Mac OS

Mac OS, Mac OS X, or macOS, is the operating system that resides on Apple’s desktop and portable computer lineup. Built upon a Unix core, it is easy to use yet highly advanced, extremely stable, and an excellent OS for productivity and creation. Browse through our articles or use the search feature to look for something specific that is pertinent to the Mac operating system.

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Automatically Customize Mac OS X with a Bash Script: 27 Defaults Write Commands, custom .aliases, .bash_profile, etc

Sep 9, 2011 - 8 Comments
Bash script to customize many aspects of Mac OS X

If you’re an advanced user and setting up a new Mac, you probably customize the OS with a ton of defaults write commands and .alias adjustments. These are things you can either enter manually, use an easy tool like LionTweaks, or check out this new great script from GitHub called .osx. Note: this is obviously … Read More

Share Files from Mac OS X to Windows PC’s Easily

Sep 8, 2011 - 41 Comments
Enable Windows File Sharing in Mac OS X

If you have a mixed network of Mac and Windows PC’s, chances are good that you’ll be wanting to move files between the two operating systems. The easiest way to share files from Mac OS X to Windows is to enable Samba support for a given user account on the Mac. This tutorial will how … Read More

Customize LaunchPad Folders with Emoji

Sep 8, 2011 - 3 Comments
Emoji Folders in OS X Lion LaunchPad

You may know by now that Mac OS X Lion has Emoji support, which is easily accessible in most applications. This brings a wide range of icons and emoticons to the Mac, and some of them are perfect to customize the appearance of LaunchPad folder names. Here’s how: Open TextEdit and then hit Command+Option+T to … Read More

Enable Element Inspector in the Mac App Store

Sep 7, 2011 - 5 Comments
Mac App Store element inspector

The Mac App Store has a hidden element inspector that lets you view the source of any page or element drawn within the App Store, letting you extract text or images, and even enter your own code into the console (which can lead to all sorts of fun things). This is probably most useful for … Read More

You Can Capture & Save Screen Shots with Preview in Mac OS X

Sep 7, 2011 - 7 Comments
Capture Screenshots with Preview in OS X Lion

The Preview image editing and photo viewing app in Mac OS X includes the ability to capture screen shots directly within the application. The resulting images open directly into Preview rather than saving to the Mac desktop, allowing user changes to file size, resolution, color, and file format. There are three different screen capture modes … Read More

MacUpdate Bundle: 11 Mac Apps for $49.99

Sep 7, 2011 - 6 Comments
MacUpdate Fall Bundle of Mac Apps

The latest MacUpdate Bundle has been announced, stuffing in 11 great Mac apps at a dramatically reduced price. Purchased individually these would cost $487, but the MacUpdate Bundle brings the combined price down to $49.99. The apps include: Toast 11 Titanium ($99) – Burn CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray discs, plus convert and export video for … Read More

Switch Between Desktop Spaces Faster in Mac OS X with Control Keys

Sep 6, 2011 - 30 Comments
Switch between Desktops faster in Mac OS X Lion

Switching between active Desktops/Spaces in OS X with the three fingered sideways swipe is very quick, but an even faster method is by using the Control keys. The first option is to use the Control + Arrow keys, which is enabled by default. As you might expect, Control + Left Arrow switches to the desktop … Read More

Use Shake-To-Undo on the MacBook Pro

Sep 6, 2011 - 17 Comments
Shake to Undo on a Mac Laptop

If you’ve used an iPhone or iPad much, you’re undoubtedly familiar with the ‘shake-to-undo’ motion sensing feature that lets you literally shake the device to undo an event or clear a text box. With a little help of a third party tool, we can bring shake to undo to Mac laptops that are equipped with … Read More

Move the iPhoto Library to an External Hard Drive

Sep 5, 2011 - 9 Comments
Move the iPhoto Library

Need to move your iPhoto library? No problem, it’s easily done by a two-step process – first you need to physically move or copy the picture library to the new location, and then you have to tell iPhoto where the new location is. This is all really easy to do on the Mac, and it … Read More

Internet Explorer for Mac the Easy Way: Run IE 7, IE8, & IE9 Free in a Virtual Machine

Sep 4, 2011 - 473 Comments
Internet Explorer 7 running in Mac OS X

If you’re a Mac user that requires the usage of Internet Explorer under Mac OS X, you’ll find your choices are generally as follows: run IE on top of Mac OS X with Wine which can be slow and buggy, dual boot Windows and Mac OS X which is a nuisance because it requites rebooting, … Read More

Use Any Font in the Mac OS X Terminal

Sep 2, 2011 - 6 Comments
Use any font in the Terminal of Mac OS X Lion

The Terminal in modern versions of Mac OS X enforces a new monospacing character width standard, which in laymen terms means you no longer have to use monospace fonts in the Terminal. That means you can now use any font you want, even Comic Sans like the screenshot shows down below (hooray?).

Open the Home Directory as New Window Default in Mac OS X Finder

Sep 1, 2011 - 15 Comments
Open Home Directory in Mac OS X Lion as New Window Default

When a new Finder window is opened on the Mac desktop, the user defaults to seeing the new “All My Files” folder, rather than the users home directory. This is a change that arrived with the latest versions of OS X (began in Lion, but continues on through Mavericks), and while it can be useful … Read More

Sync Application Data & Preferences Across Multiple Macs with DropboxAppSync

Aug 31, 2011 - 12 Comments
Sync App Data Across Macs with DropboxAppSync

If you’re one of the many Mac users who uses multiple Macs, say an iMac at home or work, and a MacBook on the go, you should get DropboxAppSync. This free utility syncs your ~/Library/Application Support/ folder across multiple Macs via the free Dropbox service, allowing you to have the exact same app setups, like … Read More

“Go To Folder” is the Most Useful Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcut for Power Users

Aug 31, 2011 - 36 Comments
Go To Folder command in Mac OS X

If there’s only one keyboard shortcut you should remember in Mac OS X it’s this: Go To Folder. We refer to this keyboard command so frequently here on OSXDaily that we just sort of assume everyone knows it, but it’s so useful and powerful that it’s worth making an individual post about it.

Windows 8 vs Mac OS X & iOS – Visions of User Interfaces Collide

Aug 30, 2011 - 141 Comments
Windows 8 Ribbonized UI

I would be convinced this was an April Fools joke out of Redmond were it not August, but no, it’s the new Windows 8 Explorer default interface. While Apple is busy reducing clutter and creating minimalist interfaces, streamlining OS X and iOS, Microsoft is busy moving in the opposite direction. Believe it or not, these … Read More

Where iPhoto Pictures are Located and How to Access the iPhoto Library and Picture Files

Aug 30, 2011 - 25 Comments
iPhoto pictures location

iPhoto is a great picture management app, but you may still occasionally want to access the original picture files for a variety of purposes, either to import them into another app or for backup purposes. This is easily done in Mac OS X, but what exactly you are looking for depends on which version of … Read More

Make Activity Monitor Easier to Read with Hierarchical Process Sorting

Aug 30, 2011 - 3 Comments
Sort Activity Monitor by Hierarchy Process

If opening up Activity Monitor is confusing or intimidating to you, or you just find it hard to track down that errant Chrome Worker process, try sorting the list by “All Processes, Hierarchically”. Sorting by hierarchy breaks the processes down into apps and their child processes, grouping together things like all of the “Google Chrome … Read More

Pixel Version of Andromeda Galaxy Wallpaper from OS X Lion

Aug 30, 2011 - 10 Comments
Pixel Andromeda Galaxy

The default OS X Lion galaxy wallpaper is gorgeous, but there’s something fun about this pixelated version of it that makes it a joy on a desktop too. This is quite literally the default Lion wallpaper for Mac OS X Lion but it’s run through a pixel tool so that it is very pixelated, looking … Read More

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