a friend of mine noted a rather little difference with Mac vs. PC photoshop
If you open Mac PS you see the desktop but on the PC the backround is greyed out

check the pic on the Mac

Sorry

He really doesn't care for the Mac backround especially if you have a busy desktop

how can one fix this little nuance

Alternately press the F key.
It changes the screen mode to:
Standard, Maximized and two different Full screen settings.
Maximized has the gray background.

On the tools palette, click on the "Full screen mode" button or jut click the letter "F".

Yeah, what Chita said

Allright!!!!,,,thanks a ton

just a quick question

why does the top of the tool bar disappear with 2 clicks?

I'm not sure I understand what you mean.
In PS 9 (CS2) if you double-click on the feather image at
the top of the toolbar, it launches PS to the web for help.
When I double-clicked on the titlebar of the toolbar nothing happened.
In PS CS3 if you single-click on the titlebar, it alternates the toolbar
from single to double column.

Sorry I have the antiquated version!

How antiquated?
Waaaaaaaaaaay back when, if you double-clicked on a titlebar
the whole thing collapsed into what was called a windowshade.
That I do miss in today's sea of palettes.