Finder question mark icon

A few weeks ago I noticed a question mark icon embedded in the top of my finder window, on my laptop.
It is still there and is also now showing on my imac as well.
Could this be a virus, has anyone seen this b4?

macbookpro, Mac OS X (10.4.10), Intel Imac

Posted on Sep 22, 2007 2:15 AM

Reply
8 replies

Sep 22, 2007 5:36 AM in response to glosshog

Welcome to Apple Discussions!!

It looks as if something has gone wrong with "Customise Toolbar". Try re-doing this: with the relevant Finder window at the front, choose "Customise Toolbar…" from the "View" menu. Then "drag the default set" to the window toolbar, and select "Icon Only" in the "Show" pop-up. Click "Done" and your question mark should be gone.

Sep 22, 2007 7:17 AM in response to glosshog

glosshog,

An additional thought, for what it's worth...

You may have seen a pointer to an application or item which at one time was added, perhaps inadvertently, to your Finder toolbar. At some later point the item was deleted and thereafter the pointer had nothing to point to because the original could not be found.

The condition is easily reproducible. Choose an item on your hard drive -- a text file, image, small 3rd-party utility, AppleScript, e.g. -- and duplicate it. Open a Finder window and drag the duplicate item to the Finder toolbar (it might take a bit of coaxing for the item to find a position where it will stick; look for the green "+" sign). Once added, find the duplicate item you just created and send it to the Trash. And then empty the Trash. Open a new Finder window and you should see a question mark identical to the one seen in your screen shot. To remove the question mark -- or any toolbar item for that matter -- click and hold on the item with the command key pressed down, and drag the item from the toolbar until you see it go "poof."

Regards, Andrew99

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