You can get rid of an old Desktop, here is how.

1. Before you mess with something like this, you need to be sure you have a 
Backup of your Desktop and know how to do a Restore in case of problems. If 
you do not have both of these, then please stop here until you have them. You 
can download DSKTOP.TXT from Lib 5 of the OS2BVEN Forum for a discussion of 
this issue...my opinion only.

2. BE SURE you know which of the Desktops is the current one, so that you do 
not delete the active Desktop.

3. In theory, you can remove the old Desktop Directory structure while PM and 
WPS are running. In practice, this can cause serious problems. WPS was not 
written under the assumption that there would be more than one Desktop and 
will sometimes come to the conclusion that things are being removed from the 
Desktop when you delete the old Desktop Directory structure. Sometimes, maybe 
most times, it will work. However, if you have a problem you will probably be 
very sorry you tried it and very happy you have a Backup. Unfortunately, it 
is possible for the symptoms of a problem to not always show up immediately, 
so I do not recommend you try it.

4. The first thing you need to do is get to an OS/2 Command Prompt without PM 
and WPS running. Three options come to mind: 1. Boot an OS/2 Maintnance 
Partition. 2. Boot from the floppies. 3. Interrupt the Boot using something 
like ShiftRun. If you are using 2. above, you really should download 
SHFTRN.ZIP from the OS2USER Forum and switch to 3.

5. Once at the OS/2 Command Prompt, you can now delete the unused Desktop. 
Unfortunately, without PM running this can be a difficult process, since you 
must start at the bottom of the Directory Tree and work your way up. There is 
a program that will make this a very easy process, IniClean. Download 
INICLN.ZIP from Lib 5 of the OS2BVEN Forum, if you are not already a user of 
SysMaint or MultiMaint, and unzip the file. This will give you IniClean.EXE, 
which will delete an entire Directory structure and all included files. You 
can run IniClean with no parameters and it will tell you waht it expects, but 
to delete the DESKTOP Directory structure on Drive C:, you would code:

 IniClean -ic:\desktop

BE CAREFUL!!! A finger fault can and will delete the active Desktop Directory 
structure, which is another reason why you MUST HAVE A BACKUP.

6. You can now boot from the HD, if you used 1. or 2. above, or finish the 
boot process if you are using ShiftRun and the old Desktop will be gone.

If you want to rename a Desktop, for example Desktop1 to Desktop, you can do 
it by bringing up the Window List, LMB on the Desktop entry while holding 
down the Alt Key, edit the name, and LMB anywhere in the Window List Window. 
The HD will churn away for a while and then you will be fine.

You should certainly make a new backup of the Desktop immediately after you 
have done the Rename. In fact, I would make a Backup, Shutdown...to make sure 
all of the EAs are up to date, Reboot...just to be sure it will work, and 
then make a final Backup of the newly booted Desktop.

The above is EXTREMELY conservative. However, I am a conservative person and 
a shortcut that does not work could easily put you into a condition that you 
will not care for at all. As I said in DSKTOP.TXT, I have clobbered the 
Desktop just about every way there is to damage it and have never rebuilt 
from scratch or had to reinstall OS/2. The is absolutely no reason any user 
should ever have to do either, since protecting yourself is so easy.
