<b>Icon file bug mystery: clues to the solution?

I continue to receive many emails on the subject of the icon file bug mystery, but still do not have a definitive solution. Here's a sampling of what readers are saying:

a. Many readers confirmed that the appearance of these icons are somehow linked to having file sharing on, although a few said they have these icons without having used file sharing.

b. It also seems that this problem is more common in Mac OS 8 than in previous OS's. For example, Jim Morrison writes: "I have been noticing the phenomenal growth in numbers of invisible icon files; close to 300 at present. The ones with icon/macs type/creator codes are all dated on or after the day I updated to the released version of OS 8.

c. A couple of readers confirmed that, when these icons appear in the Trash at startup, they seem to come from icon files for the Desktop Folder itself. Anthony Saxton writes: "Solving the problem consisted of using ResEdit to make all desktop icons visible, as well as all Desktop files on the startup drive. This includes Desktop, Desktop DB and Desktop DF. Quit ResEdit, and place all these files into the Trash. You will not be able to dispose of these files yet, as they are still in use. Restart the Mac, and then empty the Trash. Since doing this, the icon file in the Trash problem is gone!"

d. One reader suggested the problem could be traced to either a bug with AppleShare Client or the Finder itself.