Reader Carlos has lost some menubar icons and I know he’s been a naughty boy. He writes:
I have a strange behavior with my menubar: All Apple related items disappeared, i.e., clock, Spotlight, battery status, etc. Only third party apps are present: mumenu, StuffIt, tiger launch, Norton, icalendarclock, default folder, etc. I thought it could be some of Application Enhancer’s apps, but it’s not. Tried to solve it repairing permissions, deleting caches, but nothing. Any hint?
Yep, you did something Apple would prefer you didn’t—i.e., you installed a hack to enable Front Row on a computer that doesn’t natively support it. I’d send you back to the place from whence this hack came for more information, but Apple Legal has been on the case and has had the hack removed.
Instead, I’ll offer the solution and some background. The solution is to download and install the Mac OS X Update 10.4.5 Combo updater. Installing the update puts things right.
What happened is that when you fail to apply the hack exactly as instructed (or as was instructed) you lose your Apple menubar icons.