Troubleshooting macOS Sierra Problems

If you need to reset the SMC!” You have tried rebooting, you’ve reset the PRAM,

If you need to reset the SMC!” You have tried rebooting, you’ve reset the PRAM,
Here's how to reset your PRAM:
Shut down your machine. Yes, all the way down, not sleep or logging out.
Press the power button and then press command-option-p-r. ...
Hold those keys down until your Mac reboots again and you here the startup chime.
 you’ve done it all, but your Mac is still behaving strangely. What next? In certain circumstances, resetting your Mac System Management Controller (SMC) can be a solution. This is sometimes necessary to restore normal lower level system functionality to your Mac, particularly for power and hardware related troubles.

We’ll show you exactly how to reset the SMC on any type of Mac (and any version of OS X) and the type of problems that it may resolve.

When & Why Reset SMC on a Mac?
Typically, an SMC reset helps to resolve many power and hardware related issues that are otherwise unresponsive to troubleshooting techniques. Resetting a Mac SMC is particularly effective if you’re having the following types of problems:
* Issues with your Mac cooling fans and fan management: the fans run constantly at high speed, fans run high despite low CPU usage and adequate ventilation, fans not working at all, etc
* Power management and battery problems: Mac isn’t turning on, sleep isn’t working, random shutdowns and reboots, battery isn’t charging, Mac won’t wake from sleep, etc
* Light problems and improper lighting management: battery indicator lights aren’t working, display backlighting isn’t adjusting to ambient light changes, keyboard backlights not working, etc
* Video and external displays not working: display brightness functionality not working properly, target video mode isn’t working properly, external display isn’t working, etc
* General performance and functionality problems: abnormally sluggish behavior despite no CPU or disk usage, external ports not working, airport & bluetooth aren’t showing up, external devices are not being found, etc

Reset SMC of a MacBook Air, MacBook Pro Retina, or MacBook Pro’s with an internal non-removable battery

This is how to reset SMC on most modern Mac laptops, none of which have a removable battery:

1. Shutdown your MacBook Air / MacBook Pro 
2. Connect the power adapter to the Mac 
3. On the MacBook / Pro’s keyboard, hold down the Shift+Control+Option keys and the Power button at the same time 
4. Release all keys and the power button at the same time – the little light on the MagSafe adapter may change colors briefly to indicate the SMC has reset 
5. Boot your Mac as usual 

Here’s the key sequence to hold down:

Do keep in mind that by resetting the SMC you will lose power specific settings, like the time it takes to sleep a Mac and other customizations to power settings. No big deal, but if you have made many changes to your hardware behavior you will want to adjust stuff like sleep behavior again.

The boot time after resetting a machines SMC can be a bit longer than usual, that is normal.


Reset SMC of an iMac, Mac Pro, Mac Mini
Resetting SMC is different for non-portable Macs.
On any desktop Mac, here is how you reset the System Management Controller:

1. Shut down your Mac 
2. Disconnect the power cord 
3. Press and hold the Mac’s power button for 5 seconds 
4. Release the button 
5. Reattach the power cables and boot the Mac as usual 

Reset the SMC of a MacBook or MacBook Pro’s with detachable batteries

Older MacBook laptops, indicated by having a removable battery, can reset SMC with the following approach:

1. Shutdown the MacBook/Pro and remove the battery 
2. Disconnect the power adapter, hold the Power Key for 10 seconds 
3. Release the power key and reconnect your battery and power adapter 
4. Turn your Mac on 
5. Let boot as usual 

What is SMC anyway?
SMC stands for System Management Controller, a critical low-level component on Mac hardware. Much like the name sounds, the SMC controls and managements system hardware for power consumption, battery charging and battery function, thermal activity and fan activity, LED lighting for keyboards and displays, GPU functionality with video mode changes and video output, sleep and wake, and other core hardware functionality on a Mac.

Read More

GMAIL KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS CHEAT SHEET (WIN & MAC) 2017 VERSION

WINDOWS and MAC VERSION GMAIL KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS CHEAT SHEET

Src: makeawebsitehub.com

Read More

Best Mac for Gaming: GPUs in Macs

Here’s a quick guide to the various GPUs.

Intel Integrated Graphics:
Intel HD Graphics 5000 (1.4GHz Mac Mini)
Intel HD Graphics 5300 (MacBook 2015 edition)
Intel HD Graphics 6000 (MacBook Air, 21.5-inch iMac/1.6GHz)
Intel Iris 5100 (2.6GHz/2.8GHz Mac Mini)
Intel Iris 6100 (13-inch MacBook Pro)
Intel Iris Pro 5200 (2.2GHz MacBook Pro)
Intel Iris Pro 6200 (21.5-inch iMac/2.8GHz, 21.5-inch Retina iMac) 

Discrete Graphics:
AMD Radeon R9 M370X (2.5GHz MacBook Pro)
AMD Radeon R9 M380/2GB VRAM (27-inch iMac/3.2GHz)
AMD Radeon R9 M390/2GB VRAM (27-inch iMac/3.2GHz)
AMD Radeon R9 M395/2GB VRAM (27-inch iMac/3.3GHz)
Dual AMD FirePro D300/2x2GB VRAM (Quad-Core MacPro)
Dual AMD FirePro D500/2x3GB VRAM (Six-Core MacPro)

Read More

How to Mac Thunderbolt Firmware Update

Follow these steps to make sure that the update applied successfully:

1. Choose About This Mac from the Apple () menu.
2. Click System Report.
3. Click Thunderbolt in the list on the left and find the Thunderbolt Display section. The Firmware Version should be 26.2 and the Port Micro Firmware Version should be 2.0.7 after the update.

After installing Thunderbolt Firmware Update 1.2:

1. Thunderbolt ports may not work.
2. Target Display Mode may no longer work.
3. The update may keep reappearing as available for download.

How to resolve

1. Shutdown your computer.
2. Disconnect all Thunderbolt devices.
3. Wait 10 seconds.
4. If you are using a Mac mini with a Thunderbolt display, reconnect the Thunderbolt display directly to your computer via the Thunderbolt port. Do not connect other Thunderbolt devices at this time.
5. Restart your computer.
6. If the Thunderbolt Firmware Update 1.2 is offered, download and install it and restart your computer when asked. If the Thunderbolt Update is not offered, the update has installed correctly.
7. Reconnect all Thunderbolt devices.

Read More

How to reset Mac SMC, PRAM, NVRAM

SMC Reset

1. Shut down the computer.
2. Unplug the computer's power cord from both the wall and computer.
3. Wait 15 seconds.
4. Attach the computers power cable.
5. Wait another 5 seconds and press the power button to turn on the computer.

PRAM Reset

1. Shut down the computer.
2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
3. Turn on the computer.
4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
6. Release the keys.

NVRAM Reset

1. Shut down your Mac.
2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. 
3. Turn on your Mac.
4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys immediately after you hear the startup sound.
5. Hold these keys until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for a second time.
6. Release the keys.

After resetting NVRAM, you may need to reconfigure settings for speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, and time zone information.

Read More

Top 10 Mac Data Recovery Tools That Can Efficiently Restore Missing, Deleted or Corrupted Files

Though Mac computers are considered to be more stable, they are still not 100% safe from virus and corruption, which can cause missing files. Furthermore, data may also be lost if you reformatted drives or accidentally deleted data. You can still restore your files by using a powerful Mac data recovery program. Here are some of the best tools that you can use.

10. Disk Doctors Mac Data Recovery

Disk Doctors is a powerful and easy to use tool for recovering files. Whether the drive was reformatted, folders were accidentally deleted or files were corrupted, this software can help recover your data. You can get this for $179. When you use this program, you can choose which drive to scan. You may also choose to scan specific folders within a drive. This is faster and more convenient especially if you are trying to restore files only on a specific location. Aside from your computer’s hard drive, it can also recover files from external drives attached to your computer like memory card from digital camera or mobile and USB flash drive. However, the brands that it supports are only limited. This includes G-drive, LaCie, Maxtor, Seagate and iOmega.

9. EaseUS

EaseUS offers a safe, effective and easy way of restoring all kinds of missing files including documents, music, photos and videos. It does not cause damage to the recovered files. It can work on formatted disks, deleted files, partitioned drives and corrupted drives, files and folders due to virus or other reasons. It also supports recovery for other types of storage like Mp3 and Mp4 players, external hard drive, digital camera and memory cards. It offers preview of files before proceeding with the recovery so you can check on their quality and decide if you want to restore them. There is a free version for this tool, which you can use without a cost. There are also paid versions that offer more features including creating bootable disk and technical support.

8. Boomerang Data Recovery

For $99.95, you can get this software that can recover corrupted, missing or deleted files. It has a user friendly interface, which makes it convenient to use even for those that are not computer savvy. It can recover files from hard drives, as well as external drives. Aside from its data recovery feature, it also has a built-in backup feature that lets you backup your files easily. This is perfect if you are planning to reformat your computer or if you just want to make sure that you have a backup copy of your files. Its help feature will also aid in familiarizing yourself with the tool; though as mentioned, it is straightforward and easy to use. It also offers live chant and phone support in case you would like to talk to an expert.

7. Disk Drill

Another free tool that you can use for restoring your files is Disk Drill. Recover any missing data from your hard drive, whether it’s internal or external. This program can still recover even those that cannot be detected by the computer. If you accidentally deleted photos or music on your computer, you can still get them back by scanning it using this software. If you have partitioned your Mac and data went missing, do not fret as Disk Drill can restore these files. Even missing music, video and data on your iPod can be recovered by the program. Paid versions of this tool are also available.

6. Virtual Lab

Starting at $39.95, you can get this tool that you can use for data recovery on your Mac computer. Whatever the reason is for the missing data, this program can successfully recover it for you. It works on formatted disks, deleted files, corrupted files and drives that would not mount. It has a simple user interface that would tell you instantly what the options are for. It also recovers data from external disks, flash drives and memory cards.

5. Data Recovery Guru

Deleted or missing files are not gone forever. With the use of Data Recovery Guru, you can still have access to them, whether they were accidentally deleted or they were corrupted. It works on hard drives connected to your Mac; even those that cannot be detected by the computer. It can also restore data from digital camera, media player, mobile phones and other devices. It is easy to use as it has an interface similar to finder. The difference is that the files that it shows you are deleted or missing files from the drive or folder you selected.

4. Data Rescue 3

This data recovery tool is available at $99. It does not attempt to repair drives, which can sometimes cause more harm than good. Instead, it focuses on recovering missing, corrupted and deleted files and restoring to the best quality possible, then saving them on a new destination. It can restore files on drives that were corrupted and those that would not mount. It can also recover data from external storage that were reformatted or have missing files. It offers technical support via phone and e-mail, so you know that an expert will be there for you when you need their help.

3. R-Studio

For $79.99, you can get this powerful data recovery software for your Mac. This is also available for Windows and Linux users. It can recover deleted, corrupted and missing data from corrupted or formatted drives. Aside from restoring data from internal and external hard drives, it can also recover all types of files from other storages including memory card, flash drive and digital camera. It also offers a feature for processing bad sectors, backup, recovery disk imaging and driver recovery using LAN or the Internet.

2. TechTool Pro

This is the complete tool that you would need to ensure the efficiency of your computer. It does not just recover deleted or missing data but it also offers other great features that will be useful for you. You don’t need to be a techie to keep your computer in perfect condition. It offers diagnostic and repair, which can automatically find and fix errors on your computer. It can also rebuild damaged hard drives, as well as an emergency startup partition, clone volumes and monitor LAN. You can get this software starting at $99.99.

1. Stellar Phoenix Mac Recovery

Get this recovery data software for $99.00. This is a trusted program for restoring inaccessible, missing or deleted data. Whatever type and file format you are looking for, this tool can effectively recover them, even when the disk is not read by the computer. It does not just restore files from your hard drive, but from other drives connected to your computer including iPod, flash drive and digital camera. It offers preview while the scan is still ongoing.

Read More

How to use a second monitor with MAC

• Click on Apple icon top left of the primary display
• Click “System Preferences” then “Displays”
• Once clicked you will see a dialogue window on each monitor detailing the available resolutions, arrangement and orientation options.
• Start by clicking on “Arrangement” to correctly align the monitors in relation to one another. The primary one is the one with the white bar across the top. You can change it by simply selecting the white bar and dragging it to the second display.  You will immediately notice a temporary red border on the screen indicating it is the primary.
• Resolution is usually automatically set to the highest level, but in some cases you might want to go to a lower level for larger text and icon display.
• Color calibration is step-by-step process that the OS will walk you through, giving you easy-to-follow instructions for industry accurate contrast, colors and brightness.

You can also change which monitor becomes the primary display – the one with the full-time menu bar – which is found across the very top of the screen.

Notes: Some folks use a second monitor for tradeshow displays or presentations. You can click on “Mirror Displays” in the arrangement menu so the second monitor displays exactly what you see on the primary. Adjust orientation by clicking on the “Rotation” button.  For quicker access to these settings, simply click on “Show displays in menu bar” and a display icon will reside in the top right of the primary monitor.

Read More

Reset your Mac OS X password without an installer disc

Reset 10.5 Leopard & 10.6 Snow Leopard password

1. Power on or restart your Mac.
2. At the chime (or grey screen if your chime is turned off), hold down Command+S on your keyboard to enter single-user mode.
3. This step is optional, but it’s a good idea because it checks the consistency of the hard disk before moving on. At the prompt, type fsck -fy and press Enter/Return. Wait for the checks to complete before going to the next step.
4. Type mount -uw / and press Enter.
5. Type launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist and press Enter.
6. Type ls /Users and press Enter. This lists all of the usernames on the computer – helpful if you don’t know or remember what these are.
7. Type dscl . -passwd /Users/username password and replace “username” with one of the users displayed in the previous step. Replace “password” with a new password of your choice. Press Enter.
8. Type reboot and press Enter.

Reset 10.4 Tiger password

1. Power on or restart your Mac.
2. At the chime (or grey screen if your chime is turned off), hold down Command+S on your keyboard to enter single-user mode.
3. Type sh /etc/rc and press Enter/Return.
4. Type passwd username and replace “username” with the short name of the user account for which you’d like to reset the password.
5. Type your desired password and press Enter. It won’t show itself on the screen, so be careful what you type. You will most likely have to enter it again to confirm.
6. Type reboot and press Enter.

Tricking your Mac into creating a new user account

1. Power on or restart your Mac (should work for any Mac OS X system).
2. At the chime (or grey screen if your chime is turned off), hold down Command+S on your keyboard to enter single-user mode.
3. This step is optional, but it’s a good idea because it checks the consistency of the hard disk before moving on. At the prompt, type fsck -fy and press Enter/Return. Wait for the checks to complete before going to the next step.
4. Type mount -uw / and press Enter.
5. Type rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone and press Enter.
6. Type shutdown -h now and press Enter.

Read More

Free photo editors for Mac OSX

I have been struggling with editing photos recently and of course i am familiar with both iphoto and preview which comes preinstalled with every mac. Nonethless i was always in search for one good free photo editing software to move one step further, from the perspective of web designer. I really cant afford to pay commercial softwares such as photoshop, illustrator for my mac.

I have listed some of the free photo editing softwares, which are totally free and can be downloaded. Although initially it would be tough to get used to new interfaces of these softwares until you get used to. From what i have seen seashore is easy to use and i have been using it a lot lately. Gimp for mac is also good, but i felt difficulty working with it as i am so used to photoshop interface.

Seashore
http://seashore.sourceforge.net


Free open source image editor for Mac OSX.

Inkscape
http://inkscape.org


Free open source vector graphics editor for Mac OSX, similar to corel draw or illustrator.

Paint Brush
http://paintbrush.sourceforge.net


A free paint program for Mac OS X just like MS Paint in Windows or MacPaint. It is a simple and handy tool for editing.

Gimp
http://www.gimp.org


Gimp is a FREE GNU image manipulation program available for windows, mac and linux. It is often the best free alternative for most commercial versions of popular image editing and photo softwares like photoshop or illustrator.

Xee
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/19978/xee


Lightweight image viewer and browser, just similar to preview tool for Mac. It is a free software.

PixGen
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/13363/pixen


Very powerful innovative graphics editor to Mac with advanced features. It is free software for mac users.

Chocoflop
http://www.chocoflop.com


Free image editor for Macs. It is a free software and since the project has been discontinued, the software works well only on Leopard systems. It may not work or crash in snow leopard or lion.

If you are searching for a photoshop alternative and willing to spend some money (low cost paid), i definitely recommend http://www.pixelmator.com. It fast and really good and powerful image editor for Mac OSX. It is the best and low cost alternative to photoshop for mac users.

Read More

Free Mac data recovery software

All file systems are supported: you can run Mac data recovery on HFS and HFS+ (journaled/extended), FAT16 and FAT32, NTFS, EXT3, EXT4 and actually any other file system, or even on disks that were formatted or initialized

Disk Drill is capable of data recovery on Mac OS from any mountable media: internal and external hard disks, USB flash drives and memory cards, digital cameras and camcorders, iPods Classic, other mass storage devices and disk images, etc.

Here is the great website for Mac data recovery software called Disk Drill
Hard Drive Recovery
File Recovery for Mac 
Recover Memory Card 
Partition Recovery 
Mac Photo Recovery 
iPod Recovery 
And more.

Read More

How to Reboot a Mac Without a Disk

If an application on your Mac isn't working properly, you might want to reboot the computer to see if that solves the problem. You may also need to reboot your Mac after installing a new application or a software update. You don't need a disk to reboot your Mac-you can accomplish this by selecting a command with your mouse, or pressing keys on the keyboard.

Step 1: Click on the Apple icon at the top left of the screen with your mouse, then click "Restart." A dialog box will appear, asking whether you are sure you want to restart your computer. Click "Restart" in the dialog box. Before restarting, the Mac will quit all applications. Any applications that are running will prompt you to save changes to open documents. The Mac will shut down, then reboot automatically.

Step 2: Press the "Control," "Command" and "Eject" keys simultaneously if you want to use the keyboard to reboot your Mac. This command will quit all running applications after prompting you to save changes in any open documents, and then the Mac will reboot.

Step 3: Press the "Power" button on your Mac and hold it for at least five seconds to reboot if your system is frozen and you are having trouble rebooting using the mouse or keyboard. You will not have an opportunity to save any open documents using this method.

Step 4: Unplug the Mac's power cord from the wall if you are unable to reboot using the first three methods. Plug the power cord back in, then press the "Power" button to reboot.

Read More

How to Create a Mac Recovery Disc

Keeping your Mac tuned up or being able to recover from an emergency when it appears to be malfunctioning requires keeping a rescue disk on hand. Unlike older Macs that ran on versions of the Macintosh operating system before Mac OS X, today's Intel Macs don't allow you to burn a bootable disc on DVD to use as a rescue disk. Whether you rely on an external or internal hard drive or a removable external storage medium, you can create a resource to help you keep your Mac in tip-top running condition.

Items you will need
Snow Leopard installer DVD
External hard drive, additional internal hard drive or USB flash drive

Step 1: Choose the medium you want to use for your recovery disk. While Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard allows you to repair your Mac's hard drive using disk utilities installed with your operating system and running from the drive you are trying to repair, this may not help you solve the full range of problems that can affect your system. Choose a second internal hard drive, external hard drive or removable USB flash memory device (minimum 8 GB capacity) for optimal flexibility.

Step 2: Make sure the drive you plan to use for your recovery disk is plugged in, powered up and ready to go. You should see its icon in the Finder's drive list.

Step 3: Place your Mac OS X Snow Leopard installer DVD in the optical media drive of your Mac. Once the Snow Leopard disc mounts to the desktop of your system, double-click on the Mac OS X installer icon to launch it.

Step 4: Set the target disk for your Snow Leopard installer to the drive you have decided to use for your recovery disk. Choose a minimum installation of Mac OS X Snow Leopard if you are installing to a removable flash drive. Click "Customize" to choose which operating system options to install.

Step 5: Apply any updates to the operating system on your recovery disk once your Snow Leopard installation is complete. If you already have downloaded updates to apply to your start-up drive, use those installers to update your recovery disk's OS installation. Download the updates from Apple's website if you do not have the necessary installers.

Step 6: Install any optional third-party disk-repair tools you wish to be able to run from your recovery disk. Such utilities may offer you capabilities beyond the repair and verification functions available in Snow Leopard's Disk Utility application.

Step 7: Boot your Mac from your recovery disk and run disk repair tools. Hold down the "Option" key as soon as your Mac starts up and wait for the start-up disk selection screen to come up on your monitor. Choose your recovery disk as the start-up drive instead of your regular boot drive.

Step 8: Run Apple's Disk Utility and any optional third-party tools you installed on your recovery disk. Restart your Mac from your regular boot drive when your repairs are complete.

Read More

Completely Uninstall Software under Mac OS X

Uninstalling software under Mac OS X is generally a straightforward procedure – just delete the program from the Applications folder. Few vendors offer uninstallers on the Mac, and generally they’re not necessary. Most programs don’t run background components or alter system settings files (like the Registry on Windows), and leaving old preferences and support files on the hard drive generally doesn’t do much harm.

But if you are trying to remove an old or corrupt component, reinstall software to change a serial number, or just free up disk space, removing all components of the old application can be important. These include the application itself, preferences and support items, and sometimes hidden files or kernel extensions. Anyone who’s had problems installing an Adobe CS application or removing Symantec AntiVirus will appreciate how hard it can be to fully remove old software.

Applications

Be default Mac OS X software is stored in the Applications folder on your hard drive. Most programs are single icons (iTunes, Firefox), while others contain one or more folders full of items (Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Office). You can also occasionally find applications on the desktop, if dragged there during installation or moved from the Applications folder.

Drag the program’s icon or folder to the Trash to begin the uninstall process. If you are not the user who originally installed the software, or your are not an admin user on your Macintosh, you will need to enter an administrator’s name and password to continue.

Note: the icon for most programs is actually a bit of an illusion. What you’re seeing on the hard drive is an application package, a folder full of items including the executable program code and supporting files. When a package is labelled with the .app extension, it appears as a single, launchable icon in the Finder. If you’re curious whats inside, right-click (or control-click) on the icon and select Show Package Contents.

Preferences and Application Support Files

There are two locations on your hard drive, both named Library, where programs store their preferences and supporting files. The first Library is at the top level of your hard drive, the second is inside your Home Folder. Removing items from both these locations is necessary to completely uninstall software.



Start with the Top Level Library on your hard drive /Library. You are looking to remove any files or folders which contain the name of the program (Acrobat, Word) or the vendor (Adobe, Microsoft) in their names. Search the following locations:

/Library
/Library/Application Support

In these two locations you’re looking for non-Apple folders full of items: Adobe, Microsoft, etc.

/Library/Preferences

Inside Preferences you may find single files, folders full of items - Adobe, Microsoft – along with .plist documents usually starting with com – com.Adobe.Acrobat.plist, com.microsoft.Word.plist

/Library/PreferencePanes
/Library/StartupItems

Most software does not use Preference Panes or Startup Items, but some do, particularly items which control system behavior or keep background processes running

Next, remove any similarly named items you find inside the User Library inside your Home Folder ~/Library in the same set of folders:

~/Library
~/Library/Application Support
~/Library/Preferences
~/Library/PreferencePanes
~/Library/StartupItems

For the vast majority of applications that’s all you need to remove. Empty the Trash to complete the process. If you get a message that an item is “in use and can’t be deleted” reboot the Mac, then try again.

Kernel Extensions and Hidden Files

If you’ve deleted everything from the Applications and Library folders and some vestiges of old software still remain, you may be dealing with a kernel extension or hidden file. These items will not be obvious to find, doing a Google search about the components for your specific software situation is highly recommended.

Software that uses background processing – anti-virus and security programs, printers, device sync software – often install one or more kernel extensions. If your old installation of Symantec Utilities keeps telling you it’s out of date six years after you’ve deleted the program, chances are there’s still an old kernel extension loading up.

Warning: kernel extensions are necessary for correct operation of your system. Do not move or delete any items unless you have the ability to redo changes made by booting from a second Macintosh or drive and restoring changes made to the first hard drive.

Kernel extensions are located in /System/Library/Extensions and end with the extension .kext. Again you are looking for items with the name of the program or vendor in the name. For example, with old copies of troublesome Symantec software you might find SymEvent.kext and SymOSXKernelUtilities.kext lurking on your system.

Drag any probable items to the desktop first to make a copy, then move the original to the trash. Don’t empty the trash yet – reboot and see if the issue is fixed. If not, restore the item and try another.

Hidden files are items whose name starts with a period (.) They don’t display in the Finder by default. Programs sometimes use hidden files for authentication purposes, many are located in your home folder. You can use Terminal (inside Applications/Utilities) to list the contents of the directory in question and delete the offending item.

The following set of commands will navigate to the home folder (~), list all contents, then delete a hidden file named .parallels_settings:

%> cd ~
%> ls -al
%> sudo rm .parallels_settings

Using sudo to do the deletion will require you to enter an admin password when prompted.

Read More

How to use Gtalk in Macintosh

You can use iChat for Google Talk as well as AIM, Mobile Me and Jabber.
When you create new account for iChat, just select Google Talk and use your Google account to sign in.
Please see below screenshot.

But if I am not wrong, you can only use voice and video chat with iChat for the others who are using iChat in other words, people with Mac. You can chat with text by typing though.

Adium is also another good alternative and it supports multiple IM including MSN, Yahoo, Facebook, QQ and more.

If you want a good voice chat, you can choose Skype which is available in Mac.

I second to Lionslayer's advice, you can simply use Gmail in web browser for voice and video chat.
Visit http://www.google.com/chat/video from you Mac and install the plug-in.

Video and voice plug-in

• Chat within Gmail, iGoogle, and orkut
• All on the web
• PC and Mac

Learn more »

Install video chat plug-in

Requires Windows XP + or
Mac OS X 10.4 +
Linux

Google Talk software

• Chat from your desktop
• Send and receive files
• PC only

Learn more »

Download Google Talk

Requires Windows XP or later

Read More

Mac: Recovering a lost root password

1. Click Restart at the login window
2. While the computer is restarting, hold down "Command-S" until you see text scrolling through the window. This boots the computer into single user mode.
3. At the Localhost% prompt type:

   /sbin/mount -uw /
   /sbin/SystemStarter

   You will then see various services starting up.
   
4. When the Localhost% prompt reappears, type:

   passwd root

   It will then ask you to type the new root password twice, so do so.
   
5. After entering the new password, type:

   reboot

At the login window, enter username root wih the new password. Once you are connected, you can use the Multiple Users application (/Applications/Utilities) to change your normal user's password, or create a new user account.

Read More

You totally forgot the password to log on to your Mac

Let’s say you totally forgot the password to log on to your Mac. Or maybe you purchased a used Mac from someone else and they’ve got it locked down. There are numerous ways to reset a password with no OS X discs.

Reset 10.5 Leopard & 10.6 Snow Leopard password

1. Power on or restart your Mac.
2. At the chime (or grey screen if your chime is turned off), hold down Command+S on your keyboard to enter single-user mode.
3. This step is optional, but it’s a good idea because it checks the consistency of the hard disk before moving on. At the prompt, type fsck -fy and press Enter/Return. Wait for the checks to complete before going to the next step.
4. Type mount -uw / and press Enter.
5. Type launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist and press Enter.
6. Type ls /Users and press Enter. This lists all of the usernames on the computer – helpful if you don’t know or remember what these are.
7. Type dscl . -passwd /Users/username password and replace “username” with one of the users displayed in the previous step. Replace “password” with a new password of your choice. Press Enter.
8. Type reboot and press Enter.

Reset 10.4 Tiger password

1. Power on or restart your Mac.
2. At the chime (or grey screen if your chime is turned off), hold down Command+S on your keyboard to enter single-user mode.
3. Type sh /etc/rc and press Enter/Return.
4. Type passwd username and replace “username” with the short name of the user account for which you’d like to reset the password.
5. Type your desired password and press Enter. It won’t show itself on the screen, so be careful what you type. You will most likely have to enter it again to confirm.
6. Type reboot and press Enter.

Tricking your Mac into creating a new user account

1. Power on or restart your Mac (should work for any Mac OS X system).
2. At the chime (or grey screen if your chime is turned off), hold down Command+S on your keyboard to enter single-user mode.
3. This step is optional, but it’s a good idea because it checks the consistency of the hard disk before moving on. At the prompt, type fsck -fy and press Enter/Return. Wait for the checks to complete before going to the next step.
4. Type mount -uw / and press Enter.
5. Type rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone and press Enter.
6. Type shutdown -h now and press Enter.

The third method of resetting your Mac’s password requires some additional explanation. Rather than simply changing the password like the previous two methods do, this one fools the operating system into believing it has never been started before. This means when you restart the machine, it will take you through the entire setup & registration process all over again. Do not worry, all of your pre-existing data is still available. Just continue with this process and do not choose the option to transfer or migrate information to the Mac.

Once you’re done, log in with your new admin account and go to System Preferences > Accounts. You may have to click on the lock icon in the lower-left corner before making changes here. You should see your original user account(s) in the left column. Try clicking on one of them to convert it to a standard user account (uncheck “Allow user to administer this computer”) and change the password. You should be able to successfully log in to that account now and access all of your files and programs. If you want, you can log back in with your new admin account and re-check the “Allow user to administer this computer” option in System Preferences to grant admin privileges to the original user again.

That should cover it! As always, remember messing with single-user mode and Terminal is risky and may lead to trouble if you make mistakes. Considering you’re already locked out of the computer, though, you’ll probably be willing to take your chances at this point.

One last thing… if you have a Keychain Access password, you will probably need to reset that as well. You can do this by selecting “login” under Keychains on the left and choosing Delete from the Edit menu. You’ll lose everything in the Keychain, but you’ll now be able to start fresh and add new ones.

Read More

Clean your Mac with Mackeeper

Download MacKeeper to your Mac.

Follow two easy steps to install MacKeeper.

Drag the MacKeeper icon from the Applications folder to your Dock.

Read More

MAC: Hide The MenuBar

I think this is a cool little trick, its designed to be used when developers are designing apps. In a nut shell, with a simple line of text, you can make specific apps of your choosing hide the dock or menu bar when they are run. If you have an app that you find needs more space on screen you can do this trick to hide the menu bar or dock. For once this trick doesn’t use Terminal.

This trick is going to use property key references, this is basically a line of code that means something to your system. When the app is run, it will check the property references and act upon them. Its kind of like an API call you find in some programs or websites, its a small bit of code, that runs a larger bit of code. The larger bit of code is run by the system and aides in making the developers job a lot easier.

To hide the screen element pick and application of your choice (a simple one to test it out on). In Finder right click on the app and select “Show Package Contents” and navigate to Contents and open “Info.plist” in TextEdit. I have mentioned that this is a long list of property key references, so don’t change any unless you know what you are doing.

In this file, near the top, there should be a piece of text that says <dict>, underneath this add the following making sure all of the text is present.

<key>LSUIPresentationMode</key>
<integer>4</integer>

Hit save an open up your selected program. You should notice that the menu bar and dock have disappeared. They are in fact hiding and will re-appear when you hover your mouse over them.

This trick will behave differently depending on the number that is the “integer”:

• 0 = Default, nothing will happen.
• 1 = Should only hide the dock, although this didn’t work for me.
• 2 = Doesn’t seem to do anything (probably does).
• 3 = Will hide the menu bar and dock and wont show them when the mouse hovers over.
• 4 = Hides the menu bar and dock, and will appear when you hover over them.

You can find more specific information about this property key reference on the Apple website. I hope you have fun with this little trick. If you ever want to get back original functionality, simply delete the two lines you have just added.

Read More

How to solve slow Mac performance

1. Restart your Mac

Granted the Mac can be turned on for weeks or months without any serious problems, every now and then a restart is recommended. It is usually applications that "leak" memory that in the end makes the computer feel slow and sluggish. So if you haven't already please start this guide with a restart. I promise this guide will be here when you come back online again.

2. Check your Startup Items

When you install applications during the time you use your Mac some of them might add themselves in Startup Items. This causes them to start at every login and thus take up a little memory and a little CPU usage. If you do the following: Apple Menu > System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items. You will see how many startup items you have. If you want to remove some of them just click the name of the startup item and then hit the minus button. Just make sure you know what you remove so you do not remove any critical system component.

3. Clean up in System Preferences

While we still have System Preferences open take a look under the section called Other. If you have a lot of items down there there is a chance that some of them is not in use by you. They might be left overs from some application you might have tried out, or something else. You should clean out these too. In most cases you can turn it off from the preference pane itself. If that doesn't work you will need to remove it from the folder ~/Library/PreferencePanes.

4. Clean up the Dashboard

All these widgets are nice to have but they also take up valuable resources from your computer. Make sure you have no unnecessary widgets running. If you do, close them down to get a little more system resources. Remember that each widget creates a background process that use some of the available system resources.

You can actually close down the dashboard completely if you seldom or never use it. This requires some "hacking" in the terminal. If you want to do this, open up terminal and type the following:

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES
and
killall Dock

This will close down the dashboard completely and not load it at all. If you want to re-activate it again you replace the YES with NO, and it will be activated again. I personally have the dashboard inactive.

5. Make Time Machine backup when YOU want

Time Machine is a good backup solution. But it takes backup every single hour and if you work on heavy files it will be noticeable slow Mac performance when it starts the backup process. Time Machine apparently doesn't have settings that can enable you to start the backup off working hours but there are people that have solved this problem. If you read this you will learn how to change the backup interval to suit your needs.

6. Clean up your hard drive

Eventually your hard drive will fill up, it doesn't matter how big it is. Many people experience this and many also ask themselves where all the free space have gone? Maybe your iPhoto library starts to grow? Maybe you are editing some videos that takes up a lot of space, maybe you have imported a few new CDs in iTunes. Or you might have a lot of downloaded stuff you never got around to delete. What you need to know is that the Mac works best with a little free space to work with. Your Mac uses the free space on your hard drive as virtual memory and that memory is important for your Mac. Please make sure to delete unneeded files and alsoremember to empty your trash!. If you forget to empty the trash you will still have the free space problem and slow Mac performance.

7. Download Onyx, Now! (it is free)

Onyx verifies the Startup Disk and the structure of its System files, it also allows you to run miscellaneous tasks of system maintenance. It can clean the cache, repair system permissions and also execute maintenance scripts.

Onyx is recommended for every Mac owner. It is wise to run the application now and then (once a month probably) to keep your Mac in shape and in some cases to solve slow Mac performance.

8. Keep your Mac up to date

Once in a while Apple releases software updates. It is wise to install these because they often contain improvements. It can be security improvements or performance enhancements that can solve slow Mac performance in some cases. Even firmware updates in some cases. Also check if you can download updates to your already installed third party applications, this can also improve performance and stability.

I hope this guide has helped you to get your Mac in shape. As you can see there is a lot we can do ourselves with minimal of effort. Maybe this will save you that upgrade you thought of ;)

Slow Mac, Did You Solve It?

Did this article help you get your slow Mac faster again? If so, share with us what you did. Also if you did something not mentioned above.

Read More

How to Uninstall Programs on Mac?

Having a lot of junk inside your Mac computer can be very frustrating. It doesn’t help that your Mac is bringing a lot of useless files and a few hidden ones which cannot be traceable. Your Mac’s disk space is full – so when you open a certain program and slowly loads, it’s already time consuming on your part. You become unproductive in your work. If you don’t tend to this problem immediately, you’ll have to suffer with your Mac’s slow performance. The least you can do is to try fixing it and increase its performance level by uninstalling a couple of pointless programs and applications and a few hidden files which you failed to delete before.

Uninstalling is very essential especially if you want to resume your Mac’s speed. Once you get rid of bigger applications which are rarely used, this means that you are widening the free disk space, making more room for your Mac’s hard drive. If you can afford to buy an extra RAM or an HDD to transfer some of the files inside your Mac, the problem would have solved immediately. Still, a RAM and an extra hard drive costs a whole lot of money. You’ll be saving money instead if you erase those useless applications instead of letting them rot inside your Mac.

Use MacKeeper to Uninstall Apps on Your Mac  (Start Download Now)

Windows user uninstalls their programs using their Add/Remove program features – but Mac’s uninstalling process is totally different from Windows OS. It’s uncomplicated; even a Mac beginner can do it! All you need to do is drag the application to the trash bin. Still, this does not fully uninstall some programs because you need to find the additional files and manually delete them.

Two Kinds of Mac Programs

There are two types of programs inside your Mac: the bundled and the non-bundled programs. To determine where your program belongs to is when you right click the application and it will show you if it’s bundled or non-bundled.

The bundled programs are really easy to uninstall since you only need to transfer the application to the trash bin. This is the easy part because you don’t have to sweat out and figure out where these additional files (support files, shortcuts, other preferences) are located. Your Mac’s system will do the work and locate it for you. The application, along with its binary files, will be properly deleted as long as you perform the right method.

On the other hand, the un-bundled programs will be too difficult for you to uninstall. You can perform the same method – dragging the files to the trash bin. However, not everything will be deleted so you need to do additional work and clean the files by manually deleting a few of its settings and small files. You’ll be lucky if you manage to locate the right files and clean them. But what if you cannot find them? This becomes a problem because these files continue to take up space on your hard drive.

Manually removing all those hidden and extra files takes a lot of work. To lessen your burden, you may need a third-party application to make your job a bit easier and get better results. In this case, you need to learn some of the third-party installers which might be of great help to your Mac.

1.       MacKeeper

The MacKeeper (Click Here to Start MacKeeper Download) is one of the most popular third-party applications for Mac. It can perform several functions, such as scanning for viruses using its own anti-virus, detecting theft by simply locating the Mac from its location, undeleting or restoring files, perform system maintenance to free storage space, and the most important, deleting files and locating those small files for you. This software is worth your budget because all other features and essential tools are bundled in this single utility software. It wouldn’t hurt to invest on MacKeeper if you want to make your Mac fully operational.

2.       AppCleaner Uninstaller Software

The good thing about this third-party freeware is that it quickly identifies leftover and small files that were left behind from the programs that you uninstalled. It automatically removes these files from your hard drive. You may drag the application that you want to uninstall through the AppCleaner icon or simply use the freeware’s search feature for all installed programs, widgets, and plug-ins before you choose the apps that you need to delete.

3.       Mac OSX Uninstaller

One of the native software for Mac OS X, it shows you a screen shot of the changes you made in a disk or folder from the file system and compare the two dates before you decide to uninstall the program. You don’t necessarily have to use this method because you can use the software to automatically uninstall an application.

This software comes with a free 15-day trial period before you can buy the full version.

4.       AppZapper Uninstall Software

This is another tool that you can use to uninstall those useless programs on your Mac. This software is very similar to the AppCleaner software. However, this is not a freeware so you can only use its limited features from the trial version until you are required to purchase the full version.

5.       AppTrap Uninstaller Software

The good thing about this uninstaller software is that it is free ware, so there’s no limit of its usage. This open source application can uninstall selected programs and identifies its supporting files, preferences, and system files. You can also add its preference pane to your system so it will automatically detect the files that you wish to delete and transfer it to your trash. It also gives you suggestions if you want to delete the program’s associated files while uninstalling the main program.

When choosing the right third party application to uninstall programs from your Mac, you should be careful of what kind of software you are using. Some of these software may cost a lot of money so its unwise to spend if you don’t even have the budget for it. However, if manually uninstalling those un-bundled files turns out to be confusing and frustrating, investing in one of the software is the best decision that you can make. Your Mac will perform faster once you get rid of useless applications.

Read More