Setting Up Your New Mac

Opening the box your new Mac came in can be an exhilarating experience, especially if it's your first Mac. The real fun comes after you power the Mac on for the first time. Although you'll want to dive right in and start using your new Mac, it's worth taking a few minutes to configure it to meet your needs.

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• Guide to Setting Up an Ergonomic Desktop Computer Station

Although often overlooked in the rush to get a new Mac up and running, the proper ergonomic setup can mean the difference between long-term enjoyment and long-term pain.
Before setting up your desktop Mac, check out this guide of do's and don'ts. You may be surprised at how many don'ts are present in your current setup.

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• How to Ergonomically Set Up Your Laptop

If your new Mac is one of Apple's line of portable Macs, such as the MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, then you have some additional options for setting up a comfy work environment. Even though it's a portable, consider setting up a semi-permanent location for using it at home. This will let you enjoy the benefits of a well-planned workspace, while still letting you head out to the deck on those nice, warm evenings.
When you find yourself on the run with your portable Mac, the tips in this article can help you maximize its ergonomics. Your eyes, wrists, and back will thank you.

• Creating User Accounts on Your Mac

When you first start up your brand-new Mac, it will walk you through the process of creating an administrator account. While many individuals are satisfied with a single administrator account, additional user accounts can make your Mac more versatile.
A second administrator account can be helpful if your Mac has problems caused by software issues. An existing but unused administrator account will have all of the system defaults in place, and can make the troubleshooting process easier.
In addition to administrator accounts, you can create standard user accounts for family members. This will allow them to use the Mac but prevent them from being able to make changes to the system, other than changes to their own account.
You can also set up managed accounts, which are standard accounts with parental control options that can allow or deny access to certain applications, as well as control when and for how long the computer may be used. 

• Configure Your Mac's System Preferences

System preferences are the heart of the Mac. They determine how your Mac will work and what options are available; they also allow you to customize the user interface.
The Mac's system preferences are made up of individual preference panes. Apple supplies many preference panes, which let you configure your display, mouse, user accounts, security, and screen savers, among other options. Additional options are available through third-party applications. For instance, you may have a preference pane to configure Adobe's Flash Player or a third-party keyboard you added to your system.
If there's an aspect of your Mac that you'd like to customize, the system preferences are the place to start.

• Using the Finder on Your Mac

The Finder is Apple's method of accessing files, folders, and applications. If you're switching to the Mac from a Windows PC, you can think of the Finder as equivalent to Windows Explorer.
The Finder is very versatile, as well as one of the most customized applications on the Mac. If you're a new Mac user, it's worth taking the time to become familiar with the Finder, and all the things it can help you accomplish.

• Backing Up Your Mac

The Mac comes with a built-in backup system called Time Machine. Because Time Machine is so easy to use and works so well, I encourage everyone to use it as part of their backup strategy. Even if you do nothing more for backups than turn on Time Machine, you'll at least have the basics covered.
There are additional steps you can take to help ensure that if something goes terribly wrong, it will be a minor inconvenience rather than a major disaster. These steps include learning how to make clones of your startup drive, learning how to use other popular backup applications, and putting together an external hard drive or two for your backup needs.
Before you start using your Mac to store a lot of pictures, movies, music, and user documents, take the time to configure your backup system. 

• Using The Recovery Disk Assistant

The installation of OS X automatically creates a Recovery HD partition on the Mac's startup drive. This special partition is hidden from view but can be accessed by holding down the command + R keys when you boot your Mac. You can use the Recovery HD partition to repair your Mac or reinstall OS X.
One drawback of the Recovery HD partition is that it's located on the startup drive. If your startup drive should have a physical problem that causes it to fail, you won't be able to access the Recovery HD partition. You can manually create a copy of the Recovery HD partition on a second hard drive or a USB thumb drive, so that when things go really wrong, you can still boot your Mac and find out what's going on. More »

The initial install of OS X El Capitan files can take from 10 minutes to 45 minutes, depending on your Mac model and the type of drive installed. Screen shot courtesy of Coyote Moon, Inc.

• How to Perform a Clean Install of OS X El Capitan on Your Mac

 If you picked up a new Mac this holiday season, then it is likely to have come equipped with OS X El Capitan (10.11.x). You're not likely to need to perform a clean install of OS X anytime soon, but perhaps someday down the road, you will need to know how to restore your Mac to the state it was in when you first got it.
This installation guide will take you through the process and leave you with a fully setup and pristine copy of OS X El Capitan installed on your Mac. More »

Screen shot courtesy of Coyote Moon, Inc.

• Perform a Clean Install of OS X Yosemite on Your Mac's Startup Drive

OS X Yosemite, also known as OS X 10.10, is the first version of OS X that Apple has made available as a public beta before its final release. Yosemite offers a number of new features, including the Handoff service, which lets you pick up on your iOS device where you left off from on your Mac. More »

Courtesy of Coyote Moon, Inc.

• OS X Mavericks Installation Guides

OS X Mavericks (10.9.x) is the first free version of OS X from Apple, and as expected, it's experiencing a quick uptake in users. OS X Mavericks is primarily installed as an upgrade over an existing version of OS X, but you can also perform a clean install, removing all traces of the previous OS and any user data. More »

• OS X Mountain Lion Installation Guides

Mountain Lion (10.8.x) expects you to perform a simple upgrade install, and why not? This is the option many Mac users will select. It allows you to upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion while retaining all of your apps and user data; simple, quick, and easy.
But there are other choices available, including two different methods for performing a clean install. Both methods erase the destination drive, to ensure you have a clean install, without any leftovers from previous versions of the OS to bugger things up. Of course, that means more work for you; you'll have a lot of work to do, including installing all of your apps and any user data you want to keep. 

Courtesy of Apple

• OS X Lion Installation Guides

If you purchase a new Mac, it's likely to come with OS X Lion (10.7.x) pre-installed. If you pick up a used or refurbished Mac, it may have an earlier version of OS X. If that’s the case, you can upgrade to Lion if the Mac supports it.
Mac OS X Lion Minimum Requirements
Our installation guides, which cover performing a clean install and an upgrade install, as well as how to create bootable versions of OS X Lion on a flash drive or DVD, will also come in handy should you ever need to reinstall OS X Lion.