Q: My son changed everything

Is it an iMac or the eMac shown in in your profile? If really an iMac, please tell us which variant and what Mac OS version it is running.

You should establish accounts for both your son and yourself.

I do not know how to automate the process. All I know is how to move things manually back to how they were.

You could have made a full backup of your system and restored from backup.

Let us know what you want to know.

Robert

But.. I wonder if restoring my desktop to how it used to be has something to do with changing the date to a year previously?? I could try that I suppose.. do you know if this would work? Something about doing that last time is in my mind!? lol

I don't see how changing the date would matter much.  Would only effect the sort order in finder.

What is the problem you are seeing? Describe what you do not want. A picture would be handy. 

If your main account is an Admin level, then anyone messing about in there would

be able to change it, and do so most permanently. Unless the changes were only

done in the System Preference panels. Anyone could easily delete all user content

and also mess up the OS X easily, so it would not even restart once shut off...

With Leopard 10.5.8 or Tiger 10.4.11, the last two systems available that could be

running in survivor PowerPC G4 or G5 (non-Intel) hardware, these are similar to

each other and most handling of them would be fairly easy to understand.

There is a clock battery on the logic board that may need replacement, and that

could affect the function of the computer, to some extent even the booting of it.

A reset of the PRAM can help in some cases, if the battery that stores those

settings has gone dead. Some authorized Apple service providers may still work

on those and some of their techs may know how to troubleshoot or repair them.

If you have or could find a Missing Manual for Tiger (or Leopard) by David Pogue,

that may be helpful as a guide to either system. I've found these books at a small

fraction of their former retail price and have given several away to persons that I

had given an older Mac computer, to remind them of their Mac, just sitting around.

Second-hand or charity thrift stores can be a source for some older Mac hardware

accessories and quality books such as these manuals.

If you can take a screen shot or other capture then upload it via the camera icon in

the ASC discussion reply window, that can be helpful. So would more details in the

situation leading up to this change of appearance, lost files, or whatever's going on.

Been some years since I had a few eMacs. Then some G4 iMacs, & lost interest in

the reasons why I bought them in the first place, given hardware failure under Apple-
Care warranty, but nobody would fix them here. I gave one of my Macs many rides

to & from the main city here, most of the first year, and they never did fix it. Funny

thing was, I joined the ASC forums to ask questions & attempt to get support and

none of my original questions about those products survived. Nor do any existing

reports of the troubles I had with them, exist now either. Or in effect, say nothing.

So there are things you could recover from, and there are things that may have

gotten overwritten; if not just simple settings in the GUI or a missing user account.

In any event...

Good luck & happy computing!

-------------------------------

How to show us a screen image.  Avoid personal identification.

command + shift + 3  Will take entire screen.  You hear a click.

command + shift + 4 Lets you decide what to take.  Mouse pointer changes. Move mouse to upper left corner of desire image.  Hold down left mouse key where to start image.  Drag mouse to lower left of where you want to stop image.  Release mouse.

You will get a picture n.png file on the desktop.

On the forum input panel you will see the camera icon.

click on camera icon.

another window will appear.

Make sure you have selected the from your computer tab.

click on Browse button

An open file panel appears.  Select the file.

After selection a file, I have this screen showing.

You will have to click on Insert Image.  You may have to scroll down to see Insert Image button.

Some user account settings can change everything. A few ideas on how to change them back

are in Support articles, some are not so easy to figure when to use them, though. ~ Ideas here?

Username changed into losing everything, how do I get my stuff back?

More information & a screenshot of issue, would be helpful to further guess a possible cure.