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How to Use a MacBook or MacBook Pro with Lid Closed & External Monitor

Apr 15, 2010 - 25 Comments

Updated 11/27/2018: You can easily use the MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro in what’s commonly called clamshell mode. Clamshell mode is when the laptop lid is closed but the machine is hooked up to an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse, effectively turning your portable Mac into a desktop. Doing this is easy, we’ll cover … Read More

What’s the Maximum Resolution a MacBook Supports for External Displays?

Mar 14, 2010 - 5 Comments

When shopping around for an external monitor, I was asked “What’s the maximum resolution I can get out of my MacBook with an external LCD display?” by a friend of mine. Well the answer depends on which MacBook you have, what video card it has, and what type of video interface you’re going to use … Read More

What is a .DS_Store file?

Dec 31, 2009 - 3 Comments
DS_Store file in Mac OS X

I frequently get asked about the purpose of .DS_Store files by Mac users and Windows System Administrators who have a few Mac’s on their networks, where seeing the files turn up when hidden files are made visible. Here is an explanation as to what a DS_Store document is in macOS and Mac OS X, what … Read More

Subscribe to OS X Daily RSS and Follow Us on Twitter!

Oct 15, 2009 - 2 Comments

Do you come here and read OSXDaily often? You should! So, keep in touch. There are many ways to do this. How about subscribing to our RSS feed, or follow us on Twitter! Both feeds will give you up to date posts directly from OS X Daily, so check them out. And of course, we’re … Read More

What Shell Am I Using? Here’s How To Find Out

Sep 25, 2009 - 5 Comments

Ever wondered what shell you are using at the command line? It’s not unusual to want or need to know which shell is running, and though you may hear this question many times, the answer could be different for every user, thus the easiest thing to do is to issue a terminal command which determines … Read More

mdworker – What is mdworker?

Sep 14, 2009 - 31 Comments

Ever wondered what the ‘mdworker’ process was on a Mac? mdworker is short for ‘metadata server worker’ and if you’re still confused don’t feel bad. mdworker is basically the core technology behind Mac OS X’s awesome search engine Spotlight, it spiders meta data from your Mac and its files and creates a readable index so … Read More

Ask OS X Daily: How Do I Force Open a File on Mac?

May 22, 2007 - 5 Comments
App Store icon

Reader Mathew Prairen asks a common question about forcibly opening files with an application on the Mac, and it has a remarkably simple answer: “I have a few documents and files from my PC that Pages refuses to open, is there any way I can force Pages to open these files?” As a matter of … Read More

How to lock a Mac OS X workstation

Apr 23, 2007 - 43 Comments
lock

Reader Adam Smith writes in with the following question: “I am a new Mac user, and I love OSX! I have a MacBook Pro 15”. I would like to know though, is there a way that you can lock a MAC? Like in Windows, you can hit the shortcut “Windows Key + L”. Is there … Read More

Ask OS X Daily: “How can I password protect a file?”

Mar 7, 2007 - 33 Comments

Hello all you loyal OS X Daily readers! Recently we have been receiving a large number of Mac OS X related questions in our inbox. Normally our staff would try and respond with an answer to the best of our knowledge. However, sometimes we get a question we think would be better sourced to the … Read More

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