Whither "Preview"

Hello Diane. Here is the EtreCheck report, which is fairly extensive.

first, to answer your questions: Preview seems to open when I take a "screen shot" item from the desktop. The screenshot which opens may not always be the one clicked, and the background screen is black.

The NASA reference only appeared when I went to the top left-hand corner of the screen and clicked "About Preview" to get some basic information (as when I want to remind myself as to what version I have on my Mac.

I have otherwise absolutely no contact with NASA.

The EtreCheck report seems very extensive It seem to have a problem with my 2 (only ?) GB and maybe my Time Machine isn't running, so I will look. I occasionally run a "Clean my Mac" and as this Mac dates from 2006, but still running well (for me), there are many old files - some of which (photos, family trees etc which I could transfer to a USB)

anyway , one question before I send this report

Can anyone using "Discussions" read the Etrecheck report ?

Eric

Diane, I checked Time Machine, which is running and it has stuff back to 2009, though exactly what, I have not looked. Must be something else causing the red coloured comment.

Eric

Yes Andy, exactly like that. I have no Guest users. Only recent, say 10 days or so ago was a "Software update from the Apple top l.h. corner.

Eric

Well, thank you Diane and Andy, I think I am making progress.

Andy, my Preview version is 5.5.3

I decided to look through my HD and see what is currently in there. (I have two external discs where I keep photos, family trees and similar long-term stuff.)

I found I could immediately remove quite a few items e.g.

Stuff from my old Mac (2005) – Power PC e.g Netscape ? and Mac Janitor ?? etc

Tried to get rid of "Face Time" but it said "can't be deleted, required by MacOS X" (This must be a downright lie). How do I override the refusal ?

Various other weird items like Omni-Outliner (2009), ooVoo (very weird.) and so on

I then went to Disk Utility, checked the Hard Disc (OK) and corrected Permissions (quite a few)

All that took some time but I did a restart and we were up and running after 1 minute 45 secs.

Next: I see I have a very long list of "Utilities" about 40 ! However most are relatively recent (from 2011 to present), but there are a few going back to 2003 and some odd but probably useless items such as Desktop (Mac OS 9), Dossier Textbridge 2004, Making music 2003, User Guides and Information 2007, and several others of the same vintage.

Have you any other suggestions as to where to look for other items to put in the trash ?

Finally, You will be happy to know that I have not found anything dating from my first Mac 512k with external HD of 80k dated 1985. It is sleeping in a cupboard, still in its carrying hbag/harness which made it a portable at the time.

Thankyou Diane, Your advice has told me how to solve the problem and clean up my elderly, but still vigorous Mac.

So I will make a start and see how it goes. Obviously the principle concern is to avoid losing software and files which I will still need in the new situation.

Time here is 11 p.m., so will start tomorrow,

Eric

Hello again Diane,

I have been through the older stuff on my HD (mostly Power PC stuff) and trashed them

I found Live Update, Making music,Filemaker Pro, Old Address File, Iomega 2004, Nisus Thesaurus, Stuffit Standard, Desktop Mac OS 9,

Dossier Textbridge 2004, Installer Log File 2005.

Next I will have to get a larger external drive, and then I will tackle the website procedures you gave me in your last two messages

You said that Lion should have highlighted/trashed some of this when I first downloaded it from Apple, so when I get to the next download, will see if the more recent Lion does its stuff.

Again many thanks

Eric

Here is my Column view: I have only one User, though I ought to add my wife, although she has her own MacBook (on Snow Leopard, .. which I lliked very much)

Column view

The obvious oddball is "livebox" which I should remove ?. The "Devices" shown are Time Machine and four partitions from an external hard disc. Can't remember what "Livebox" did.

How many Gb do I need to download a new Lion 10.7.5 ?

Once again , thankyou Eric

Message was edited by: Eric Dalzell The copy of the column view did not appear in the message. My column was same as yours plus the 'livebox' item and the 'Devices'. Can try again if you like. Tomorrow , but have to go right now...