Cannot change Finder's "New Finder windows open" preference; it's grayed out

Why am I not allowed to change any of the preferences in Finder's General preference pane, except for Spring-loaded folders? I am allowed to change any of Finder's Labels, Sidebar, or Advanced preferences, except for Show all filename extensions and Show warning before emptying the Trash.

I've tried deleting ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist then restarting Finder, which recreates com.apple.finder.plist, but the problem persists.

I'm running OS X 10.6.8.

Solution 1:

I assume your user are assigned administrator rights on the machine? Have you tried booting up in Safe Mode? Do the problem persist inside there?

To boot in safe mode:

1. Shut down you mac completely.
2. Press the power button.
3. After you hear the startup tone, hold Shift key.
4. Release Shift once you see the gray Apple icon and progress bar.

Also, try to create a new user. Check if the problem appears on your new user as well.

Edit:

Found this to be a solution:

Move (dont delete in case something goes wrong) theese four files to your desktop from <~/Library/Preferences> and make a full reboot. Not necessary to do safe mode for this operation. Just Cut and paste the files directly.

• com.apple.desktop.plist
• com.apple.desktopservices.plist
• com.apple.finder.plist
• com.apple.preference.desktopscreeneffect.plist
• com.apple.sidebarlists.plist

The files should appear after a reboot, and hopefully fix your problem.