[Plant7575]

I am new to OS X and am setting up accounts for my family members. My account (administrator) has been working for a couple of weeks now. I set up a new one for one family member, changed the dock location and added the desired applications. It works fine.

Now I created a 2nd new account for another family member and did the same things to it. The only difference is in which applications are in the dock. But the settings won't hold for this account. Every time I log into it, the dock is back at the bottom of the screen (I put it on the right).

Also, all three accounts have Netscape in their dock. Netscape works for the first 2 accounts, but won't boot in the third. I click on it in the dock or double click it in the applications folder. Either way NOTHING happens.

I tried both fast switching and logging out of the new 3rd account -- did't help. I tried rebooting OS X -- didn't help. I have double-checked the settings in the accounts preferences -- they are identical.

Any ideas as to what the problem is?

[CharlesS]

Wow, that's weird. Normally, my first guess would be a permissions problem, but if it's working for other non-admin accounts, it seems like that might not be it.

If you launch the Console application (in /Applications/Utilities), then try to launch Netscape from the account where it's not working, does anything appear in the Console?

[Plant7575]

I tried your suggestion. Nothing appeared in the Console. The Netscape icon bounces twice in the dock (like it is going to open), but nothing happens.

I tried Photoshop Elements and iTunes. Both boot in all three accounts. Seems like a Netscape problem.

[CharlesS]

Please type the following in the Terminal:

ls -l /Applications/Netscape.app/Contents/MacOS

Post the results in here.

(If you have Netscape in a different folder than Applications, adjust the path as necessary)

[Plant7575]

OK, before I got your suggestion, I solved the problem myself. I deleted the 3rd user and added her again. Now Netscape works, and the Dock stays where I put it. I noticed that when I deleted the 3rd user, that she did not have a Desktop folder in her home folder (and some of the other standard folders as well).

I think I know how I did that. Before I read about separate accounts, I manually created folders for each family member in the Users Folder. When I created the account for user #2, I suspected that the existing folder might cause a problem. So I renamed the existing user's folder before adding the 2nd user, then after creating the account, I copied all of the documents from the old folder to the new folder that the new account created.

When I created the 3rd user, I forgot to rename that user's existing folder. This apparently led to the creation of an incomplete user's folder. When I deleted the 3rd user and added her again, I remembered to rename the existing folder first.

[Rychiar]

netscape still exists? why use that?

[OptimusG4]

Originally posted by Rychiar:
netscape still exists? why use that?

Oddly enough, version 8 is in beta testing right now :/