Finder data not being written to .DS_Store file

Question

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.

Answer 1

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