[X4U] disappeared windows etc.

[Stroller]

On 1 Dec 2006, at 08:30, Mitchell Senft wrote:
> ... IIRC, I changed the name of the Mac ... had been installed by  
> the seller who took the liberty of selecting an account name I  
> didn't want -- wasn't quite easy enough to remember.
>
> IIRC, after making the changes, shut down. On next boot, things  
> were different. Settings had reverted. For instance, the Dock had  
> moved with its preferences reverted to the defaults; similarly the  
> trackpad.... How do I "find" the "missing" Windows apps so I don't  
> have reinstall them ...

Someone else may be able to help you some, but surely not as well as  
they might have been able to had you given us more information. I  
certainly can't help when you say "IIRC I did something vague".

An account name is different from the name of the Mac - users and  
computers are different & separate under OS X. Which did you really  
change?
How did you change it?
Did you do so through System Preferences?
Through Netinfo Manager?
I hope you didn't try changing the name of the user through Finder!  
That would certainly b0rk things up.

Saying "IIRC" is acceptable if one is providing an answer to a  
question - in this case one is helping the original poster and a  
little vagueness may be forgivable if the rest of the reply contains  
useful information. Being vague when asking for help ("IIRC") is -  
I'm sorry - just lame; your comments about what you've done do not  
help anyone diagnose the problem.

Your post could more succinctly been written:

    I was messing around with my Mac & I b0rked something up. All my
    user preferences have been reset to their defaults but - more
    importantly - Parallels is unable to find the Windows installation.
    How do I find the Windows files and tell Parallels where they are,
    please?

Such a post would actually help us help you,

Stroller.