icons not showing on desktop

when saving to desktop the icons fail to mount though all icons already there are still there. at someone's suggestion i overcame that by entering in Terminal:

rm ~/Desktop/.DS_Store
mv ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist.old
killall Finder

that worked for a few days but the problem has returned. anyone any suggestions for a permanent solution???

mac os x 10.5.8 PPC G5

many thanks

Set up a troubleshooting user account and see how it behaves. You might want to move your files out of your account and delete it to save yourself the headache of trying to determine exactly where the problem lies.