Which application should I blame for compulsively creating a directory again and again? There's an application on my system which keeps creating an empty `~/Desktop` directory again and again. I can't stand capital letters in my home, nor I can stand this “desktop” thingy. So, as picky as I am, I remove the directory each time I see it. I'd really like to know which application is responsible for that (probably some application I won't use so often¹). Any good ideas to track down the culprit? — 1\. Obviously I'd like to get rid of it, or maybe patch it if I can't live without it.

This directory might be created by any application that follows the Freedesktop userdirs standard. That potentially includes all Gnome or KDE applications.

If you want to know which application creates the file, you can use the LoggedFS filesystem or the Linux audit subsystem. See Is it possible to find out what program or script created a given file? for more information.