Q Over the last few months, whenever I open a Finder window, it has question marks in the title bar, between the tools and search box. At first this was just a single question mark, then two, and now three. Are these malignant or just some strange aberration?

A These question marks are tools that have been added to the Finder window that are not working properly.

They are most probably an application or other icon, and because the original item is now missing, its more informative icon has been replaced by a question mark. The quickest way to be rid of them is just by Command-dragging each question mark out of the window toolbar. You can remove it more formally by bringing a window to the front, and using the Customize Toolbar… command in the View menu to edit the toolbar.

Updated from the original, which was first published in MacUser volume 27 issue 9, 2011.