Folders on the desktop are wrong-Contain all File Paths

My wife insists that the desktop folders originally only contained any files that were stored in them. Last week the folder when opened, shows a complete path from the HD > desktop > Folder > Files. This makes for a very busy Finder display and I am unable to identify what caused it or how to get rid of this unwanted display.
Can anyone help?

Hi.
You're getting this?
Instead of this?...
The key is the "Show items as..." group of buttons in the toolbar... (as seen directly above the printer icon in the screen shot above).
Make sure the Toolbar (and Side Bar) are visible so you can select the view. ⌥⌘T (option-command-T) is the toggle to display the Toolbar.
I hope this is helpful.

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mj8000 wrote:
I am runing a 10.5.8.
Please excuse my being nosy, but where on earth did you get a brand new MBP of the vintage that it would be running 10.5.8?
I only have repair' Disk Permission's and 'Verify Dis'k Permissions options available- The 'Repair Disk' tab is grayed out.
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eesh. I'm afraid to reinstall the OS- I have a ton of media that hasn't been backed up yet from the past few days.
If you have another Mac, you could boot your MBP into FireWire Target Disk Mode and copy files from it:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583

Folders on the desktop are wrong-Contain all File Paths

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