DS_Store files on network volumes--essentially the very behavior I am experiencing. The upshot of the KB article is to us the following command in terminal:
*defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true*
I did a 'defaults read' to confirm this default isn't set on my install of Mac OS X 10.5.6--and it isn't. I then tried using the following variation in the hope I could force the behavior I wanted:
*defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores false*
Predictably, this had to effect.
The upshot is, NONE of the Finder data for files and folders in my home directory (icon positions, Finder view window defaults, etc.) is preserved between logons. And this is driving me nuts! I've spent several hours over the past two evening trying to troubleshoot this, and I've had no luck.
As a footnote, I'll mention that if I drag a folder from my home directory onto the local hard disk, the .DS_Store file is created/updated and things behave as expected (icon position and Finder window defaults are preserved). But, if I then drag the folder back over to my home directory, the values in the .DS_Store file become "frozen" and don't change.

Hey, try this:
1.
Put a file in a folder on your Desktop.
Edit: not your Desktop, but rather a typical local home on an HFS+ volume ~/Desktop
2.
Use "Get Info" to add a "Comment".
The comment can be up to somewhere between 700 and 800 characters.
3.
Copy the folder to a FAT formatted flash drive, SMB share, etc.
4.
Create a new folder on the flash drive.
5.
Move the file from the first folder to the second folder.
Confirm that the "Finder" shows the comment to be there.
6.
Quit the "Finder" - in 10.4 and earlier, this action would ensure that all .DS_Store files get updated, including transfer of comments. I.e. don't "relaunch" or "kill", etc. Enable and user the "Quit" menu, or use:<pre>
osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to quit</pre>
7.
Now where's the comment?
In step 2, you could also have just created a file on the non-HFS volume and wasted your time typing in a 700 character comment.
In step 6, a more real-world scenario is ejecting the drive or logging out, but deliberately quitting the "Finder" is the most conservative way to ensure that changes get written to .DS_Store files and comments survive. In 10.5.6, even under these conditions, comments are lost.
Icon positions and view preferences are one thing, but with comments - that's real user-inputted data that Apple is playing fast and loose with. And if they no longer support comments on non-HFS volumes, the "Finder" shouldn't be showing you the comments when you double-check them in step 5, or allow them to be added in the alternate version of step 2.
..."C'mon Apple... what gives here?"...
Unfortunately, this "Discussions" site is not frequented by Apple devs. Have you considered filing a bug report? I wonder what they would tell you, eg. if the treatment of .DS_Store files actually does turn out to be a bug or is intentional as it suspiciously seems...
http://developer.apple.com/bugreporter/index.html

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How to permanently stop creation of .DS_Store files on desktop?

Ever since attempting to use .ds_store on Terminal to find hidden iTunes files, the system will not stop creating .DS_Store files on the desktop. I've tried using the defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true command, to no avail. I'm relatively new to using Terminal, so if someone could offer any tips, that would be good. The file creation is more of an annoyance than a real problem, but I want to know how to stop it, since there is no info on this in other places. Thanks! ~ Eva

The DSDontWriteNetworkStores command only prevents creation on shared network drives.
.DS_Store files are always created locally (unless using something like TotalFinder to prevent that)
The reason you now see them on the Desktop is likely because during the process to track down iTunes files you enabled the option to "see" hidden files - issue the following command in Terminal to "undo" that:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles false
If you want the change to be immediate (rather than after logging out & back in or rebooting) then simply "restart" the Finder app, again in Terminal:
killall Finder
Johnny.

Is it possible to save files to one desktop so that they remain on that desktop and don't follow to other desktops when swiping between them? I want to save files and keep them on desktop 2 so that I can keep desktop 1 free of files but they follow.

I want to keep my school files on desktop two so they are all in the same place, and use desktop one as a place to perhaps save photos or other files not school related. When I swipe between desktops, the school files move between the desktops as I swipe but I want to keep them on one desktop all the time.

No, that can't be done. All desktops will show what is in the 'Desktop' folder in your home folder.

.DS_Store file keeps appearing on desktop

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