System Preferences

First Time Setup

The first thing you should do is update your system. To do that go: Apple menu () > About This Mac > Software Update.

Also upgrade your OS to the latest version to have a more secure OS. macOS upgrades are usually free so you might as well keep your machine up to date.

If this is a new computer there are a couple tweaks you could make to the System Preferences. These settings are all optional, consider them suggestions. Always choose the setting that makes the most sense to you.

Users & Groups

Trackpad

Dock

Finder

  • General
    • Change New finder window show to open in your Google Drive Folder
  • Sidebar
    • Add Home and your Code Directory
    • Uncheck all Shared boxes
  • Remove the Display and Bluetooth icons

Spotlight

  • Uncheck fonts, images, files etc.

Accounts

  • Add an iCloud & Google Accountß account and sync Calendar, Find my Mac, Contacts etc.

User Defaults

  • Enable repeating keys by pressing and holding down keys for terminal & visual studio code: defaults delete -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled && defaults write -app Terminal ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false && defaults write com.microsoft.VSCode ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false (and restart any app that you need to repeat keys in)
  • Show all hidden files defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

How to write to NTFS on macOS Yosemite (10.10) and El Capitan (10.11)

1) Install Homebrew and Homebrew Cask

Instructions here.

2) Update Homebrew formulae

$ brew update

3) Install osxfuse

If you are on macOS El Capitan (10.11), install the (3.x.x) from the repo.

$ brew cask install osxfuse

4) Install ntfs-3g

$ brew install ntfs-3g

5) If you are on macOS El Capitan (10.11), temporarily disable System Integrity Protection

  • Reboot and hold CMD + R to get in recovery mode
  • Open the terminal and type:
$ csrutil disable
  • Reboot normally
$ sudo mv /sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs.original
$ sudo ln -s /usr/local/sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs

7) If you are on macOS El Capitan (10.11), re-enable System Integrity Protection

  • Reboot and hold CMD + R to get in recovery mode
  • Open the terminal and type:
$ csrutil enable
  • Reboot normally

results matching ""

    No results matching ""