[bkb]

Cocktail 3.5 says it can do the following maintenance to your system:

Prebind and re-prebind entire system or selected folder.
Run cron scripts.
Force empty trash.
Change startup mode and lanugage.
Modify sleep settings.
Rebuild Launch Services database.
Update whatis and locate databases.

I know how to the the first three from the command line. I am interested to know what the value of doing the last 4 on that list are - and how one would do them from the command line.

The reason I'm asking is that lately I'm experiencing some strangeness with OS X. After logging in, the white menu bar doesn't appear right away. Instead, the menulets appear on the background, and I have to launch a program from the dock to see the white menu bar, and the desktop items. Force re-starting the Finder does nothing. The standard maintenanc procedures (repiar disk permissions, run disk utility and force prebindings) usually fix any OS X problem, but they don't fix the current problem.

Thanks,
BKB.

[suthercd]

Probably none of the four have to do with what you are experiencing. Startup mode determines at boot what interface is used- single user, Aqua, or verbose. Language is the language , dialect, characters of your interface/GUI. Sleep settings deals with HD spin down and fine tuning how a laptop wakes up. Launch Services determines what application is used to open different file types. Locate and whereis databases keep track of what files are on your volumes and their locations.

You may have an application or utility set to launch at login which is causing the slow loading of the desktop. Try turning off any login items you have in your Accounts pref pane and see if that makes a difference.

IMHO, Cocktail is a quality app. However, 99%+ of the time the startup and maintenance scripts that are a part of the OS X install handle these procedures.

Craig