I upgraded to C 7.4 from C 6.9 on my laptop and all was well. As with C6 and the other C7 hosts that I have, if launch a terminal from the desktop it opens in [ user at host Desktop ]$ which is just fine. I restored parts of my C 6.9 home into C7.4 and now everything shows up on my desktop and when I open a terminal it now opens up in [ user at host ~ ]$ Obviously I overwrote the setting, that controls where the terminal opens. I've searched high and low but for the life of me I can't determine where that parameter is set. I've done some searches but haven't been able to get the right incantation that would yield an answer Does anyone know how I can resolve this dilemma? Thanks Pete -- Unencumbered by the thought process. -- Click and Clack the Tappet brothers -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.