Badly messes up my file system. I think...

[hugov]

Heres what happened: One day i was bored and put all my Applications into categorized folders in HD::Applications. Then some time later, i found that software update no longer worked on anything that had been in the Applications folder. So i went to put them all back in the Applications folder straight and it copied them all, and somehow they are all now in the HD root folder along with Library, System etc.... HMMm so now i have two copies of ALL my apps and i dont want to delete them incase all the preference get deleted with them or something? anyone know what to do?
PS the system is still up, so its more of a major annoyance than a crash.

 

[sparkleytone]

first of all...use the mac help forum. thats what its there for.

as for your question...go ahead and delete the offending duplicate apps. any app worth its weight in OS X keeps its preference files in your ~/Library directory or a subset thereof. you shouldn't lose any of your preferences. then again...even safari doesnt follow these rules sometimes (underline links)