Scott, The problem of preference lists (files with .plist extensions) for applications getting corrupted is discussed at the MacFixIt site. There's an article on yesterday's MacFixIt web page pointing out that applications other than the host (owner) sometimes write to the .plist files, so the problem is not only the possible corruption due to an occasional error from lots of changes to preferences over time, but also because some other apps that access the .plist files may be doing so with buggy write routines. For example, they point out that many mail-handling routines might access and modify the Safari.plist file. As Travis said, creating a test account helps to trouble-shoot: if you don't find the same problem with the application from the second user's account, then an archive and install won't help. Chances are that you have a corrupted plist file.
This might be the source of Jacob's problem with Safari. One way to check is to move the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist file to the Desktop using the "mv" command under terminal. If the application launches and performs without problems, the plist file was probably the source of the difficulties. If no change in behavior is seen, the plist file can be moved back to ~/Library/Preferences from the Desktop and can replace the new plist file that got created. Here's the URL for the MacFixIt article: http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20060608083449600 Cheers, Esther On Friday, June 09, 2006, Scott Howell wrote: >Yeah the question is why it happens. I wonder if there's some >extensive information available that covers plists and their >functions.
