CrunchBang Linux

So, I was looking into how to put icons on the desktop and ran across this: http://crunchbanglinux.org/wiki/howto/add_desktop_icons

I'm used to mint xfce so I went with this option:

sudo apt-get install xfdesktop4

and edited ~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh as instructed.

I wasn't at all happy with the results so I tried to change autostart.sh back to the way it was -- but when I tried to open it in geany it opens an empty file with, "New file "/home/ernie/.config/openbox/autostart.sh" opened."

I searched for other autostart files and opened them in geany. I found the one that had been previously edited (with nitrogen commented out and xfdesktop inserted) and changed it back. But that didn't fix the problem. I've tried removing xfdesktop4. Also tried purging. I've googled and found many posts where people lost their wallpaper or lost their main/right-click menu, but every solution I've tried has not restored things to the way they were.

The worst part about this is that a friend is paying me to set this up for him (it's a very old laptop with 1GB max RAm - #! was running great until I broke it) and he needs it TODAY!

I sure hope someone can help me. I'm BEGGING, here!