Odd Question about MacBook

[MayheM]

Hey guys,

One of the teachers at my school has a MacBook and he has a strange issue I have never encountered. All the folders and files on his desktop are locked. When you try and click on them to even highlight them nothing happens. When you control click on the desktop nothing happens either. The files and folders are accessible through a finder window but i still need to get this working sooner rather than later.

My first two thoughts where that there is a keyboard command that he hit by mistake that could lock the desktop like that or he picked up a virus or something along those lines.

Has anyone ever heard of this happening before? I have seen a virus kill all the shortcuts on a machine but never completely kill all interactivity with them. Also new folders and files he has created do not show up. They can be seen in a finder window but not on the actual desktop.

Any input would be a big help. Thanks...

[city14]

Did someone screenshot his desktop and then do something with the rest of the folders? Because I've done that to eff with some of my friends...

[MayheM]

ha, no i thought of that too.

[Blink]

What version of OS X does he have?

Try doing a 'Get Info' on the Desktop from the Finder window and see if the Locked checkbox has a tick in it. Also you can check the permissions from in there.

[MayheM]

The laptop has leopard on it. Thanks Blink, I will check that when I go in tomorrow. Hopefully it is that simple.

Solved: Well it is not like I did anything. It fixed itself... I am pretty sure when I asked the teacher if they had restarted the computer they lied when they told me yes. Go figure they come in from the weekend and all is working well.