I'm new to boards like this. I recently downloaded Gimp and saved a .xcf file to my desktop. I try clicking on this file to open it so I can continue working on it. It does that Genie effect like it's opening but the file never materializes and Gimp doesn't open either. Can anyone give me any suggestions how to advance?
Thank You!

You might try opening Gimp and dragging the file over to the image window and see if that works.

What Draconian said OR right click on it and open with Gnu Image Manipulation. I have always had good luck in just dragging it into Gimp too

Is the XCF one you created in Gimp or somebody else's? Has Gimp ever opened? I'm wondering if you're trying to run a 64 bit version on a 32 bit operating system. If that's all OK, then maybe try moving the XCF to your pictures folder and open it from there.

It sounds like the file isn't associated with Gimp yet.
You should be able to drag the XCF workspace file over the Gimp desktop icon and Gimp will open the XCF file.

To associate the XCF with Gimp-
1) right click the file
2) select properties
3) select the general tab>then change button>browse to Gimp and select okay.

Welcome to Gimp Chat, Ryan!
Erisian has a good point.

My question; what's your OS, where and which version of Gimp did you download?
For starters I would download an official version for your OS from Gimp.org.
http://www.gimp.org/

I am assuming because a XCF file was created the version of Gimp works already.

The way I read his post is that he made an XCF in Gimp, he then saved it to desktop as an xcf. He wanted to do some more editing in it but was unable to open it into Gimp again.
That is the strange part. If he opens Gimp and drags the file from his desktop, it should open.

That's the most obvious assumption but it might be that he downloaded an xcf demo image or something. Doesn't hurt to throw different ideas around just in case, although he did say "saved" so you're probably right.

I don't think this person has been back on line to check so maybe he already figured it out.