Remove The Preferences Menu Item From The Finder
by Michael Coyle, 06-08-1998
At the computer lab where Mike Hadley works, the students keep changing the Finder Preferences. Since the Finder Template makes modifying the menus so easy, Mike wants to know how to remove the Preference menu item.
If you haven't done it already, download a copy of the ResEdit template for Finder Menus. To use the template, open a copy of your ResEdit preferences with ResEdit (System Folder > Preferences), then open the newly downloaded template file in ResEdit and copy the TMPL resource and paste it into the ResEdit preferences. Save your work and quit ResEdit. Now you're ready to go.
Open a copy of the Finder in ResEdit and scroll down to the fmn2 resource.
Open it with a double-click.
ID# 522 contains the information for the Edit menu.
Open it with a double-click.
Normally, the Finder's Edit menu contains 11 items (the menu name, plus all the menu items and dividers).
We are going to delete the last two items: the Preferences item, and the divider that precedes it. The divider is purely for cosmetic reasons.
Since we're deleting 2 items from 11, the final count is 9.
Change the Count to 9.
Continue to scroll down in ID# 522 until you reach MenuItem 9.
We want to delete the two items after 9, so click once on the item number 9) *****, and hit the delete key.
That should remove item 10 - the separator, and item 11 - the Preferences menu item.
That's all you need to do!
Save your work and quit ResEdit. You will want to save the old Finder and stash it in a secluded folder incase you want to change the preferences. After replacing the old Finder, restart the computer and you will no longer have a Preference menu item.
