refresh the desktop?

[John R. Sowden]

On Sunday September 06 2009 20:27:26 John wrote:
> John R. Sowden wrote:
> > Is there a way to refresh the desktop, that is, re-read the
> > /home/user/Desktop directory?
> > tia,
> > John
>
> maybe ctr-alt-bkspace to restart the gui service? not sure, it's been a
> while...
actually I was hoping for a command that I could put in a program, so, if I 
changed the desktop contents under program control, the same program would 
refresh the screen by re-reading the directory.

tia, John