System Preferences freezed continually

I am unable to use my System Preferences menu at all because, a second or so after opening it from the Dock, it freezes and remains so until I Force Quit. The problem has been ongoing for a couple of weeks now.
I posted on this problem last week, but received no responses. I have system 10.7.5 on my MacBook Air. Any suggestions?
Thanks.

Close all windows and quit all applications.
Hold the option key down and click the "Go" menu in the Finder menubar.
Select "Library" from the dropdown, then "Preferences" folder.
Look for these two files.
com.apple.desktop.plist
com.apple.systempreferences.plist
Right click each  one of those and select " Move To Trash" from the contextual menu.
Restart the computer.

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