Mac OS X 10.5: Icons are centered in the Menu Bar

Hello Philpott:

I do not run either of those applications. I assume the application decides where to put the icon. I do not think that trashing a preference file will change anything.

Barry

Try quitting and restarting the app. Sometimes if an app adds something to the menu bar and then the rest of the menu bar changes, the apps can "stick" in the wrong position.

If that doesn't do anything, check the app's preferences to see if there's an option to change icon placement.

Removing the .plist might solve this (i repeat-it MIGHT), id restart the machine first and see if it pops back together with the other icons.
Does it happen in a new user account?

pull all contence of your ~/Library/Prefrences to an empty folder, log out and in again. Move the
.plist´s back to ~/Library/Prefrences, do NOT replace when asked.

The process that is in charge of menu bar items is called SystemUIServer. I once had a problem where it would sometimes seem to fail to read its own plist and arrange things incorrectly upon a restart. I would go to Activity Monitor, make sure all processes were showing, then Force Quit SystemUIServer. It automatically restarts. It would then arrange the items correctly.

The plist for SystemUIServer is here:

"/Users/yourname/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plist"

If you remove it and then either log out and back in, or force restart SystemUIServer, a new default plist will be created. You will then have to add back the items you want, and remove the ones you don't.
Francine


Francine
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Thanks, Francine! I always learn something from you!

Barry

Hi Barry! I learned far more about SystemUIServer than I ever wanted to know because way back when Tiger was new I was getting some very frustrating failures due to what seemed to be unhappy interactions between Spotlight and some of my own preferred menu bar extras. Turned out to be bugs in a process I had never heard of before: SystemUIServer. So I learned something about it in the process of dealing with my problems. And thanks to Leopard, I now know far more than I ever wished to learn about ownership and permissions and ACLs.....
Francine


Francine
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