Safari install + Reset keychains = Data + App loss!!

It sounds like their login keychain doesn't match the stored one. /Applications should be just fine but they probably don't have access to their home directory.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107854

 

If his *apps* are gone (which is not a keychain issue), hmmm....

It sounded at first like on reboot, for whatever reason, on reboot, the system could not use his home directory and made him a new one. The same sort of thing as when someone changes their home directory's name. Meaning that his old stuff is in another user directory in /users.

(Ahhh, Eidorian's explanation of the keychain issue makes sense, although... as said, not if his apps are really gone.)

However, that should not have torched his apps unless they were installed on a per user basis.

Any chance he installed Leopard and not Safari 3? And perhaps did an archive and install or something?

 

Well if /Application is trashed it's a much bigger problem then just losing access to your user account.

Maybe they meant their Dock? You install programs to the Dock, right?