Setting Up Your Mac

Once you get your new Mac, I think there are a few things you might want to do before installing your applications and getting down to work. Depending on your own personal preferences, all the tips listed might not apply to you. But I think the fundamental nature of these tips will help out most individuals.

Pick an Ideal Brightness level - It’s nice to have a consistent display. So it’s a good idea to pick a brightness level for your display and stick to it. That way, your operating system and pictures have some degree of consistency. I like to go into the energy saver settings in system preferences and under the options section for battery uncheck “slightly dim display when using this power source.” In doing this, your backlight settings will be the same even when you’re running on battery power. Unless you’re interested maximum battery life, leave this item checked-off. Also under energy saver, I like to uncheck “automatically reduce the brightness of the display before display sleep.” I’ve heard from many people that this feature annoys them.

Calibrate your Screen - If you want a more accurate display, you need to calibrate it. In todays market, you can purchase hardware calibrators for less than 100 bucks. If you’re not willing to spend that much, you can also calibrate your display manually. Go into the displays section of system preferences and under the color section, there is a calibrate button. Click on it and follow the directions. It won’t be as accurate as a hardware calibrator, but it will get you into the general ballpark.

Optimize Your Keyboard Settings - Go into the keyboard and mouse section of system preferences. Under the keyboard section is a checkbox called “use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys.” Activate this setting. Without this setting enabled, you might accidentally change your backlight and volume settings in the normal course of typing on the keyboard. Now when you want access to these settings, you must also hold down the FN key.

Disable Automatic Login - In the security section of system preferences, go to the general section and turn on “disable automatic login.” Next time you boot in OS X, you will need to type in your user password in order to access the computer. It’s not a perfect method for security, but it does offer an extra layer of protection without adding too much inconvenience to the user.

Setup an Extra User Account - Under the accounts section of system preferences, setup up an extra account if you haven’t done so already. Should your default user account get messed up, at least you now have another way of getting into your computer. And for security purposes, try to limit the number of accounts that have administrative privileges.

Turn on the Firewall - It’s generally a good idea to turn this on. Doing so will help protect your computer from incoming network attacks. You can find it in the security section of your System Preferences. Also consider installing Little Snitch so you can also protect your computer from outgoing network attacks.

Disable Unneeded Services - While OS X has a good track record in regards to security, it doesn’t make sense to have file sharing turned on if you’re never going use it. That’s another hole a hacker might be able to exploit. So go into the sharing section of system preferences and turn off anything you’re not using.

Install Quicksilver or LaunchBar - Unless you absolutely hate using the keyboard, applications like Quicksilver and LaunchBar will change the way you use your Mac. Fundamentally, these programs allow you to access programs and data files by typing in a few keystrokes. Apple’s own Spotlight application offers a lot of the same functionality but I think these apps offer extra features that make them worthwhile. Check out one of these apps and watch your productivity skyrocket.