[fodes]

Hi,
I just purchased an Ibook G4 and i cannot access the System Preferences. That along with some other applications are grayed out and will not open. Probably a simple solution but being a newbie, that's the problem.

Thanks

[seanc]

Sounds like you might be set up as a limited user.

[fodes]

If that is the case, how do i fix that?

[Cold Warrior]

boot from the OS X install/restore disc that you should have received with the laptop. Once booted from this disc, you can choose to reset the admin password from one of the menu options. This is helpful assuming you know the admin account -- e.g., can choose it at a login screen, or know the username and can input it if given a blank text box at login or if you log out.

If not, you should be able to determine the list of users while in single-user mode using a unix command or two.

Or you could boot from the disc and just do a new (clean or archive-install) installation, which is probably your best choice if you bought it from someone and don't want all their crap cluttering your new Mac.

[Finrock]

First, check to see if there is a "Managed Preferences" folder in your Library folder. If so, delete that (which may require an administrator password) and reboot. That should take care of the problem, if the machine was managed through Mac OS X Server.

-Finrock

[fodes]

I appreciate the tips.
However, i don't have the discs and the managed preferences option did not work.

Any other solution? If anybody finds one, please detail it to me because I am a first time Apple user who is having a rough time negotiating the waters between Windows and Mac.

Thanks

[ibook_steve]

There's not much else you can do. You need to have administrative access to the machine. If you didn't get disks with the machine, you'll probably want to purchase retail OS X disks (10.4 or wait for 10.5 later this month) so you can reset the password.

Steve

[Big Mac]

Search for information on single user mode.