But you didn't leave it empty. You included a comment explaining why no
action was needed. There's a difference between an empty catch phrase and
one containing no executable statements.

- Virgil

Been thinking, how about something like this:

       String x = prefs.get("XLFT", "");
       String y = prefs.get("YTOP", "");
       String width = prefs.get("WIDE", "");
       String height = prefs.get("TALL", "");

       Rectangle prefBoundary = getPreferencesBoundary(x, y, width,
height);
       if (prefBoundary != null) frame.setBounds(prefBoundary);

   private Rectangle getPreferencesBoundary(String x, String y, String
width, String height)
   {
       Rectangle result = null;

       if (isNumber(x) && isNumber(y) && isNumber(width) &&
isNumber(height))
       {
           result = new Rectangle(Integer.parseInt(x), Integer.parseInt(y),
                                  Integer.parseInt(width),
Integer.parseInt(height));
       }

       return result;
   }

   private boolean isNumber(String s)
   {
       try
       {
           Integer.parseInt(s);
           return true;
       }
       catch (NumberFormatException e)
       {
           return false;
       }
   }

And if you could determine the default boundary then getPreferences could
return the default in the event that the preferences are "garbage" and then
the test for null disappears and you simply type

frame.setBounds(getPreferencesBoundary(x, y, width, height));

Does that make the code express it's intent better or not?

I know it does not remove the use of the try/catch ... I have not seen an
alternative to testing Strings to see if they are valid numbers.  But does
my approach read better?

Cheers
Shane