OS 9.2 and OSX.O - Somehow I have an icon on my desk that says
.DS_store -I have no idea where it came from but it has multiplied into everything on my desktop and in the hard drive. When I try to send it to the Trash, I get a notice that says it it invisible and cannot be moved. It has also brought along a few friends and I have tried to download norton antivirus and could not load it. Iam now at my wits end. If anyone can help me, I would be most appreciated.

Yeah I had that on the eMac I just got repaired (not for that reason). I bought a newer 1ghz model and have not seen it. I haven't started my old one yet. Please refresh my memory and tell me where you're seeing .DS_store, so I can look for it. That may answer questions about what went wrong with the repaired eMac.

danarchy-.ds store and it"s companions hide out in all application folders,sub folders within the hardrive and on the desktop You can"t trash them because there is not enough authority or they are invisable or the disc is being used elsewhere. the only giveaway is that they were never created in the 'info" window.My hat is off to the individuals that can create such an insidious program. Good Luck. Greg

I was talking to tier one at Apple today and the tech looked it up and found that it is a system part. She really couldn't elaborate on it as I had some other issues to work out. Why it appeared on your desktop, I'm not sure. She said if I see it again, call back and she would put me with tier 2. Their knowledge is definitely better, but not always consistent.

Hi again- It is very much appreciated the trouble you are going to for my problem. It is an icon that appears on the desktop and every folder on the desktop along with the hard drive. When I try to move any of them to the trash, it says the item is invisible and the move will not complete. I do not want to send e-mails as I am afraid of contaminating someones elses computer. If it is harmless, I will just carry on but at this point have no idea. thanks again, Greg

Hello Greg.
Since it is part of the system, I doubt that it is viral. But Apple support is closed until Friday, I hope. From my extensive problems with corrupted files, Safari plist (often) and just yesterday, Safari preferences, You may want to check for System preferences plist or Safari plist and drag one to your desktop and restart to see if that helps. I'm no expert but I've had to do that with apple.com.safari plist a few times. Then if it fixes whatever problem I had, I trash the plist.
If it's preferences, like mine this time, prepare to spend time restoring your desktop and other things. I just wish I knew what was corrupting these things.
Dan

Hi, i usually encounter this .DS_store when i hook up my external HD to windows machine, i don't know and don't understand how it's turn up on your desktop. but nothing to worry about it's not a virus. i think if you foward your question to apple discusssion board there will be more help for you.

BTW what version of mac os X do you have greg

found this at apple support page http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106893

Good luck

These are files used by the system and are usally hidden, any file precede by a "." will be hidden. some how your system is displaying hidden files. Download SterMachine from version tracker, to deal with this.

Hi,

.DS_Store is a system file. Mac OS X leaves these files around as part of the OS management implementation. You will see them on servers, and if you go looking around hidden files and so forth.

This is not a virus.

I have changed the name of the thread to reflect that you do not have a virus, and make the title more technically accurate.

Christian