# desktop, dock, and finder all disappeared (replaced by a black screen and cursor)



## cruelwhencomple (Mar 31, 2017)

Hey! So I was trying to speed up my MacBook Pro(running Sierra OS) in order to avoid some lag issues I was having with Steam games. I entered the terminal commands listed in the article linked below (under the "Disable OS X Features You Never Use" section):

How to Optimize Your Mac for Gaming

After entering those commands, my dock immediately disappeared, and when I minimized the browser, there was nothing but a black screen behind it, i.e. no desktop and no way to use finder. I reset the computer and the problem remained, googled around for answers and tried a few fixes, but nothing solved the issue. Running safe mode or logging in as a different user brings everything back, but I would like to work under my primary user account without safe mode (obviously). Does anyone have any idea what I would need to do to set things back to normal? Any help would be much appreciated.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Start in Safe Mode and in _Finder/Go/Utilities/Disk Utilities_. Highlight the Mac drive and *Fix the permissions*. 
Here are some other ideas: Relaunch the Mac OS X Finder | OSXDaily


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