How do I obtain a new copy of the System Preferences app for Mac?

Re-install your mac applications with the DVD they gave you.

There is no DVD—this is a new laptop and they no longer come with recovery disks.

Where would that app usually be?

In the Applications folder.

I think you can go AppleQmaster, and reset.

Typically you can just click the apple sign upper left hand corner and system preferences would be there, is it not there either?

Also, try going into “Spotlight” to see if you have it there as well.

Dreamwolf: it’s not an issue of location. The app itself is damaged. I’m trying to obtain a new copy because the app cannot be opened. When I attempt to open the app by any means (directly from its icon, or via the Apple Menu), that attempt produces the error dialog I quoted above.

Ahh, I had this problem with a couple of my apps with all the new updates from LION. Even though I have 10.6.8. Problems like garageband crashing, itunes. I’d go apple tech support, if Disk Utilities Repair doesn’t work.

NEW ANGLE: Googling suggests just replacing the app will work. Would anyone who is running Lion (OS 10.7) be willing to email me (or otherwise share with me) a copy of their System Preferences.app ? Or can anyone find such a copy anywhere online?

I think the best thing is to go legit and apple.com it, express lane, software help it. Their tech support is American.

@marmoset I don’t think system preferences is just a .app that you can drop in. It’s integral to the guts of the OS and will likely require a re-install if it can’t be repaired. It may have a user-facing .app component, but that doesn’t mean you can just drop in a new .app and have it work.

Thanks, I wouldn’t have guessed so either, but other users have reported that they had success with that (they dropped in another person’s copy of System Preferences.app, and it just worked, without even copying the plist—just the bare app), so I want to try it.

http://stfudamnit.com/ryan/SystemPreferences.zip

That is from my Hackintosh running 10.7.0. You can see if that will work.

But before you you try that I would repairing permissions in Disk Utility. If that doesn’t help open Console.app and then open System Preferences and see what the Console says.

WOOOOOOOO! johnpowell saves the day! I dropped that copy into Applications and it’s functioning perfectly—I didn’t even have to touch the plist, so all my settings are still preserved. :)

(I did repair permissions last night; didn’t help then, but might well have helped this drop-in now—anybody reading this in the future, try that first.)

I’m happy to hear that it worked out for you. I learned something today. Thanks for the update. It’s probably a good idea to do a backup if you haven’t already done so, just in case there are “side effects.”

Thank God I was on this thread, going to upgrade to Lion this weekend. Well good to know this thread, just in case.

@dreamwolf :: I have upgraded My Hackintosh and iMac and three Macbook Pros to Lion. No problems with any of them.