I'm not sure how i did this; but as i was moving the mouse somewhere i accidentally right or left clicked and voila; my four little desktops disappeared from the panel and instead there are duplicates of any of the open window icons. grrrr. i looked around in preferences, and panel preferences and at ubuntu but could find nothing specific to this. i tried restarting the computer. any ideas greatly appreciated. this is an annoyance more than a problem, so i understand if no one has time for this. thanks for listening. -- betty i. www.webcanine.com information for people who care for dogs. www.ipmArizona.com intellectual property management webdesign