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JazzCatDRP · Dec 28, 2006, 10:33 AM

My dad is running 10.2 with Classic, and he's having a problem with his classic applications. They show up in the OS X Finder as "documents" rather than applications. Is there a way to force Classic to recognize them as OS 9 apps?

P · Dec 28, 2006, 11:03 AM

First try running Disk Utility to see if it can fix anything, but I really think you'll have to reinstall the OS. Something has gone wrong. The part that recognizes Classic apps is the Launch Services, part of the Core OS, and if that one won't work you'd be better of reinstalling.

CharlesS · Dec 28, 2006, 03:00 PM

More specifically, what you need to do is to go into /Library/Caches, find any files whose names start with "com.apple.launchservices", delete them, and reboot.

Art Vandelay · Dec 28, 2006, 04:02 PM

There's also the Rebuild Desktop function in the Advanced tab in the Classic System Prefs pane.

Click to rebuild the Classic desktop file now. You may need to do this if icons do not appear correctly or documents are not opening in the application you used to create them.

You do NOT need to reinstall the OS for such a basic problem.

CharlesS · Dec 28, 2006, 04:49 PM

That would rebuild the Desktop database, which may be a good idea. However, the Desktop database isn't the same as the LaunchServices caches, so rebuilding the Desktop doesn't rule out the LaunchServices caches unless you've tried deleting them also.

Art Vandelay · Dec 28, 2006, 05:12 PM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

That would rebuild the Desktop database, which may be a good idea. However, the Desktop database isn't the same as the LaunchServices caches, so rebuilding the Desktop doesn't rule out the LaunchServices caches unless you've tried deleting them also.

I agree. That's why I said "also."

P · Dec 29, 2006, 07:37 AM

The Desktop database being broken results in not being able to launch an application by doubleclicking its DOCUMENTS - the OP can't open the apps by doubleclicking the apps THEMSELVES. I really do doubt that the trashing the LaunchServices caches really does help with this issue - I've seen it suggested before, but never seen it work. I suppose it's easier than a reinstall, however, so go ahead and try it.

Art Vandelay · Dec 29, 2006, 01:59 PM

Desktop DB and LaunchServices are used for launching applications too, not just documents. So the advice that CharlesS and I provided is certainly relevant.

However, when taking another post by the OP in account, there may be a more to it. His dad just recently upgraded to OS X from OS 9. Given that this is a fresh install of OS X, I highly doubt there's a problem with his OS X install. Since we don't know how he installed OS X, we don't know how those Classic apps got there. For example, was OS X installed on top of OS 9 and the apps have been there all along on that drive or was it a fresh install and the apps have been copied back. If it's the latter, how were they copied back? Did he copy them to a PC formatted volume under OS 9, then copy them back under OS X? If that's the case, since most OS 9 apps aren't bundles but are dual-forked files, the resource forks have been lost rendering the apps useless.