What is the role of desktop.dsk file in Lotus Notes ?

Answer 1

There may be other purpose of desktop.dsk, but to the user, most importantly it holds information for all the icon tabs and the database icons for the user's desktop. If that file is deleted, then the next time the user starts Lotus Notes, a new one will be created but all the icons you used to have will all have to be re-added. Re-adding could be quite a headache, especially in organisation who has lots of Notes servers, and with servers remotely. And you need precise server names to do that.

It is good practice to backup and compact desktop.dsk from time to time, as it can get corrupted.

To backup, simple make another copy and store it somewhere else.

To backup, just right-click on the workspace, and select workspace properties, there are different tabs there, you should see an option to compact desktop.

Hope this helps.