How to solve a frozen desktop on OS/X Leopard

I'm running Leopard on my Macbook Pro, and every now and then I all of a sudden cannot select drives, folders and documents on the desktop. I can launch applications, use the dashboard and i can even still select sticky notes. but if its on the desktop, i cannot select or open it. If Iuse Finder to get to the desktop folder, it all works fine. Rebooting works, but is inconvenient.

The best solution I found so far is to Alt-Right Click on the Finder icon in the Dock and select Relaunch. This restarts the Finder and all is well again.

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