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General discussion

My Safari opens with - http://"/

Oct 15, 2006 4:21AM PDT

Why? I just ran both Tech Tool Pro 4 & Diskwarrior 3.0.3.

This has happened before. I'm no power user, in fact a technophobe rather than technophile.

I surf a lot. Have I picked something up?

Other, more experienced users say they have almost no need for those utilities, yet my directory gets bogged down to where I rebuild it via Diskwarrior nearly weekly. Is this normal?

In the past I have actually reverted to reloading the whole Mac OS.

Please, some advice in rather plain language.....

Really, a nagging problem to me.

Discussion is locked

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Not a problem
Oct 15, 2006 4:34AM PDT

Open Safari and go to the page that you would like to have open up when you launch Safari.
Once you get there, in the menu bar at the top of the screen, go to Safari/Preferences.
Click on the General tab, if not already there, and you will see a line that says "Home Page" Under it you will see a button that says "Set to Current Page". Click it. Close the preferences.

Quit Safari. Launch it again and it should go to the page you just set.

Question: Do you have an icon with a house on it, in the tool bar?

P

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More questions
Oct 15, 2006 4:37AM PDT

What version of OS X are you using and what machine are you using it on?

What symptoms do you get that would indicate that your directories are getting bogged down?

When you run Disk Warrior, do you boot from the CD or just run it from the internal HD?

The good news? You have not picked anything up. Currently there is nothing for you to pick up.

Reloading the entire OS is a last resort, you have to have some fairly serious problems to contemplate that. Do you loose all your data when you do it?

P

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Replys & more questions
Oct 15, 2006 2:18PM PDT

First, thanks for your prompt, polite response.

Yes, going to Safari Preferences, Home Page with Set to Current Page, click & close - worked.

As Security within Personal in System Preferences, I recently stumbled on the File Vault feature which protects my home folder by encrypting & enabled it. When restarting, the recovery of excess disk space is cumbersome timewise. Is even the use of File Vault superfluous for a home computer? Should I just turn it off? I presume that is the asked about icon with a house on it in the tool bar.

I am using 10.4.8 on my PB G4 17'', model PB5,5. CPU is Power PC G4 (1.1) @ 1.5 GHz with 1GB Memory.

My idea of symptom of bogging down is when clicking to open a page link in the C/NET site - & it may take 2 full minutes to open.

I run Disk Warrior from booting the CD.

Lose of data: When reloading OS I don't notice any significance of losing data as I just e-mail & surf a lot as opposed to being any kind of power user. So I just lose Safari history &, I guess, accumulated messages in the mail (I happen to use MS Entourage for my mail as it initially - a few OS versions ago, looked more user friendly to me.)

OK, to my big curiosity question: I don't understand how that Safari opening to - http:// / - happened in the first place. It happened previously which led me to recombooberating the OS.

Looking forward to your reply. Thanks again.

By the way, I'm a nincompoop on computer as I found out when starting on a personal computer when nearly retired that I was now too old for the hyped intuititiveness to be intuitive for me. My grandkids, yes & they aren't intimidated by computers while also having no clue as what complex business uses for adults are about. Although stupid here I have done spreadsheets in the past manually using 2 long work tables as the cells extended around 6 feet horizontally.

Sincerely,

Technophobe me

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Some more answers
Oct 15, 2006 11:04PM PDT

Unless you have some "super secret" stuff in your Home folder, the use of File Vault is unnecessary. Forget the password and that's all she wrote. Do you have anyone in your household that is likely to snoop in your stuff?
If you allow others to use your machine you should create an account for them without Admin rights. That way they do not mess with your stuff.

This is NOT the icon with a house on it in the toolbar. I was referring to the Safari Tool Bar which has a number of icons on it. One of them might be an icon with a House on it. It takes you to your Home Page in Safari. I don't know why it would have changed.

Disk Warrior is good. Make sure you have the latest one that is aware of Tiger.

Reinstalling the OS, as I said, is usually a last resort. There is a way to reinstall without loosing all of your emails and Safari history. I guess you have been formatting the HD before installing the OS again or at least choosing that as the install option.
You also have to run all the Software updates again to get back to where you were. (you do with whatever install option you choose)

What sort of internet connection do you have?

You are never too old to learn new stuff. Just put aside your doubts and explore the machine. If you hit Cancel on the way out of everything you look into, then you cannot break the machine.

Good Luck

P