System Preferences

I have noticed that my Mac doesnt have the system preferences on my dock. For some reason it disappeared, and I wanted to open it so I can change my desktop background. I tried clicking the apple sign and clicking "system preferences" from there but it was unsuccessful. I searched on the spotlight and found it but it gave me multiple folders and when i clicked the folders they all gave me codes that I dont understand. I dont know what I should do.

System Preferences is an app which should be located in your applications folder. If it's not there it may have been accidentally deleted. In order to restore it if you do not have a backup, will require reinstalling OS X. Also, you gave us no information about your Mac or which version of OS X it's running.

Its a MacBook Pro, I've had it for 2 years. Its Mac OS X version is 10.6.8

Right click the Desktop > Change Desktop Background...

If you want access to System Preferences, chscag is correct - it's in your Applications folder. If it's not there, we can search for it through Spotlight.

Go to Applications and drag the SYstems Preferences icon to the Dock. This established an alias there for shortcutting.

nikkireyes93 said:

I have noticed that my Mac doesn't have the system preferences on my dock. For some reason it disappeared, and I wanted to open it so I can change my desktop background. I tried clicking the apple sign and clicking "system preferences" from there but it was unsuccessful.

Click to expand...

I don't know if you're coming back, but your problem is not well defined. If you explain how this attempt was unsuccessful, that is, what happened, that could provide a much better clue about what is going on.

I'm tryIng to be specific as I can, but what happened was I went on my laptop and I wanted to change the background. I couldn't find system preferences that use to be on my dock. I'm think I may have accidentally deleted it while cleaning out my computer. I clicked the apple logo and tried to click system preferences from there and nothing happened. I searched through spotlight I found it, but it showed me 4 folders I clicked the folders and they all had a text code. I apolgize if this isn't enough information but this as specific I can get.

As I advised you in my first reply to your post, you're going to need to reinstall OS X in order to reinstate System Preferences. Reinstalling Snow Leopard is easy as it does not wipe out documents or applications. It will overwrite system files and restore any that are missing.

You need to do this because:

1. You have no backup

2. You told us that a Spotlight search found 4 folders. Those were likely preference panes and not the full System Preference app. which is why they opened as text code.

Alright I'll try that. Thank you very much for your patience and advice, I appreciate it.

nikkireyes93 said:

I clicked the apple logo and tried to click system preferences from there and nothing happened.

Click to expand...

OK. There you go! "Nothing happened" is a much better description than "unsuccessful". That tends to indicate that your suspicion about having accidently deleting is is spot on. Thus, the recommendation to reinstall the OS is a solution. Another approach is to use software called Pacifist to extract just the missing App from your installation disc.