• Select Actions->Find invalid files on the menubar. This will identify handles for files and folders that have been deleted. It may take a few moments to complete. When done, invalid handles will be marked .
  
• Select Actions->Auto-Protect. This will protect you from deleting handles the WPS needs to operate correctly. These handles will be marked or .
  
• Select Sort->Icon. This will move all of the invalid handles to the top of the list.

xfix can identify many problems but can only fix a few of them. If your system is seriously corrupted, many of these problems may still be present after using xfix,

• Look in the "References" column for each invalid handle. If you see a number and the words Abstract objects, you have non-file objects such as shadows that have gotten lost. To recover them, click MB2 on that handle then select Move abstracts to Desktop. If you don't do this, these objects will be deleted when you delete this handle.
  
• Highlight all of the invalid handles, then Delete them. You can use the Delete key or select Delete from the &popmenu;.

This is where xfix is at its best. You may have a huge number of handles that the WPS will never use and do nothing except slow it down. They point to valid files but are unnecessary in most cases and can be deleted.

• Select Sort->Long Name to sort the list by drive, directory, and filename.
  
• Locate files and folders that have shadows on your Desktop, then Protect them. Either select Protect from the &popmenu; or press Ctrl+P.
  
• Select Sort->Extension. Now, look at the "Short name" column and scroll down until you see files sorted by their extension.
  
• Any handle that isn't already protected may be one that you want to delete. Again, do not delete a handle if you have made a shadow for that file or folder.

  Good candidates for deletion are .DLL and .ZIP. Programmers can probably delete their .C, .CPP, and .H files. If you have a large number of, say, .JPG files and aren't sure whether to delete them, just delete one or two of them. After you close xfix, see if this had any negative consequences -- if not, restart xfix and delete all of them.
  

• If you have a policy of never creating WPS objects for files in certain folders (for example, "DOWNLOADS" or "TEMP"), then the handles for files in these folders can be deleted. Select Sort->Long Name again to sort the list by path, locate the folder, then delete the handles below it.

• The status bar at the bottom of the window should show "0 invalid" and "0 orphans". If not, select Sort->Icon. The invalid handles will be at the top of the list -- delete them. The orphans will be next -- protect them.
  
• Select xfix->Write back to OS2SYS.INI
  
• You will be prompted whether you want to remove the handles you marked for deletion. If there is a warning about orphans, press Cancel and fix the problem. If not, press Yes.
  
• Next, you will be asked if you really want to save your work. Read the warnings, and if you are confident you haven't created any new problems, answer Yes.
  
• Close the main window to exit xfix.