Automatic termination is a feature of OS X Lion and OS X Mountain Lion that comes from the realm of iOS, the idea is that after an app is unused for a period of time and becomes inactive, it will automatically terminate to free up resources for other tasks. With the help of the new auto-save feature, the user should theoretically never notice any of this going on and they can continue on with their work as usual when they need to, letting Mac OS X manage processes and resources for them without quitting apps or manual interaction through Activity Monitor.

For the vast majority of users this is a good thing and most are probably completely unaware of the features existence, but not everyone is thrilled with the prospect of dormant applications being quit without their command and some find it really annoying. If you fall into the second category and want to turn off automatic app termination in OS X, here is how to do it. Don’t worry, we’ll also show you how to turn it back on.

Disable Automatic Termination in Mac OS X
Launch Terminal and enter the following defaults write command:

defaults write -g NSDisableAutomaticTermination -bool yes

Relaunch apps that use auto-termination for changes to take effect.

Re-Enable Automatic App Termination in Mac OS X
You can always reenable the default behavior of OS X and turn auto termination back on:

defaults delete NSDisableAutomaticTermination

Or by reversing “yes” to “no” and running the original command again:

defaults write -g NSDisableAutomaticTermination -bool no

Again, relaunch apps for the changes to take effect and to have auto-terminate enabled again.

This is something that Mac OS X and iOS handles fairly well, and if you’ve never been annoyed by the feature it’s recommended to leave it enabled and let OS X manage tasks itself.

Thanks to qwerty for finding the tip in a StackExchange thread.

Ever since Mac OS X 10.7, the Mac has included the same elastic over-scrolling that exists in the iOS world. Frequently called “rubberband scrolling”, it kicks in as an overscrolling effect that runs out of the scrollable region revealing the linen background before snapping back into the scrollable region. Scroll up quickly with or without inertia in virtually any window since OS X Lion to see the effect in action. Rubberbanding makes for good eye candy and makes the Mac feel familiar to those coming from the iOS world, but some users are annoyed with it and will appreciate the ability to disable the scroll elasticity completely.

Launch Terminal found in the /Applications/Utilities/ directory and enter the following defaults write command exactly:

defaults write -g NSScrollViewRubberbanding -int 0

Apps will need to relaunch for the changes to take effect, though disabling rubber band scrolling does not work in every app.

To undo the change and get rubberband scrolling back, use the following defaults command:

defaults delete -g NSScrollViewRubberbanding

This is a great tip that has long been wished for by many users, heads up to MacWorld for the post.

Mac OS X 10.7.4 Update has been released by Apple, the update includes bug fixes and security updates and is recommended for all OS X Lion users to install. Two of the most significant changes are a fix to a restoring windows bug and a patch for a potential security issue with FileVault passwords, though there are a handful of other changes and fixes that are listed below in the changelog. An update to Safari is also bundled within the software update.

OS X Lion users can download the OS X 10.7.4 update directly via Software Update from the  Apple menu, the update weighs in around 730MB. Direct download links are below, though most users should upgrade through Software Update to keep things simple.

OS X 10.7.4 Direct Download Links

These are direct download links from Apple servers, each file is a DMG.

• OS X Lion 10.7.4 Client – 693mb
• OS X Lion 10.7.4 Client Combo – 1.4GB
• OS X Lion 10.7.4 Server Combo – 1.5GB
• OS X Lion 10.7.4 Server Client – 739MB

The complete change log for 10.7.4 client is as follows:

• Resolve an issue in which the “Reopen windows when logging back in” setting is always enabled.
• Improve compatibility with certain British third-party USB keyboards.
• Addresses permission issues that may be caused if you use the Get Info inspector function “Apply to enclosed items…” on your home directory.
• Improve Internet sharing of PPPoE connections.
• Improve using a proxy auto-configuration (PAC) file.
• Address an issue that may prevent files from being saved to an SMB server.
• Improve printing to an SMB print queue.
• Improve performance when connecting to a WebDAV server.
• Enable automatic login for NIS accounts.
• Include RAW image compatibility for additional digital cameras.
• Improve the reliability of binding and logging into Active Directory accounts.
• The OS X Lion v10.7.4 Update includes Safari 5.1.6, which contains stability improvements.

All Mac users should perform a backup before installing system software updates, initiating a manual backup with Time Machine is just a matter of right-clicking a drive.

By using Mac OS X Smart Folders, anyone can quickly access all files they were working on yesterday without caring about where they were stored or what folders they reside in. There are two ways to set this up, the first will utilize a quick modification to “All My Files” and the second will be more inclusive by creating a custom Smart Folder.

Method 1) Access Yesterdays Files & Work with All My Files

This is the easiest approach, all you need to do is modify how an existing folder arranges files:

1. Open “All My Files” from the OS X Finder, unless set otherwise this is the default new finder window
2. Click on the “Arrange” button and choose “Date Modified”
3. Scroll down to find “Yesterday” in the list, these are all your files from yesterday

Alternatively, you can select “Date Last Opened” from the Arrange menu, though the moment you open a file it will move from Yesterday to Today in All My Files.

Method 2) Find Yesterdays Files & Work with a Smart Folder

The second approach uses a new Smart Folder to find all files that were modified within the past day, so if you modify a file from yesterday sometime today it will remain accessible in the same smart folder. This is a bit smarter than the All My Files method above, and it will also include user preference and library files, modified plists, iTunes playlists, downloads, and any other file that has been modified by the user within a day.

1. From the OS X Finder, hit Command+Option+N to create a new Smart Folder
2. Click on “All My Files” at the top to limit the search to files owned by the active user
3. Click the (+) button to add a new search parameter and choose “Last modified date” and set is to “within last” and enter “1 days”



4. Finally, click the “Save” button and name the search “Recent Work” or something similar, and select “Add To Sidebar” for easy future access from Finder windows

The newly created smart folder is now accessible from any Finder window, just look for the gear icon next to “Recent Work” in the sidebar and click on it to open a constantly updated folder of all files modified within the past day.

There are a variety of ways to further improve these Smart Folders, but to keep this article relatively simple we’ll limit it to a single search parameter for now.

Full Screen apps in Mac OS X are managed by Mission Control, this means that if switch beween or gesture swipe from one full screen app to a desktop or another app, it follows the order of desktops and apps shown at the top of Mission Control. This also means that you can rearrange the placement of fullscreened apps easily just by clicking on one of the app windows and dragging and dropping it beyond another Desktop or full screen app. Now anytime you swipe between desktops or apps, you’ll find the app in its new placement.

We’ve covered a similar tip showing how to move Desktops around to rearrange their order within Mission Control as well.

Mac OS X Lion introduced the file locking feature, which causes any files to automatically lock themselves after a period of time to prevent accidental edits from occurring. You’ve probably seen the resulting message lock before, informing you a file has been locked because recent changes haven’t been made. The time it takes for that automatic file locking to take effect can be adjusted:

1. Open System Preferences from and click on “Time Machine”
2. Click “Options”
3. Look for “Lock documents _ after last edit” and click the pull down menu, selecting a new time duration before the file is locked by OS X

2 weeks is the default which I find to be overly aggressive and I choose 1 month instead, but some users may want locking to take effect even quicker and Apple offers the extraordinarily quick “1 day” option for those who want the utmost in protection from accidental edits.

In the same settings panel you can also choose to disable file locking completely just by unchecking the checkbox, though that isn’t recommended for most users.

OS X Lion and OS X Mountain Lion allow you to share files securely with another individual without creating a new user account for them. Instead, authentication gets handled by the individuals Apple ID, and a separate password is set to allow that Apple ID to share files and folders on your Mac. This is preferable to creating a new user account if you only wish to share some files and you don’t want to provide a user with complete login access to the Mac.

How to Set an Apple ID as a Valid Sharing Login

This taps into the systems Address Book to approve file sharing access:

• Open System Preferences from the  Apple menu
• Click on “Sharing” and be sure that “File Sharing” is enabled, as shown by the checkbox next to it
• Under “Shared Folders”, select an existing folder or add a new folder that you wish to share
• Under “Users” click the + plus button
• Select “Address Book” and find the person whose Apple ID you wish to use as a valid share login, then click “Select”
• Set a password and close out of Sharing

With that set up the user can now connect to the specified shared directory using only their Apple ID, they do not have an actual user account on the Mac and they could not log into it for purposes other than file sharing.

The login procedure using an approved Address Book entry is the same as connecting to any other shared Mac, just remind the connecting user their password will be different.

Connecting to a Shared Mac with Apple ID as the Login

• From the OS X Finder, pull down the “Go” menu and select “Connect to Server”
• Select “Registered Guest” and enter the Apple ID as the name
• Use the password that was set by the user in Sharing rather than the Apple ID password, then connect as usual

You can assign as many Apple ID’s as necessary to a shared directory, and you could also assign different Apple ID’s to different folders.

This will even work for someone connecting to a shared Mac from a PC, the only requirement is a valid Apple ID, either from iTunes, the App Store, or from elsewhere in the Apple ecosystem. It does not work with Remote Login and SSH, however.

For those dual booting between OS X Mountain Lion and OS X Lion, or any other two versions of OS X for that matter, there comes a time when you inevitably want to remove one of the operating systems. For this walkthrough we’ll assume the boot partition you want to delete is one of the developer previews of OS X Mountain Lion but it could be any other OS X boot volume as well.

It would be a wise idea to backup your Mac before proceeding, you will be editing the partition map of the drive and there is always a possibility something could go wrong.

From OS X Lion:

1. Open Disk Utility and select the primary hard drive
2. Click on “Partition”
3. Select the “Mountain Lion” partition and click the [-] button to delete the partition



4. Confirm the partition removal and quit Disk Utility
5. Reboot Mac OS X and hold down the Option key during boot, select “Recovery” from the boot menu
6. Open Disk Utility and select the hard drive, again selecting the “Partition” tab
7. Click and drag the partition resizer all the way to the bottom, then click “Apply” and “Partition” to confirm resizing (*see below if you get a “Partition Failed” error)



8. Reboot Mac OS X as usual

* If you encounter a “Partition Failed” error resolve it by running fsck from single user mode:

• Hold Command+S at startup and type “fsck -fy”
• Reboot OS X as usual, then launch Disk Utility to resize the partition

When Mac OS X reboots the partition space that used to be allocated to OS X Mountain Lion will now be allocated back to the primary operating system, OS X Lion.

Want to change a user name that appears at the login screen of Mac OS X? It’s very easy to do:

1. Open System Preferences and click on “Users & Groups”
2. Select the users name you wish to change from the left side
3. Look for “Full Name” on the right side options and click in the box, enter the administrator password to authenticate the name change
4. Type the new name as you want it to appear at the login screen



5. Exit out of System Preferences

Confirm the login name change took place by logging out or by locking the screen, both of which will bring you to the standard OS X login window. This is the same for OS X 10.7 Lion and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.

The full name/login name is not to be confused with the short user name of an account, which controls the directory name and SSH logins.

In an extreme situation, say a Mac is lost or stolen, you can remotely wipe the Mac of all its data and contents with the help of iCloud. Remotely wiping a Mac goes a step further though and not only removes all data from the computer, but locks it down so that it’s unusable without a set passcode, plus displays a message you provide. This is excellent anti-theft protection, and even if you never end up using it, it’s good to know how to do.

Requirements:

• iCloud configured on the Mac in question
• OS X Lion 10.7.2 or later installed on the Mac
• Access to a web browser and iCloud.com, or the Find My iPhone iOS app (free)

If you meet the requirements, here is how to use the remote wipe feature.

Remote Wipe a Mac with iCloud

1. Go to iCloud.com and click on “Find My iPhone”, or launch the Find My iPhone app in iOS
2. Locate the Mac on the map, and click the “i” next to the computers name
3. At the Info screen, click on “Remote Wipe”



4. Enter a passcode twice for recovery, this will be necessary to know if the Mac is recovered so that it can be unlocked
5. Enter a message to be shown on the Mac after it has been wiped, putting a “Property of Bill Gates, if found please contact 1-888-555-1212″ message is a good idea



6. Click on “Wipe” and confirm

The Mac will be wiped clear of personal data and become essentially useless until the passcode has been entered. This rates up there with some of the best anti-theft software available, and considering that iCloud and Find My Mac is completely free to use, there is no reason to not have this setup in case of emergency.

It should be noted this is not a reasonable approach to simply formatting a Mac hard drive, which is best done locally with the Disk Utility application.

For more remote control fun, remember that you can sleep a Mac remotely through email or SSH too. It’s less dramatic, but perhaps more practical on a day to day basis.