Recent answers to Why are there tiny symbols appearing on my desktop?https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/11605642017-05-18T23:28:30-07:00dmorsekahn said
FredMcD, perhaps your information was intended for a different forum participant? 2017-05-18T23:28:30-07:00fredmcd-hotmailhttps://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1160564#answer-969796<p><em>dmorsekahn <a href="#answer-969660" rel="nofollow">said</a></em>
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FredMcD, perhaps your information was intended for a different forum participant? Or, help me understand what you are addressing in your action outline...? Thank you!
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<p>Assuming that something from Facebook is the problem,
this may remove the problem.
</p>What you see on the desktop might be a window with dimensions that makes it so small that you do not2017-05-18T14:12:29-07:00cor-elhttps://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1160564#answer-969699<p>What you see on the desktop might be a window with dimensions that makes it so small that you do not see any content (i.e. this window is almost completely collapsed).
</p>Forgive me, please, I am not understanding any of this information as it might relate to my posted i2017-05-18T12:44:42-07:00dmorsekahnhttps://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1160564#answer-969675<p>Forgive me, please, I am not understanding any of this information as it might relate to my posted issue.
</p><p>Not a big emergency, I can live with these little bits appearing on my desktop!
</p><p>Thank you everyone for your time.
</p>If this is a collapsed Firefox (pop-up) window then you could try to see if Alt+Tab shows this windo2017-05-18T12:31:04-07:00cor-elhttps://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1160564#answer-969671<p>If this is a collapsed Firefox (pop-up) window then you could try to see if Alt+Tab shows this window.
</p>FredMcD, perhaps your information was intended for a different forum participant? Or, help me unders2017-05-18T11:48:11-07:00dmorsekahnhttps://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1160564#answer-969660<p>FredMcD, perhaps your information was intended for a different forum participant? Or, help me understand what you are addressing in your action outline...? Thank you!
</p>https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Clear+Recent+History#w_how-do-i-remove-a-single-website-from-my-histo2017-05-18T10:38:36-07:00fredmcd-hotmailhttps://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1160564#answer-969646<p><a href="https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Clear+Recent+History#w_how-do-i-remove-a-single-website-from-my-history" rel="nofollow">https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Clear+Recent+History#w_how-do-i-remove-a-single-website-from-my-history</a>
</p><p>Remove History For One Site
</p><p>Open the History Manager <strong>&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Shift&gt; H.</strong>
In the search bar, enter the name of the site.
Right-click on one of the listings and select <strong>Forget About This Site.</strong>
This should remove all information, including any passwords / settings.
</p>Update: 7:30pm Thursday eve:
Facebook has not been - and is not now - opened, but just now there is2017-05-18T10:36:38-07:00dmorsekahnhttps://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1160564#answer-969644<p>Update: 7:30pm Thursday eve:
</p><p>Facebook has not been - and is not now - opened, but just now there is a new compass star symbol on the desktop. Would have liked to point the finger at Facebook as the villain.
</p><p>Still hoping for feedback as to cause.
</p><p>jscher2000, you wrote "I suspect an incompatibility with your graphics card/chipset driver software." Could you please direct me in a way/ways to examine that possibility? Many thanks.
</p>Okaaaay....calling jscher2000 & Colleagues! We have an event!
Just a minute ago while pasting an2017-05-18T03:53:43-07:00dmorsekahnhttps://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1160564#answer-969529<p>Okaaaay....calling jscher2000 &amp; Colleagues! We have an event!
</p><p>Just a minute ago while pasting and posting in Facebook, the page went <em>wobbily</em> <em>crazy</em>, shrank then expanded then shrank again, and during this event planted three compass point stars across my desktop (please see jpg images posted yesterday evening). I have noted that, when my pointer is hovered over these tiny symbols, the "system working" icon appears as if I am trying to bring in data, but there is no activity at any time, just the running icon.
</p><p>I would welcome your thoughts on this event. I'm fairly sure that FB is not at the root of the problem but, as smart as I am on computers, I'm pretty dim on many issues of importance so I am entirely open to your advice.
</p><p>Deborah
</p>Getting back to you, jscher2000, as promised. I powered down the laptop at 9pm CST yesterday evening2017-05-18T01:00:46-07:00dmorsekahnhttps://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1160564#answer-969472<p>Getting back to you, jscher2000, as promised. I powered down the laptop at 9pm CST yesterday evening and rebooted in non-refresh SAFE mode as recommended. I then let the system run in SAFE mode while I worked for a few hours, let the system sleep through the night without rebooting and woke to find the desktop populated with the expected application and document icons and <strong>nothing more</strong>. Excellent!
</p><p>As of 9:45am this morning I have rebooted to standard processing format and will wait through the morning to see what develops. Back to you later, with thanks for your patience...
</p>Note that you can possibly use the Windows Task Manager to close and restart the explorer.exe proces2017-05-17T13:55:33-07:00cor-elhttps://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1160564#answer-969352<p>Note that you can possibly use the Windows Task Manager to close and restart the explorer.exe process to rebuild the desktop.
</p>Bless your heart! I'm off to test your suggestions and will be back shortly. :)
2017-05-17T13:51:50-07:00dmorsekahnhttps://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1160564#answer-969350<p>Bless your heart! I'm off to test your suggestions and will be back shortly.&nbsp;:)
</p>I suspect an incompatibility with your graphics card/chipset driver software. Otherwise, anything Fi2017-05-17T13:48:37-07:00jscher2000https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1160564#answer-969349<p>I suspect an incompatibility with your graphics card/chipset driver software. Otherwise, anything Firefox writes to the screen should stay in the Firefox window and not bleed through to the desktop.
</p><p>Could you test in Firefox's Safe Mode? In Safe Mode, Firefox temporarily deactivates extensions, hardware acceleration, and some other advanced features to help you assess whether these are causing the problem.
</p><p><em>If Firefox is not running:</em> Hold down the Shift key when starting Firefox.
</p><p><em>If Firefox is running:</em> You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:
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<ul><li> "3-bar" menu button &gt; "?" button &gt; Restart with Add-ons Disabled
</li><li> Help menu &gt; Restart with Add-ons Disabled
</li></ul>
<p>and OK the restart.
</p><p><em>Both scenarios:</em> A small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (<em>not</em> Refresh).
</p><p>Any improvement? (More info: <a href="/en-US/kb/diagnose-firefox-issues-using-troubleshoot-mode" rel="nofollow">Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode</a>)
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