Can't minimize open windows. They disappear. the firefox 3.0 title bar shows 9 open
 

The system is also very sluggish. openSuse 11.0, amd64. 1 GB memory. After recent auto update and an attempt to update to Banshee 1.2. Acted like it worked but Banshee will not start. Windows will open but when I minimize any one of them, it goes away. Also cannot copy files, or change any thing on the desktop. HELP!

What desktop environment are you using? Gnome? KDE 3? KDE 4? Other?

The windows disappearing when you minimize them sounds very familiar - sounds like you've lost your Taskbar applet. If you're using KDE 3 then right click on the Panel, select 'Add Applet to Panel...' then find Taskbar.

still no taskbar!
 

Thank you Arizonagroovejet, for your reply! Sorry for the sketchy info!
My System is as follows:
openSuse 11.0 Downloaded from opensuse.org DVD version
KDE 4.0.4>=20080505 Release 15.2
Kernel 2.6.25.11-0.1 default x86_64
running on Asus M2NPV-VM motherboard
AMD athlon64x2 4400
1GB ddr2 800 ram
160 sata drive
500 GB saTA drive
Nvidia geoforce 6150 /w Nvidia repo driver.

All worked ok till I tried an update to KDE 4.1

Symptoms include any open window when minimized will apparently close. When I try to configure the desktop the Icon bounces for a while and the nothing... the taskbar is all rarrainged and overall the system is very slow. Reboot helps in that regard but within a few moments the system slows again. any othe ideas?

Thanks in advance of your reply...

Hmmm. I've barely used KDE 4.1 myself. I'd try creating another user and see if any of the problems you are experiencing occur with that user. If they do then you've got something messed up at the system level in which I'd try un-installing all the KDE 4 packages then re-installing 4.1. If you don't have problems with the new user then it's just your user settings that are messed up and you can fix it just by deleting your own KDE settings.

Your idea fixed the symptoms, now on to the underlying problem
 

Creating a new user on the system fixed the issues I was having with KDE 4.0.4. This action also gave me a reason to try Gnome again. So far I like it. I still can't figure out what happened to my old settings.

Thanks again ArizonaGrooveJet!!!!

I misread your previous post, thought you were on KDE 4.1. KDE 4.0 was really intended for developers and is not really terribly good as far as being a usable desktop environment. (There has been a lot of discussion about the state of KDE 4.0 and the message that it was intended for developers apparently being lost on some distros, such as openSUSE who included it by default. See amongst many other places articles linked from http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?.../07/29/1534249) From what I've seen, KDE 4.1 is a big improvement and a must have update. There should be packages available for openSUSE 11 by now.