Replace part of system preferences?

Is it possible to replace just the Network preference in System Preferences without reinstalling the operating sytem?

Hello again,
I cannot replicate this - I do not have a machine running on 10.4.x. here.
In my Network Preferences there is a button marked " Advanced " Just a guess here. Wouldn't you have to have a wireless enabled computer to allow this button to be used?
Are you wireless enabled there?
Regards again
Ian

Similar Messages

System Preferences quits suddenly. I have lost the dock, including the trash and ability to change desktop image. How can I replace this part of System Preferences? Where can I find Trash?

System Preferences quits suddenly. I have lost the dock, including the trash and ability to change desktop image. How can I replace this part of System Preferences? Where can I find Trash? All other aspects of System Preferences work.

just that that is one method, and lacks provision for working boot image and for an emergency - Lion gives a small minimal emergency boot environment but may lack all the utilities you need to use and run, even some drivers that your mac requires for add on PCIe.
Just grab and look through Help in Carbon Copy and SuperDuper, both excellent and each has their use - together - for cloning.
And do you have two TM backup sets? ought to consider that also, rotate daily or make a weekly set. Otherwise you are putting all your eggs in the proverbial one basket.

System Preferences hangs with Mountain Lion

Various parts of system preferences hang under Mountain Lion. Prior to upgrade there was no problem. Any ideas?

I am still having this problem as well. Multiple panes will fail to launch. A reinstallation of ML failed to fix this. I even did a fresh reinstall, manually copying over my Documents, Music, Pictures, and other essential files to a backup drive beforehand. Almost all System Preferences fail to launch. A list of those that fail:
Desktop & Screensaver
Security & Privacy
Notifications
iCloud
Mail, Contacts, & Calendars
Date & Time
Software Update (The only one that seems to extend beyond the preference pane. Software update will not launch, even though I know there are iPhoto and iTunes updates to be downlaoded.)
Dictation & Speech
Time Machine (I really, really, really, really, really want this one to work!)
Startup Disk
Third-party:
Glimmer Blocker (I have let the developer know. There is an update, it does not seem to be working at this time.)

I can't access Accounts under System Preferences.

This morning I decided to do some clean-up and delete extra user accounts. Big mistake.
I somehow caused a problem when I deleted a user account and saved the account info as a dmg file. Before that I deleted another account without backing it up and everything was fine. It was the act of making a back-up file that caused the issue. Now when I try to go to System Preferences, Accounts, it stays loading and then crashes. I get the following error message: "System Preferences quit unexpectedly." All other parts of System Preferences work fine, just not Accounts.
I called Apple support and the guy I spoke to said my only option is to re-image the hard drive. That seems like a pretty extreme measure to a simple problem. DO I have any other options?
Thanks in advance for any insights.

Just kidding. It's because I had an extra Guest account. Tried this and it worked:
http://lockergnome.net/questions/27875/why-is-my-accounts-preference-pane-crashi ng

I replaced our Apple Mouse because of connectivity issues, still having problem but now under system preferences it will connect Apple Mouse but not my wife's.

We experienced connectivity on IMac with Magic Mouse, replaced mouse and still have problem. Under system preferences dropdown menu it shows Apple Mouse and my wife's mouse. I cannoy connect my wife's mouse. Why?

Try going to settings, reset , reset network settings.

Fix for System Preferences Keyboard Shortcuts crash

This is not a question, but a solution to a problem that proved difficult to identify and fix for me and three Apple Support personnel, so I thought I should post it here in case others encounter the same issue. I spent a lot of time searching the web and Apple Discussions for this and related issues did not come up with any solutions.
After migrating from Snow Leopard on 2009 MacBook Pro to Yosemite on a new MBP using the Migration Assistant, things went surprisingly smoothly for the most part, until I opened the Keyboard pane of System Preferences. Then, clicking on the Shortcuts tab immediately caused System Preferences to crash, reproducibly.
Crash Reporter pointed loosely to a keyboard-related preference setting. But "com.apple.preference.keyboard" is the name of an OS process, not a .plist file. I searched the web to try to find out where Keyboard Shortcut settings are stored in Yosemite, and also for a possible way to reset the settings to default in Terminal (e.g. using the "defaults" routine), without success. (Apple Support was not happy that I had Terminal open when they shared my screen, and seemed never to have heard of this routine).
Process: System Preferences [948]
Application Specific Information:
objc_msgSend() selector name: retain
com.apple.preference.keyboard v.14.0 (Keyboard)
objc[948]: GC: forcing GC OFF because OBJC_DISABLE_GC is set
Repairing disk permissions, rebooting in Safe Mode, zapping the PRAM, and trashing ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences, some keyboard-related .plist files, and the system prefs and International prefs caches did not fix the problem. With Apple Support, we isolated the problem to my user account, as the same crash did not occur in a test account, or in another account migrated at the same time. Nevertheless, Apple's techs had me removing various menu items and programs also running in these accounts that I had deactivated (Sophos AntiVirus, Little Snitch, etc), and downloading and reinstalling Yosemite, which seemed unlikely to address the cause, given that my main user account was the only one affected.
Apple never had me check 3rd party preference panes (which I should have thought to do earlier myself). Opening and closing an older version of Default App ((RCDefaultApp 2.0.1), a free 3rd party utility, in the Preferences pane, transiently solved the problem. However, it recurred on removing it, and was not fixed by installing the latest release of this preference pane, nor did removing three other 3rd party preferences panes (MacFUSE, a Citrix app, and Flash Player).
Finally I went back to ~/Library/Preferences and looked for any files that had been modified around the time the problem transiently disappeared, and stumbled upon com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist. After viewing its contents with Property List Editor and finding this article, I thought that this file was likely the problem.
I logged into my root account, verified that Shortcuts worked fine there, and that this file changed with a change in Shortcut settings, and (after renaming the offender to save it as a backup), replaced the file in my main user account with a copy of the one from the root account.
I repaired permissions in the offending account, rebooted, and voilà - problem solved!
NB If you are in a similar situation, before trying this fix (at your own risk!), I strongly advise backing up your computer first, and saving a copy of the presumed offending file in case you have to put it back because of unforeseen consequences. You do not need to enable and use the root account; instead you could log in to a new administrator account, or another user account, verify that Shortcuts works fine there (it would not be a bad idea to set up any user-defined App Shortcuts you want there); and copy the file to a shared folder.
Then switch back into the offending account, go to your user Library/Preferences folder (~/Library/Preferences using Go To Folder in Finder), and replace com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist in that account with the one from the shared folder. You should then repair disk permissions afterwards and restart.
If it works, Shortcuts should open fine. Be sure to check each category in the left-hand panel of the Shortcuts panel (e.g. LaunchPad & Dock, Mission Control, etc.) for conflicts, and resolve those by disabling the offending duplicate key combination assignments (I had two, marked by yellow triangle alerts).

Ward Clark wrote:
Thanks, V.K., for your comments.
I wrote: Enter is accepted, but it's treated the same as Return
not for me. it's both displayed and treated differently. I suspect what you are seeing is a byproduct of using a haxie such as Menu Master.
no it's not. it's treated differently.
In Leopard, Menu Master let me assign Command+Enter to Address Book > Edit Card. When I attempt the same using Keyboard Shortcuts, both Command+Return and Command+Enter are displayed as Command plus a "return arrow." After that, in Address Book, both Command+Return and Command+Enter invoke the "Edit Card" menu action.
not for me.
if you want to use those keys in the shortcuts use one of the many 3rd party app launchers. any one of them will let you do this: Qucisilver, Butler, Spark, Launchbar, ikeys, quickeys etc.
I've been using QuicKeys since the beginning of time, and I have some experience with Butler and LaunchBar. They're useful for what they do. But, as far as I know, none add keyboard shortcuts that are displayed directly in the menus. That display feature is what makes Menu Master and Systems Prefs > Keyboard Shortcuts so attractive.
that's because Menu Master is a haxie. none of the other programs mentioned are. you want such functionality you are going have to use a haxie. personally - i stay away from them as they destabilize the system.
When I'm considering new shortcuts, I use KeyCue to display all current shortcuts in a single display. KeyCue now displays QuicKeys shortcuts in the same display, which is a big help.
-- Ward

Accessing System Preference pane elements by Applescript

I'm new to Applescript, and I'm trying to figure out how to set a hot corner in the Expose pane of System Preferences. I've been searching for Apple documentation, but I can't seem to find a good reference page.
Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong here?
<code>
tell application "System Events"
  tell process "System Preferences"
   tell menu bar 1
    tell menu "View"
     click menu item "Exposé & Spaces"
     delay 1
     tell tab group 1
      click radio button "Exposé"
      tell popupbutton
       tell menu 1
        click menu item "Spaces"
       end tell
      end tell
     end tell
    end tell
   end tell
  end tell
end tell
</code>

I'll answer just three of your questions:
1. Is there a reason why we need to "end tell" "menu bar 1" after "click menu item 'Exposé & Spaces"' is done? (lines 4-11)
The reason is that the menu item "Start Screen Saver" is not part or the same hierarchy than the menu item "Exposé & Spaces". The menu item "Start Screen Saver" belongs to a menu which belongs to a pop up button which belongs to the group "Active Screen Corners" which belongs to a tab group which belongs to window "Exposé & Spaces" which belongs to the application "System Preferences".
2. What is the "window" in '*tell window "Exposé & Spaces"*'?
The window "Exposé & Spaces" is the window that replaces the "System Preferences" window when you click the menu item "Exposé & Spaces" of the "View" menu.
4. How come we need to "tell pop up button 1" before a click, instead of "click pop up button 1"?
Because we tell pop up button 1 to click AND tell menu 1 to do something. We could also have written:
tell group "Active Screen Corners"
click pop up button 1 -- or 2 or 3 or 4
tell menu 1 of pop up button 1
click menu item "Start Screen Saver" -- or any other menu item
end tell
end tell
As for your other questions, here are some references:
For GUI Scripting, have a look at this Web page:
http://www.macosxautomation.com/applescript/uiscripting/index.html
You should also download and use "UIElementInspector 1.3":
http://developer.apple.com/samplecode/UIElementInspector/
But before all, to get a better understanding of AppleScript, you should look at these pages:
http://www.macosxautomation.com/applescript/learn.html
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/AppleScript/Conceptual/AppleScriptLangG uide/introduction/ASLR_intro.html
(From my own point of view, AppleScript is rather difficult to learn, and GUI Scripting still more.)

System Preferences Lock

I +do not+ have the "Require a password to unlock each System Preferences pane" preference checked, and +do not+ want to have to unlock System Preference panes each time I use them. Yet, on three of my computers, after each restart, the panes are locked (whether I left them locked or unlocked)!
I know that a few System Preferences panes are always locked after a restart of the OS or of System Preferences, I'm not talking about those. But I believe the other panes with locks are supposed to retain their locked/unlocked status through quitting and opening System Preferences, and through OS restarts, at least for administrator users. (I also know that the lock status is global, that unlocking one unlocks them all.)
I am an administrator, and always login to these computers as such. All my computers are running Snow Leopard (10.6.5). I have four computers, three exhibit this behavior, one does not (the one that does not works as expected, leaving panes unlocked after a restart, according to the Security: General preference setting).
I have upgraded two of the problem computers from Leopard, the third problem computer was purchased with Snow Leopard, but I migrated its files from a previous Leopard installation. On the latter, I clean-installed a fresh OS on a second drive, and the problem +does not+ exist for that OS installation. I also created a temporary user account, on the problem OS, and the problem persisted for that temporary account (so we know it's not a user-level issue, right?).
The one computer that works as expected was purchased with Snow Leopard, but its files were also migrated from a previous Leopard installation. So no clue there.
And lastly, the three "problem" computers seem to retain the lock/unlock status through restarts of the System Preferences app, just not OS restarts. By that I mean: I'll startup the computer, and all the panes are locked. I'll unlock them and quit System Preferences. On re-opening System Preferences, the panes are still unlocked (except the panes that are always locked, like Security). The unlocked panes remain unlocked through any number of System Preferences quits and launches. But after the computer is shut down or restarted, all the panes revert to locked. If I turn on "Require a password to unlock each System Preferences pane", then all panes are re-locked after restarts of both the OS and System Preferences, as expected. So in other words, the "Require a password to unlock each System Preferences pane" setting works as expected +in between+ OS restarts, just not right after an OS restart.
I suspect there is some sort of remanent that was migrated from the previous OS installation that is causing this misbehavior, but repairing permissions has not solved the problem. Nor has replacing System Preferences preference files (the ones I can find, anyway). This security setting must be buried deep, as I expect it would be, and I cannot find the stubborn file where it is stored that seems to defy and ignore the "Require a password to unlock each System Preferences pane" setting, at least after a restart.
So, my questions:
Does anyone know exactly what the intended behavior of these locks actually is? Through restarts of the OS? Through restarts of System Preferences? For administrators? For non-administrators? Is there any Apple documentation that explains this clearly, and in detail?
If the intended behavior is for the unlocked locks to stay unlocked through an OS restart for administrators (which is how I believe it's supposed to work), how can I restore this behavior on the machines that don't adhere to that?
And why the mystery: that the behavior works as expected once the lock is first unlocked, throughout that session, but not if the computer has been restarted?!? Is this a cache issue? (If so, it's survived numerous Cocktail cache cleanings.)
Help!

OK:
1) I checked "Require a password to unlock each System Preferences pane".
2) I restarted the computer.
All System Preferences panes were locked, as expected.
"Require a password to unlock each System Preferences pane" was still checked.
3) I unchecked "Require a password to unlock each System Preferences pane".
4) I restarted the computer.
All System Preferences panes were still locked.
"Require a password to unlock each System Preferences pane" was still unchecked.
5) I unlocked the Energy Saver preference pane.
6) I restarted the computer.
All System Preferences panes were re-locked.
"Require a password to unlock each System Preferences pane" was still unchecked.
Each time I logged in as an administrator.
I've repeated this exercise many times, on different computers with the same results. (Except for one of my computers, which stays unlocked, as it's set to do.)
FYI: It's the Energy Saver pane that I need to keep unlocked. And that's for a stupid work-around I have to do to reset its "Wake for network access" pref constantly. Here's why:
I'm using a somewhat complicated workaround to defeat Snow Leopard's new Wake On Demand feature, which I don't want. I need to be able to wake my computers with a magic packet, which doesn't work with "Wake for network access" off. I don't want my computers to wake every few hours to register with my Time Capsule's proxy server (which is part of the Wake On Demand "feature"). I just want to use the magic packet as I was able to do with Leopard. So I have to turn on "Wake for network access" just before the computer sleeps, but right after it would have registered with Time Capsule's sleep proxy server. I use some SleepWatcher scripts to accomplish this feat. The computer then wakes for the packet, but Time Capsule doesn't broadcast the computer as available. But my SleepWatcher scripts don't work if the **** Energy Saver preference pane is locked, because my SleepWatcher scripts can't manipulate the "Wake for network access" setting when it is.
So if you know a better solution for this "Wake On Demand" problem than what I'm doing, I wouldn't care so much about the locked Sys Pref's. Like:
1) How to defeat the entire sleep proxy server in Time Capsule, or
2) How to keep the computer from registering itself with Time Capsule's sleep proxy server without jumping though the hoops I am now, or
3) How to programmatically manipulate the "Wake for network access" Energy Saver pref while its lock is enabled, or
4) How to write a terminal command that circumvents manual administrator authentication.
By #4 that I mean: the SleepWatcher scripts fail when the Energy Saver pref pane is locked because the system asks me to authenticate (a dialog pops up when the scripts execute). The scripts work fine when the Sys Prefs locks are unlocked. If I could write a script that includes the authentication (like some sort of SUDO trick that doesn't require manual input of a password), then that, too, would solve my issues. Although, that would mean writing my admin password into the script, I guess, which is not the greatest, security-wise. That's why I'm attempting to fix this Sys Prefs lock issue first. (Plus it's annoying to have to constantly unlock a lock I am constantly unlocking!!)
All this because Apple decided to change the Wake On LAN feature I've enjoyed using for a decade, without giving us some way to have Wake On LAN on with Wake On Demand off!! Errrrr...

Why does system preferences crash when changing screen saver?

There are several posts in this same vein, here, but I can't seem to find a specific one.
I had a process that ran and accidently began removing portions of my "user" directory. I used time machine to restore and everything seems fine now.
However, I noticed that after awhile, the screen saver would come up rather than just blanking the screen. I decided this would be ok, so I when to System Preferences-> Desktop and Screen Saver then clicked the Screen Saver tab. I chose one of the screen savers, but didn't like it. But upon re-entering the System Preferences a second time, low and behold, there were NO screen savers listed and the process hung and wouldn't close. I finally had to stop the process from the Activity Monitor, at which point it gave a dump. This has happened about 10 times.
When I go to /System/Library/Screen\ Savers/ there is no content there. Same goes for ~/Lirbrary/Screen\ Savers/. So it looks as if they are gone. I have a Mac Book Pro, however, that behaves the same way (except its running Snow Leopard instead of Lion). So I don't know that's it.
I have run permissions repair and checked the disk and all is well.
I have set System Preferences to not run in 32 bit, as someone suggested, but that didn't do anything either.
I have a 2009 iMac with 4GB and about 3/4th full disk.
Could anyone suggest any more alternatives?

Thanks Linc. I am not really comfortable with the re-install approach I guess, but it may be all I have left. I tried to go back to a previous backup on Time Machine and just replace systempreferences.app but the backup wouldn't let me do that. I have restored library in my home directory but I did so only piecemeal based on things that seemingly got disturbed.
One very odd thing... I left my computer on this morning and came back a little later and lo and behold a screen saver was running. This was a bit of a surprise, seeing that when I go to the system preferences and try to see screen savers, they aren't there and that's when the app hangs. So, apparently the screen savers are SOMEWHERE, but not able to be seen. That's what is killing me. I feel as if its a permission problem, yet when I run a repair-permissions, it finds nothing wrong. The screen saver files are supposed to be somewhere, but I have a feeling they are hidden somehow, and because of that, I can't change anything. The result baffling part is that even in terminal mode, viewing /System/Library/Screen\ Savers/ or the home library folder, shows absolutely nothing in Finder OR terminal mode. So they are either completely gone or hiding. I have to assume the latter, seeing that a screen saver started up.
So if anyone has an idea how these files could be hiding, or where, other than the locations above, that would be a very good thing to know.

Blank white System Preferences window

Hello all,
I purchased a secondhand G5 for the purpose of having a second internet station at home (I do most of my work on a late 2008 MBP but we've got multiple people here who like to use the Internet at the same time). When I set up this computer, it was hooked up to an old flat screen monitor (bought when they first came out) the HD was wiped clean, Leopard was installed, the internet was set up and working and everything seemed good to go. However, I wanted to get into the system to change the monitor resolution setting since the type/icons were a little big for my taste.
When I pulled up System Preferences, I got a completely blank white window. This happens every time System Prefs is launched. I can click on this window where normally icons would be, and things seem to happen (the window changes size) but it remains completely white. Moreover, all of the pulldown menus from the top menu bar also are blank white. I can move my mouse down in the File menu where Quit would normally be, and I can click on it and System Preferences quits. If I quit out of System Prefs, the Finder and other software windows act normally. When I log into System Prefs again, same blank white window, same problem.
This blank white window thing also happens with Preview, but I have not noticed it with any other programs on the system (yet).
Here's what I've done to troubleshoot:
Discarded appropriate systempreferences.plist file in the User>Library>Preferences window, also appropriate file in User>Library>Caches. Emptied trash and rebooted. Same problem.
Reinstalled Leopard, 10.5. Tested, same problem. Upgraded with combo pack to 10.5.8, tested, same problem.
Swapped out video card for a known working video card, tested, same problem.
Swapped monitor for known working new monitor, tested, same problem.
Am I missing some other .plist or similar file that should be discarded? Has anyone experienced anything like this and been able to solve it? Would this be due to software issues, or some kind of hardware issue? Because I can't see System Preferences, I can't create a new user account and discard the old one to try and resolve any software issues, my only choice is to do a clean install (which I have done to no avail).
Help? I'd appreciate any guidance. Thanks in advance.
Raji

Well, at least we are seeing some light here. I forgot about Safe Mode! When I started up into that, I can see the System Preferences windows just fine... it's no longer white, and I can select what I need and make changes.
However, I have done permissions repair from every possible angle (both from HD and DVD), I have reset the PRAM, and I still get a blank Sys Prefs window on normal startup.
The only thing suggested here I have not tried is replacing the PRAM battery (since at the moment, I don't have one). That will be the next angle of attack but I'll have to wait to get one in.
Other than the battery, could this be some kind of peripheral or software conflict?
This is bugging me! I mean really.... it's just an Internet station, but one does want things to work properly nonetheless!
Thanks for the help so far.... ! It has been useful.

Hi i upgrade from lion to mountain lion to day on my mini mac,Since the upgrade i am getting no sound through my HDMI cable which was working fine on lion Checked the midi audio settings and system preferences to out on HDMi nothing no sound whats so ever

Hi i upgraded from lion to mountain lion to day on my mini mac,Since the upgrade i am no longer getting sound through my HDMI cable which was working fine on lion Checked the midi audio settings and system preferences to out on HDMi nothing no sound whats so ever.Any one any ideas?
I use a samsung TV for my monitor via HDMI.Tried all the system Audi setting nothing .Head phone and internal speakers are fine.

Similar issue; Audio was working fine on Lion, now not on Mountain Lion. Have a Macbook Pro early 2011 with AMD Radeon HD 6750M, connected by thunderbolt through a Lacie LBD to a mini-displayport to HDMI adapter (n.b. same problem when not going through the LBD) to a Pioneer VSX 521 AV receiver. For me when I go into audio Midi settings all the volume sliders for the displayport device are greyed out and at zero. But when I click 'configure speakers', it's able to send out the test signals to each speaker. Part of the problem could be that I'm not getting the option to put out 6channel sound, only 2 or 8 channel. Since my system is Dolby 5.1, and I only have 6 speakers, I would have expected the 6ch option to be available. But I imagine there's more to it than that. Elsewhere someone has suggested playing with Remote Interactive over HD on an Onkyo device; I'll see if there's something similar on the Pioneer that can be changed. Any other suggestions welcome.

How do I take the zoom feature off my MacBook Pro? I have already went to System Preferences and turned "zoom" off in the Universal Access. I saw where someone said to use THREE fingers to double click... ??? Double click what? And 3 fingers?

Can someone help me?How do I take the zoom feature off my MacBook Pro? I have already went to System Preferences and turned "zoom" off in the Universal Access. I saw where someone said to use THREE fingers to double click... ??? Double click what? And 3 fingers?

What really cheeses me off here is that Apple isn't allowing users enough customization. With each update of iTunes (and the OS and iOS) we're forced to give up something that worked well for the way we want to use the app and make do with fewer (and lamer) options. If Apple keeps this up, they're going to start losing customers fast. I mean if this isn't fixed soon, I'm pretty sure I'm going to give up on iTunes, and then I'll probably go ahead and get a Galaxy when I need to replace my iPhone.
What I don't understand about how they won't let users delete the list of available podcasts now is why? How is this making it a better program? I can understand that not all users are capable enough to right-click on a feed and select "Show all available episodes", so I can see why they want the complete list to be the default (and, surprise, it already was). But to not give users the option to delete that list? It's inconsiderate because it makes navigating feeds with a large back catalogue really frustrating. I'm flabbergasted that no one at Apple considered all the podcast feeds that keep hundreds of episodes available when they removed this feature. It smacks of rank incompetence.
What improvement were they trying to make here anyway? There was nothing wrong to my mind about how podcasts were managed in previous versions. Whatever improvement they were trying to make here, they should have realized that many users would at least want the option to keep things the way they were.
And reverting to a previous version is no solution. I can't sync my iPhone with the new iOS without this update, and (while I do have some issues--specifically how you can't play podcasts in the Music app anymore) I do like the new iOS.

I cannot open the general pane in system preferences. I get a message saying there is an error. Any suggestions

I cannot open the general pane in system preferences. I get a message saying there is an error. Any suggestions?

The first thing I would suggest is for you to go to the folder containing your catalog, using your system browser. There will be a folder that has the extension .lrdata. Delete that folder, and then try to start Lightroom. If that doesn't work, replace your catalog with your most recent backup.

Unable to open AirPort options sheet in Network System Preference

Hi there,
There are several posts (and a Radar bug number, 4273111) reporting a certain difficulty with systems that have been upgraded to Tiger. For some reason: When viewing the AirPort network interface in the Network system preference, certain installations do not allow one to open the "Options" sheet.
To reproduce:
1. Open System Preferences.
2. Click on the Network system preference.
3. Show -> AirPort.
4. Click the "Options" button.
Normally, this should open an options sheet. However, on three separate systems I've encountered that have been upgraded to 10.4.x from earlier versions of Mac OS X (Jaguar to Panther to Tiger), the sheet does not open at all. Console reports the following when the button is clicked:
2006-11-07 09:55:22.206 System Preferences[379] * Assertion failure in -[PreferencesApp _commonBeginModalSessionForWindow:relativeToWindow:modalDelegate:didEndSelector :contextInfo:], AppKit.subproj/NSApplication.m:3057
2006-11-07 09:55:22.229 System Preferences[379] Modal session requires modal window
I've tried replacing the following items (then repairing permissions after each attempt) with a known-good copy from another 10.4.x system (same OS version/build in each case—as of this post, tested through 10.4.8), without effect:
/Applications/System Preferences.app
/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/
/System/Library/PreferencePanes/Network.prefPane
/System/Library/Frameworks/Preferences.framework
I've seen references to a similar error in Safari that was able to be fixed with a reinstall of Safari—apparently, something corrupted in WebKit.framework. I'm presuming something similar would work here (and it's been reported that an Archive and Install will fix the problem, but that's certainly overkill to correct such an issue).
I've got clients that are not happy about this and the problem has apparently been documented for well over a year now. The following Discussions threads cover it as well:
"can't open airport options"
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1125018
"Network system preferences stuck"
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1123291
"Airport Preferred Networks"
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=722797
I'm happy to lend whatever troubleshooting assistance I can, so if anyone else out there can similarly recommend files I might try replacing that I've not already mentioned here, or any other information that could be helpful, I'd certainly appreciate it!
Thanks much,
MBJ
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8) 1.0 GHz, 1 GB RAM, AirPort

I'd also try trashing...
/Users/nnnn/Library/Preferences/com.apple.internetconnect.plist
/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sharing.firewall.plist

System Preferences quits every time I try to open .mac!!

Every time I click on .mac in System Preferences, the program thinks and then shuts down. I have not successfully entered that menu for many months. Everything else works fine and I just updated my OS. I'm trying to make sure everything is syncing with Mobile me. Any help?

Try this KB: Doesn't launch after 30 days | Installed as part of a CS6 suite

Replace part of system preferences?

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