Corrupt?? Preferences folders look like this: ¿íq$tøˇ‘êí}ÿ@íq&–íq

Question

Corrupt?? Preferences folders look like this: ¿íq$tøˇ‘êí}ÿ@íq&–íq

while trying to correct other problems, I opened preferences folder and found many folders that looked like *¿íq$tøˇ‘êí}ÿ@íq&–íq.

I assume they're corrupt...should I just trash them??

Causes??

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Dec 17, 2009 9:08 AM

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Answer 1

etresoft

Level 8

46,330 points

Dec 17, 2009 9:45 AM in response to Gordon A Bonnel

What other problems? Whatever you are trying to correct sounds like it requires more than just trashing those folders. I would recommend a fresh install of OS X and maybe a fresh hard drive as well.

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Answer 2

TildeBee

Level 7

31,917 points

Dec 17, 2009 10:33 AM in response to Gordon A Bonnel

Gordon --
Are you running CS3/4 or Photoshop?
If so, it's their Twain drive. Those files are crazy-looking
but harmless and can just be deleted.

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Answer 3

Dec 17, 2009 8:18 PM in response to TildeBee

yes I'm using Photoshop quite extensively lately.....like your reply better than first one....hate to have to reinstall...

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Answer 4

Dec 17, 2009 8:20 PM in response to etresoft

The other problem I had was with Excel...default gridlines borders changed just like that...now I can't get rid of borders...every .xls file I had all of a sudden showed borders around all cells as does all new sheets..never happened before so I was trying to get rid of excel plist to see if that would help

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Answer 5

etresoft

Level 8

46,330 points

Dec 18, 2009 11:00 AM in response to Gordon A Bonnel

Check the "show gridlines" option in preferences. By default it is turned on.

If Photoshop is the cause of those freaky folders, see if you can remove Photoshop's TWAIN driver. Apple's Image Capture.app is a better scanner program than anything I have seen elsewhere.

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Answer 6

TildeBee

Level 7

31,917 points

Dec 18, 2009 12:26 PM in response to etresoft

right, etresoft!
😉

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Answer 7

Dec 18, 2009 12:48 PM in response to etresoft

I've used preferences to show gridlines and trashed excel's plist and still my new sheets come up with cell borders (total sheet) ...Even after eliminating borders from a sheet, borders show up at odd times like when I paste into a cell....some of my old, seldom used sheets have borders scattered through out and seemingly random...others are totally bordered even though they originally had only gridlines.

This originally happened instantly...I think I might have hit an odd key combo while working in Excel, but I wonder why it would apply to every Excel workbook and sheet on my computer.

(I have a couple of other Excel issues, is this the proper forum?)

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Answer 8

etresoft

Level 8

46,330 points

Dec 18, 2009 3:33 PM in response to Gordon A Bonnel

Gordon A Bonnel wrote:
(I have a couple of other Excel issues, is this the proper forum?)

Not really. Microsoft has their own forums. I don't like to automatically refer people over there because the problem could be related to MacOS X and just show up in Office. But in this case, I have no idea.

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Answer 9

Klaus1

Level 9

52,749 points

Dec 18, 2009 3:39 PM in response to Gordon A Bonnel

Forgive me if I am stating the obvious, but in Excel you have to highlight all the cells to effect changes to the grid lines, borders etc of those cells.

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Answer 10

Dec 18, 2009 9:32 PM in response to Klaus1

Klaus, think you missed the point....when you open a new sheet does it show gridlines, or borders??...mine now show borders and no matter what I do I cannot get a sheet to open without them....of course I can eliminate them once the sheet is open, but I don't want the default opening to be with borders....plus all the other problems...

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Answer 11

Feb 9, 2010 11:25 AM in response to Gordon A Bonnel

I was having a similar problem: an empty folder with a name with odd characters was created in my user Preferences every time I launched Photoshop Elements 4. The odd folder was created when the Photoshop application was "Building TWAIN menu items...". Since the Epson Scanner TWAIN driver was suggested as the problem, I moved the file "/Library/Image Capture/TWAIN Data Sources/EPSON Perfection 3170.ds" to a different folder, and the problem went away. (I replaced the Epson scanner a couple of years ago, so I don't need the file in any case.)

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