New Mac Owners
First of all, congratulations
. Here's answers to some of the common questions asked by owners of new Macs.
I just got my new Mac. What should I do right away?
Make sure you're getting what you paid for!
In the Menu Bar, click the Apple icon and select "About This Mac". Check your processor, RAM and hard drive to make sure your notebook is what you originally ordered. This in no way implies Apple deliberately scams its customers, but mistakes happen and it doesn't hurt to be extra careful.
Charge up the battery to 100%, and then calibrate it. For instructions on how to calibrate the battery, click
here.
While you're running down the battery to calibrate it, you can customize your Mac to your liking in System Preferences. In the search box found in System Preferences, type in keywords to whatever you want to customize and the relevant sections will be highlighted automatically! For example, to enable right clicking by tapping the touchpad with two fingers, just type in "double click" in the System Preferences, and it will take you to the correct section!
Register your new Mac with Apple! Click
here to register your Mac.
Install your Software Updates! You can find Software Update in the Apple icon on the Menu Bar, or you can find it in Spotlight (just search Software Update).
Calibrate your display! To learn more on how to calibrate your display, please refer to
this link.
Turn on your Firewall! The instructions on how to do so can be found here:
Turning on the Firewall.
This is so confusing! My old keyboard shortcuts don't work!
Mac Switcher Rule #1: Keep an open mind
. If you insist on doing everything the Windows way, you haven't really switched now, have you? After getting used to working the Mac way, you will most likely start to notice that it is actually more convenient than the Windows method.
First of all, many of the Windows shortcuts are the same in OS X, just instead of Ctrl + "x" it is Command (Apple) + "x".
MacRumors has an excellent Keyboard Shortcuts guide found
here. Also,
this page by Apple is also very useful in learning how to do Windows tasks the Mac way.
Okay, got my basics done. Now how do I set up my touchpad for right-click?
Go to System Preferences (through the Dock or the Apple icon on the Menu Bar) and select Keyboard & Mouse, then click the Trackpad tab and select the checkbox "Place two fingers on trackpad and click button for secondary click." Now you can hold two fingers on the trackpad and click to use the shortcut menu.
If you also set the trackpad to recognize tapping as a left-click, then tapping the trackpad with two fingers also creates a right-click.
How do I install applications? Where's InstallShield?
It is much simpler to install applications on OS X. First of all, Mac applications are commonly packaged as .dmg files. To install these, open the .dmg file, and a "virtual drive" will mount. A window will pop up with the icon of the application you're installing. Just simply drag that icon into your Applications folder, and its installed! Now, eject the "virtual drive" and you can delete the .dmg file.
Some larger applications, such as iTunes, come in .pkg files. Open the .pkg file, and an InstallShield-like installer will open. Simply follow the instructions shown on the Installer to install .pkg files.
How do I uninstall applications?
Uninstalling applications are as easy as dragging the application into the Trash. However, doing this may leave some preference files behind somewhere on the Mac. These files are absolutely harmless, but they take up hard drive space. What you can do is use a free un-installer called
AppDelete. This will uninstall the application and will also do a search across the Mac for files related to that application to delete. However, it is best to check through the files AppDelete believes is related before emptying the Trash, as it may accidentally mark a critical file of similar name to be deleted.
Time to move my old files to my new Mac!
There's several ways to move files from your old computer to your new Mac. You can burn files onto a CD and insert the CD into your new Mac; you can copy files onto a flash drive or an external hard drive and drag them onto your new Mac, or you can connect your Mac to your PC with cables and make a direct transfer. This
article will detail how to move files from your old computer to your new Mac.
Finder's folders are so confusing! Why is the iPhoto folder so messy?
Apple designed OS X and iLife to "just work", without the need for you to dig through Finder too often. To access your photos and to edit them, open up the iPhoto application; you can and should leave the iPhoto folder in Finder untouched, as you may accidentally misplace a file that is critical in working iPhoto, for example.
Also, remember to organize your files as logical as possible in Finder. For example, applications stay in the Applications folder, photos stay in iPhoto, etc. Misplacing files in their wrong folders can cause headaches, so its best to keep everything as organized as possible. For example, instead of going to the iPhoto folder in Finder to find a photo, open up the iPhoto application to find it, or use Spotlight.
I want to install RAM on my MacBook and MacBook Pro. Any guides?
I've reposted this here for those who just received their new Mac, and are interested in guides for installing more RAM. This can also be found in the Commonly asked MacBook vs. MacBook Pro Questions section.
This
instruction video by Macworld's Jason Snell shows you how to install more RAM on a MacBook. You can also refer to Apple's guide to install RAM on the MacBook, found
here.
Upgrading the RAM in the MacBook Pro is a bit more difficult, although still do-able.
This video shows how to install RAM onto a MacBook Pro. Please excuse its annoying music. Or you can refer to Apple's guide to install RAM on the MacBook Pro, found
here.
How do I burn CDs and DVDs on my Mac?
There are several ways; you can use Finder and you can also use software that you can purchase, such as
Disco and the more powerful
Toast Titanium. However, for most people that just burn CDs and DVDs for music or backup purposes, the Finder should suffice.
To learn more about how to burn files onto a CD or DVD with Finder, please refer to
this article by Apple.
Remember though, the base model of the MacBook can only read and burn CDs and read DVDs. All the other models of the MacBook and the MacBook Pro can burn CDs and DVDs.
Should I get AppleCare?
For many cases, yes, you should get AppleCare for your Mac, considering it extends the warranty and phone support to three years, and notebooks are much more likely to have issues than desktops, as they are constantly moved around, subject to G forces and components are compacted more densely. With AppleCare, you can contact Apple at any time, for as many times as you wish with troubleshooting, questions regarding your Mac and more.
In terms of the actual AppleCare service, the customer support is excellent. Apple's customer service is known to be among the best in the industry, with helpful and knowledgeable staff and straight-forward troubleshooting.
Also, if you decide to sell your Mac in the future, potential buyers will be more confident in purchasing your Mac if it has warranty for three years. Yes, the AppleCare warranty follows the Mac, not the user, so it is transferable.
I still want to learn a bit more about using OS X...any links?
Of course! Here's my "trademark"
Switch 101 and
Mac 101 links
. These articles will help in understanding how to move from Windows to OS X. There are more recommended articles and you can find them in the Recommended Guides & Links section.
Which applications should I use on my new Mac?
Eluzion created a fantastic list of free OS X software
here. You can also refer to the
Mac Utilities, Games & More thread for some other recommended applications. Or you can post a thread here on the Apple forum asking about applications for the task you're doing.
Here I'll just quickly highlight some of the most common applications Mac users use. You can find more information about them in their individual websites:
Quicksilver
SMCFanControl
iStat Pro (widget)
Web browsers (
Safari,
Camino,
Firefox,
Shiira,
OmniWeb,
Opera, etc.)
Mail applications (
Apple Mail,
Mozilla Thunderbird, etc.)
Office suites (
NeoOffice,
iWork,
Microsoft Office for Mac, etc.)
Video players (
VLC,
Flip4Mac Add-on for Quicktime)
My battery health is at 98%! Is there something wrong with it?
Battery health indicators such as iStat Pro often are not 100% accurate, and also your battery health may be accurately presented because the battery hasn't been calibrated lately. All in all, even if the battery health is seriously at 98%, we cannot tell if it is a defective battery yet. Keep watch of your battery; if you see the battery health drop below 85% within a few months and your amount of battery cycles has not passed 100 cycles, you should contact Apple.
What type of maintenance do I need to conduct on OS X, and how often?
Not much maintenance is required on OS X. Defragmenting the disk isn't necessary, and antivirus scans aren't necessary either. For now, most users will only need to Repair Disk Permissions (Disk Utility > Macintosh HD > Repair Disk Permissions) every once in a while (or if you start getting Kernel Panics), clear out internet caches and maybe clean up your Desktop every now and then
.
Windows on the Mac
For many switchers, they've admired Mac OS X for years, but knew they couldn't get away from Windows completely, because of work restrictions or Windows-only software. Now that there are such convenient and widely accessible ways to run Windows on a Mac, more and more users are switching, or at least considering the switch to Mac.
The
Windows on a Mac guide will detail the different methods of running Windows and their advantages and disadvantages.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
