I was excited to load Leopard on my kids Mac Mini so I could take advantage of the awesome looking Parental Controls that are now built into the OS. I have a 3 year old and a 5 year old, so using simple finder is imperative.

I started by doing a clean install of Leopard, completely formatting the hard drive and installing a clean OS. All went easy…. too easy. Then I started loading on the games and educational programs. Of course, I suddenly realized that some of the educational programs required “Classic”, so into the circular file they went. As I am sure you have all noticed, there is no support for “Classic” (OS 9) in Leopard.

I then created a new user for my 5 year old. I chose to make him a user that was “Managed with Parental Controls. Easy enough. I then clicked on the button that brought me to the “Parental Controls”. I chose to use “Simple Finder” and then selected the programs I wanted him to have access to. I saved the changes by exiting the control panel. Then I logged in as him. When I opened his Simple Finder “Applications” folder, I only saw the applications made by Apple. I tried many different things before finally calling for Support.

I spent more than an hour on the phone with Tammy ( a Level 2 Support Technician) who was real pleasant to work with, but she was unable to help in the end. I did have one kernel panic during a shut-down of the computer. She suggested that the KP may have something to do with my problems.

After successfully re-installing the OS, I decided to add just one application. I chose KidsPix. Wah-la! It worked. After adding KidsPix in the Parental Controls (while logged in as me), I flipped over to my sons login and there it was in the “Applications” folder of the Simple Finder. I was so excited. So it must have been the Kernel Panic after all……. NOT!

After adding more than six other programs, not one of them showed up in the simple finder. If I turned simple finder off in his login, they are all there and work.

After much aggravation, I noticed something….

Each and every application that was not showing up, was within a folder within the main “Applications” folder. So I tried dragging the application for the “Cars” game out into the Applications folder. Guess what… it worked! It seems that the Simple Finder cannot make alias to the main application, if it is enclosed within another folder inside of “Applications”. All of the Apple applications were not enclosed within folders inside the “Applications” folder. It was just coincidence that the first time around I had not loaded KidsPix, which loads itself in the root of “Applications”.

Now for some of the programs, I was able to drag the application out of its folder and put it in the root of “Applications”. Others needed the support files that were in the folder along with the application. Separating them caused errors on launch. For now I left them where they are. My kids will just have to do without them until I find a solution.

So if you are having problems with applications not showing up in SimpleFinder, take a look to make sure that they are not within a folder within “Applications”. Other than this issue. all is well with Parental Controls.

Philip Hayes is Phil is the CEO and a IT Solutions Consultant for Sirius Innovations, LLC. He has been a Mac user since 1990, when he bought his first LC for $2500 (monitor and printer not included). Although he is as proficient in Windows, he hands down prefers working on the Mac. He is currently operating off a Mac G5 tower and travels with a 17" Powerbook. He swears his new iPhone has made him 200% more productive than before.
Email this author | All posts by Philip Hayes