Removing mess in desktop

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Wed, 2008-08-27 at 10:50 +0200, Timothy Murphy wrote:
> Occasionally when I leave an application
> it leaves a "mess" - jumbled content -
> in the desktop where it was running.
> 
> This doesn't really matter, as when I run an application
> which opens a window in that desktop
> it simply covers the mess.

You mean something painted garbage on the root window? Or some
non-functional window was left lying around? In the latter case, you can
use 'xkill' to destroy it.

> Nevertheless, is there any way of "cleaning" a desktop,
> apart from re-booting?
> (I'm not sure if re-starting X does the job.)

I'd be extremely surprised if restarting X didn't do it.

poc