B.2. Minor Eccentric Behavior

B.1. Problems That Aren't Problems

Before you panic, accept the possibility that whatever is frustrating you is a Mac OS X difference , not a Mac OS X problem . Plenty of "problems" turn out simply to be quirks of the way Mac OS X works. For example:

• My System Preferences controls are dimmed . As noted in Chapter 9, many of Mac OS X's control panels are off-limits to Standard account holders. Even if you're an Administrator, in fact, Tiger requires you to unlock System Preferences the first time you open it (by clicking the padlock icon at the lower-left corner of System Preferences and then entering your password).

• I can't log in! I'm in an endless login loop ! If the standard Login screen never seems to appear ”and you go straight into someone else's account every time ”it's because somebody has turned on the automatic login feature described on Section 12.5.

  You won't have a chance to sign in with your own account until somebody chooses a Log Out.

• I can't move or open a folder . Like it or not, Mac OS X is Unix, and Unix has a very strict sense of who, among the people who share a Mac over time, owns certain files and folders. For starters, people who don't have Administrator accounts aren't allowed to move, or even open, certain important folders. Section 12.1.2 has much more on this topic.

If whatever problem you're having doesn't fall into one of the preceding categories, then maybe something truly has gone wrong; read on.