Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
To find out what version of a program you have, start the program and then choose Program →About Program (where
Program is the name of the application). The dialog that appears tells you the version number.
Bypassing your login items
It's always possible that flaky system behavior could be caused by one of your login items. To find out, it's pos-
sible to log in without loading any of your login items (this is called a safe login). If the problem goes away,
you're a step closer to locating the culprit.
First, follow these steps to log in without your login items:
1. Pull down the Apple menu and choose Log Out User (where User is your username). You can also
press Shift+ +Q. MacBook Air asks if you're sure.
2. Click Log Out. MacBook Air logs you out and displays the login screen.
3. Choose your user account (if necessary) and type your password.
4. Press and hold the Shift key and then click Log In. MacBook Air logs you in without loading any of
your login items.
5. When you see the desktop, release the Shift key.
If the problem goes away, you can be fairly certain that a login item is the cause. From here, disable the login
items one at a time (as described earlier) until you find the one that's the source of your woes.
Deleting a program's preferences file
A preferences file is a document that stores options and other data that you've entered using the application's
Preferences command. One of the most common causes of application flakiness is a preferences file that's
somehow become damaged or corrupted (for example, its data is written with the wrong syntax). In that case,
you can solve the problem by deleting (or moving) the preferences file so that the application has to rebuild it.
On the downside, this may mean that you have to reenter some preferences, but that's usually a fairly small
price to pay for a stable application.
Preferences files use the PLIST filename extension. In most cases, the filename uses the following general
format: com. company . application .plist.
Here, company is the name of the software company that makes the application, and application is the name of
the program. Here are some examples:
com.apple.iTunes.plist
com.microsoft.Word.plist
com.adobe.PhotoshopElements.plist
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