Strange Preferences Files - Anyone Recognize Them? - Mac-Forums.com

mac57 · 03-17-2007, 03:17 PM

In hunting around for ways to configure DesktopCalendar, I visited my Preferences folder. I found all sorts of strangely titled, zero length preference folders there. If I was on Windows I would smell a bug right away. For Mac, I am not sure. See the attached screen shot and look at the first two rows of folders. Does anyone recognize what these might be? Thanks!

MacHeadCase · 03-17-2007, 03:32 PM

Can you try cleaning your font cache with either MainMenu or OnyX and see if that wouldn't fix the garbled typeface?

If not download Linotype's FontExplorer X if you don't already have it and let it take over Mac OS X's Font Book so that you can check out corrupted fonts and or conflicts.

mac57 · 03-17-2007, 08:24 PM

Thanks MHC, but what makes you think that these oddball preference files have anything to do with fonts?

I am tempted to just delete them (actually save them off somewhere safe, out of the Preferences folder) and see if anything happens. My Mac is working perfectly normally as far as I can tell.

NanoBite · 03-18-2007, 07:47 AM

Relocating them would be my first move .... if there are no ill effects resulting in the following days/weeks then it would appear safe to say they are unecessary for every day run'o'the-mill business. Could they be CS2 related and meant for Windows machines therefore appearing as useless garbled junk on your Mac?

MacHeadCase · 03-18-2007, 11:27 AM

Well maybe like Pulse suggests, try dragging those pref files to the desktop, restart and see where you go from here.

The only thing that makes me worried is that there are folders in there. Look into those folders to see what they contain before dragging them to the desktop.

I thought it could have been a font that is starting to corrupt but I could be wrong. I had reading this webpage, Font Management in OS X Tiger and Panther, by Kurt Lang and was totally enthralled. Guess it rubbed off on me and I started seeing font troubles everywhere. LOL

mac57 · 03-18-2007, 02:55 PM

Rest easy MHC! They are folders, but they are empty. All of these oddball ones are zero length empty folders.

It reminds me of a bug I used to have on an old Windows ME system I had. An interaction bug between Windows ME and Norton SystemWorks that caused literally 10s of thousands of bogus zero length device files to be created. This meant that every time I deleted or installed a new device (printer, scanner, mouse, whatever), it would take hours, as Windows painfully searched this entire (and always growing) list of existing devices. I used to go in to the offending folder every now and then and spend hours cleaning it up (since they were interspersed with legitimate device files, I couldn't just select all and delete - it was a very painful process), only to have to repeat it again in a weeks time. It was SO frustrating. I never did find the cause until after I had bought a new computer and was no longer using Windows ME - I stumbled upon an article on it while trying to solve yet another Norton related issue.

So, when I saw gobbeldy-gook named, zero length preference files, my first reaction was OMG, have I somehow installed Norton without realizing it??? :dive:

...of course I haven't, but it worries me when bogus stuff starts to show up.

Thanks for the help everyone. I am going to try moving them out and see what happens.