What happened to the Sharing option in System Preferences?

Question

I'm not seeing the Sharing option in System Preferences. Here's a screenshot of my System Preferences:

   

I'd like to disable the Web sharing option so that I can start Apache.

I'm on an iMac running Mac OS X 10.6.4 (10F569).

Answer 1

A few possible solutions to try:

1. The easiest is to download and install the Mac OS X v10.6.5 Update. Since you're running 10.6.4, you might as well update anyway, and it's likely this will restore the missing pref pane.

   However, before doing this, I recommend that you attempt to repair permissions using Disk Utility.

2. Delete your preferences. Open Terminal and type the following two commands, then restart:

   cd ~/Library/Caches    Enter

   rm com.apple.preferencepanes.*    Enter

3. Create a new user account and log in to your Mac using that account instead. See if the missing preference pane appears when you are logged as a different user.

4. If you happen to have another Mac around (running the same version of OS X!), you could copy the pref pane from that one to yours. You'll find it here:

   /System/Library/PreferencePanes/SharingPref.prefPane

   If no other Mac is handy, you can use Pacifist to extract the appropriate preference pane from your OS X Install DVD and restore it.

5. Finally, just in case, are you running Apple Remote Desktop (ARD)? This software modifies your Sharing preference pane. Try upgrading your ARD client.

Answer 2

Install the Mac OS X 10.6.5 Combo Update.

This method is more comprehensive than a simple 10.6.4->10.6.5 update and will more likely fix your issue.