"Customize Toolbar" grayed out

If all you want is to remove items, then holding down the command key, then mouse to the item, and click and hold (with the command key still pressed) and drag off the toolbar should result it the item vanishing with a poof of smoke. However, since your Customize function is greyed out I'm not sure this "normal" behavior will work.

Do you have a test user? If not you can create one in System Prefs/Accounts. Give the test user admin rights, and leave everything strictly at the Apple defaults, do not add any of usual goodies (login items, fonts, contextual menu items, and so on). Just leave it as Apple makes it, with default everything. Log in to the test account and see if things behave correctly.

A test user account takes up scarcely any space and is VERY handy to have on hand for troubleshooting.
Francine


Francine
Schwieder

Haven't seen that, and the only thing that occurs to me is that your permissions have gone screwy, or something is wrong with your Finder's plist. For the first problem try launchng Disk Utilities, select your startup drive then First Aid, then click Repair Permissions. Restart and see if things are back to normal. If not try removing this file:

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

Restart or logout and back in and see if it is fixed.
Francine


Francine
Schwieder

Actually you can remove items from the right hand side of the menu bar exactly the same way with exactly the same result. To ADD them you do indeed have to go to the appropriate Preference pane. 😉
Francine


Francine
Schwieder