Question: what would happen if I deleted all the files in the preferences folder?

Sometimes I go through and hunt and pick things to reset, but I wanted to reset everything. Will this cause any major failures?

 

That's a good idea. Just make an archive file of the whole folder. Crosses fingers

 

So I trashed every single file and folder in the preferences folder, rebooted the MacBook…and everything was reset. Everything. I had to re-enter some passwords and get through some obligatory install menus, but that's all.

One thing to note, it cured some problems I had with my MacBook. Previously, it took a full minute to go to sleep and I thought it was a hardware problem—but now it goes to sleep and wakes up instantly. So cool.

I'm sure it fixed some other stuff as well.