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Recovering accidental deletion of system preferences; other utilities
It appears that some users are making it a habit to inadvertently delete some important utility applications on their systems, namely the System Preferences.
Apple Discussions poster tdarnick writes:
"I deleted System Preferences. Is there any way to restore it other than reinstalling Mac OS?"
The first thing users should keep in mind is that, although many applications and utilities exist for convenience, some are required for graphical access to system setup. We highly recommend that you do not delete the following applications:
- Address Book
- Automator
- AppleScript (folder)
- Dashboard
- Dictionary
- Expose
- Font Book
- Front Row
- iSync
- Safari
- Spaces
- System Preferences
- Time Machine
- Utilities (folder)
These applications and folders of applications serve vital functions for the sustem; configuring the computer and performing basic routines in Mac OS X (ie: dashboard, spaces, and expose) properly will be broken if these applications are removed. The most important of these is the system preferences, but for some reason users may find this application either nonfunctional or missing. There are several reasons why the program isn't working, and luckily if it's missing users can recover it several ways.
Nonfunctional System Preferences
If the System Preferences are not launching, users may have a corrupted system preferences "preference" file. As with any other application, the system preferences stores application-specific settings in a .plist file called com.apple.systempreferences.plist that's located in the /username/Library/Preferences/ folder. Removing this file has fixed launch problems for some users. Additionally, users should try booting into Safe Mode (holding shift at startup) and then running a permissions fix on the hard drive using Disk Utility. After this is complete, and when still in Safe Mode, launching System Preferences should refresh some application-specific settings which may be interfering with the program. If the program launches successfully, users can then try when booted normally.
Missing System Preferences
If for some bizarre reason if the System Preferences are not in the Applications folder (or anywhere else on the system), users can recover them.
Time Machine: The first method is to use a Time Machine (or other) backup. If users are running Time Machine, navigate to the Applications folder and invoke Time Machine. Press the up arrow or search for the system preferences and locate the nearest backup instance that contains it. Then select the application and restore it to the Applications folder. For other backup systems, this can be done in the Finder by manually copying the System Preferences to the Applications folder.
Another Mac: If users have access to another Macintosh running the same version of OS X, they can copy the system preferences to their machines from the other Mac.
Pacifist: If users do not have backups or another mac, the system preferences are still available on the OS X installation DVD and can be accessed for installation using the popular "Pacifist" .pkg file reader (http://www.charlessoft.com/). Upon downloading and opening Pacifist, choose the option to open an installation DVD, and then navigate to the following location: Contents of OSInstall.mpkg/Contents of EssentialSystemSoftware/Contents of EssentialSystemSoftwareGroup/Contents of Essentials.pkg/Applications/
With that location open, select "System Preferences.app" and either "Extract To..." or "Install" it. This should have it appear in the Applications folder. While this should allow users to open the system preferences, the version on the Leopard install DVD is version 5.0, and the latest version is 5.2. Therefore if users have access to the internet it is recommended to download the OS X 10.5.6 "combo" updater and extract the "System Preferences.app" file from it, which will ensure the latest version is used. The combo updater is available here: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/macosx_updates/macosx1056comboupdate.html
Optionally users can just reinstall the combo updater, which should update old and missing versions of applications.
NOTE: The aforementioned procedures should also work for other lost applications that come with OS X (disk utility, console, terminal, etc).
Resources
" it a habit to inadvertently delete some important utility applications " ?
What was quoted from the user does not qualify as being done 'inadvertently' if it was done intentionally.
Excellent point macdad614.
Hard to discern what is gained by deleting utilities, except a self-inflicted wound.
Quit being so serious. It's definitely a joke. Look at that discussion thread, and several people have somehow removed their system preferences.
There was one thread I saw where some guy asked if "sudo rm -r /sbin" would hurt his system. Everyone said "yes", and he went and did it anyway...and lo and behold, his system didnt boot after that...
I think it's a joke, guys, a jest on the author's part.
I hope it was a joke. As far as deleting any of the apps in question - what would you gain by doing so; few hundred MB at best? What might you loose by deleting Apple installed apps? Well, you could have a disaster next time you upgrade the OS.
But as above, it begs the question: Why would you routinely delete the system prefs? The finder plist I understand - but not the system.
Patient: Doc, it hurts every time I do this (sticks finger in eye).
Doctor: Don't do that!
Patient: Doc it hurts when I touch here. (poking his right bicep with his index finger)
Doctor: Hmmm
Patient: It also hurts when I touch here. (poking his right shoulder with his index finger)
Doctor: Hmmm
Patient: And hurts when I touch here. (poking his right cheek with his index finger) And here. (poking his right thigh with his index finger), And here. (poking his right hand with his index finger) what'd ya think doc?
Doctor: Hmmm, it appears you have a broken left index finger.
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- by Gennx30 February 19, 2009 10:48 AM PST
- why would deleting PREFERENCES cause trouble?-The App involved just makes a new one- worst case is you lose some settings
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(9 Comments)I wish APPLE would make things in modules-there are so many different services and apps and crap that I dont use -probably 2/3 of OS X--the extra space is fine but with 1 tb HDs-not a big concern-but for housekeeping-and RAM use reasons-I think It should be good to ala cart something besides unchecking Asian language translators-which OS X goes ahead and installs anyway;
One example-(i know some of these are not too big-but when you delete several dozen-or a hundred then were talking reclaiming HD real estate
ex: I dont use iPod- I use easy find to get at everything iPod- well it turns out that there is one tiny 4kb file in PRIVATE FRAMEWORKS iPod folder-that if its gone, your computer wont start-ive discovered many of these by experiment over the years-and am finding APPLE is making everything more interdependant
MODULES is the answer
one for simple net surfing and paper writing etc light use
one for art/film
one for business
one for acedemic
all in one
Im sure it would speed things up