diff --git a/conversions/tde-l10n/tde-l10n_split_desktop b/conversions/tde-l10n/tde-l10n_split_desktop
index 47bedaa..444a27b 100755
--- a/conversions/tde-l10n/tde-l10n_split_desktop
+++ b/conversions/tde-l10n/tde-l10n_split_desktop
@@ -90,8 +90,12 @@ while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
   DX="$DX|$D.tde_l10n"
 
   if [ ! -f "$D.orig" ]; then
-    mv "$D" "$D.orig"
-    grep -v "^[a-zA-Z][^=]*\[[a-z][^=]*\]" "$D.orig" > "$D"
+    (
+     printf "[<default>]\n"
+     cat "$D"
+    ) > "$D.orig"
+    grep -v "^[a-zA-Z][^=]*\[[a-z][^=]*\]" "$D.orig" | \
+    grep -Fxv "[<default>]" > "$D"
   fi
 
   # xgettext for desktop files generates a reference to the source file
@@ -100,11 +104,11 @@ while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
   # That's why we have our own mechanism for extracting strings.
   sed \
     -e "s|\"|\\\\\"|g" \
-    < $D | \
+    < "$D" | \
   sed \
     -e "s#^\($KEYWORDS_MATCH\)[ ]*=[ ]*\(.*\)#/*\1*/i18n(\"\2\");#;t" \
     -e "s|.*||" \
-    > $D.tde_l10n
+    > "$D.tde_l10n"
 done
 
 # extract strings