I'm working on someone else's computer and the finder window is open deeper than the screen! How do I fix? Need answer soon, as I'm here.
The screen resolution may be set too low. Go to System Preferences>Displays and select the Display tab. I don't know what the default resolution should be for that computer so you may have to play with the settings to get it right.
Tried that. Screen is set at highest resolution. Somehow I fixed it, but they said it happens all the time. Someone who has fixed it before is coming over to show me what to do. Will post.
Thanks, J. It just came back. What pref is it? I think it is a corrupt pref in the system folder?
AFAIK, there is only one plist for all of System Preferences. That means that, if you have to trash it, you'll have to reset every one of the preferences. You can experiment, however, without burning your bridges behind you.
Move ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist to the desktop. Log out/in and see what happens. If you want to revert, move that plist back and log out/in again.
I tossed a pref that was window something. Problem solved, I think.
Can you be more specific about the identity of the preference? Inquiring minds want to know.
The options with 'window' are few indeed: /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist comes to mind. If true, the problem would have been present in other user accounts as well.
Here's a tip. Imagine the following scenario, one that was quite common in the ancient times when computers were so expensive that no ordinary mortal would own their own. If you attended an educational institution where you required occasional access to a computer, the school would provide a "computer lab", a room with dozens of computers available for student use. When you wanted to use a computer, you'd go to the computer lab, put your name on the waiting list, and wait for one of the computers to become available. Which one you got depended on the luck of the draw.
Your home folder lived on a central file server. You used the same username/password to log in whichever computer you got. But the computers were not all equal. On a lucky day, you'd get the one with the big color monitors, able to display millions of colors, but most days you'd have to settle for one of the old small screens that handled only 256 colors, or maybe even only black and white.
Now the problem is, your home folder and therefore your preferences all live on the file server. But you want to configure the mouse, keyboard, screen, etc. according to the particular computer you got. How can one preference folder have all the right settings for all the computers in the lab? (Remember, these are still per-user settings. You don't want some sysadmin enforcing his preferred mouse speed on you.)
The answer is that inside your preference folder there is a "ByHost" subfolder that contains preferences for each host (that is, each workstation) that you've ever logged in from.
And that's the tip. If you're looking for the preference file that contains a particular setting, ask yourself if, were you forced to do your computing in a computer lab, you would want different settings depending on which computer you got that day. If the answer is "yes", then look for the file in ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost. Even if you're not actually using a computer-lab computer.
In this particular case, monitor resolution is saved in ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.windowserver.XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX.plist, where the "XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX" is a string of 32 hexadecimal characters (and a few hyphens) that uniquely identify your computer.
If you want to examine/modify a preference file in that folder, add the
"-currentHost" flag to the defaults command, as in:
defaults -currentHost read com.apple.windowserver
(Or specify a different host. Consult man defaults for details.)
That having been said, I think you're probably barking up the wrong tree, thinking the problem is incorrect monitor resolution. More likely, the user is zooming the screen. One easy way to do this accidentally is to carelessly hold down the control key while scrolling up, on either the trackpad or the magic mouse. By default, that zooms the screen. To unzoom it, hold down the control key and scroll down.
You can get the same effect with command-option-equal (because '+' and '=' happen to share the same key) and command-option-minus.
Or you could be zooming using command-option-8. Unzoom by pressing command-option-8 again.
Thanks, G. Good to know that because I will be putting in a server there soon, but right now they are too small and just using shared folders (and sneaker net).
It was the windowserver pref. I put it on the desktop and restarted. Problem gone. Kudos Alternaut and Ganbustein.
BTW, the TM drive attached to that computer was having 'issues' and all the info G had given me was really great. (That's why I was there in the first place. Deleted older backups that were done within hours of each other by adding the delete option to the finder window. Dumped some stuff off the computer itself that wasn't needed, and, it seems like when the TM drive told the user it was full and was deleting older backups, it wasn't deleting but moving them to the trash. When I first got there I went to empty the trash and it started counting hundreds of thousands of files. When I ejected the TM drive the trash emptied quickly.
Well, it happened again and they called me in a panic. The pref had to be trashed again, the wireless mouse disconnected and a different one added, and then command-option brought the screen back to size. What would happen is the startup was fine, the screen was right, and then it would jump big. It's one of these:
http://support.apple.com/kb/SP28I feel like just putting a new HD in it and see what happens. It's really not worth trying to troubleshoot this and they routinely fill up the drive and the 1TB SATAs are very cheap. I guess my question is, what is the highest system this thing will run, so when I do add the MiniMac Server, will it be useful? Thanks!
According to
Mactracker, a Late 2006 iMac will run OS X up to 10.7.5.
Also, if I get the MiniMac Server, will it be able to run with computers with the older OS?
Yes (as long as they use compatible network protocols, which Macs running older versions of OS X do).