Tips for MacBook Air owners. How to reset MacBook Air to factory settings Getting started with macbook pro
If you have a Mac with a small display, adjusting applications so that everything is visible on the screen can sometimes take more time than actually working. Enough tolerating this! Today we will talk about how to free up maximum screen space for applications.
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How to automatically hide the menu bar
The menu bar contains the Apple menu (“apple” in the upper left corner), the active application menu and status icons (for example, time, Wi-Fi signal strength). If you think about it, we don’t always need this part of the macOS interface. If so, then why not turn it off and call it only when necessary?
1. Open System Settings(via the Apple menu, Dock icon, or Spotlight search).
2. Select a section Basic.
3. At the top of the screen, check the box next to the inscription Automatically hide and show menu bar.
The menu bar will immediately disappear. The next time it will appear only when you move the mouse cursor to the upper corner of the screen or click Ctrl + F2.
How to Automatically Hide the Dock
The Dock is a panel with application icons (Finder, Safari, Mail, etc.) at the bottom of the screen. There you can also add icons of programs that you often use, folders and documents. Very convenient - but the Dock often takes up a lot of space, and it’s difficult to switch it to “on demand” operation, i.e. displaying it only when you need it can save you a lot of desktop space.
To do this:
1. Open System Settings.
2. Select the Dock section. By the way, you don’t have to go into system settings - just click ⌘Cmd + ⌥Option (Alt) + D.
3. Check the box next to the item Automatically show or hide the Dock.
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After this, the Dock will automatically disappear from the screen. Now he will appear only when the mouse cursor is at the bottom of the screen, and will again go into hiding after you click on the desired icon.
If you don’t want to hide the Dock, you can make it smaller (Size slider) or make small icons enlarge when you hover over them with the cursor (check the box next to Magnify). Finally, the Dock can be moved from the bottom of the screen to the left or right side - perhaps there it will not interfere with you as much.
Full screen mode
If you want to focus on one application and not be distracted by anything else, activate full screen mode! It automatically hides both the menu bar and the Dock, while the program window expands to full screen. If necessary, you can reach them with the cursor (as in the previous two cases).
There are two ways to switch to full screen mode:
1. In the application window, click on the green circle with two arrows diverging in different directions (it is located in the upper left corner). Clicking this icon again will return you to normal operation.
2. Shortcut Ctrl + ⌘Cmd + F.
Spaces (additional desktops)
Spaces helps organize open applications. You can organize up to 16 spaces at the same time and place as many applications as you like in them. The Spaces tool is great for sorting apps - for example, you can put only work programs in one Space, only home entertainment apps and games in another, etc.
If you have used Windows before, this is how to work in Windows with virtual desktops.
To access Spaces,
1. Open Mission Control ( F3 or Fn + F3 depending on the type of keyboard you have, or Ctrl+ up arrow).
2. Click on the icon «+» in the top right corner and create a new desktop. Open the necessary programs on it (you can also drag icons from an already used table to a new one).
We talked in more detail about the Spaces desktops and how to switch between them.
The MacBook Air simply may be the greatest laptop ever made because it is extremely light, powerful, has amazing battery life, and has all the packages available in the box. To get the absolute most of these great features from a great Mac, you'll need to run these four (well, technically six) essential tips, which cover what I typically recommend to every MacBook Air owner.
Whether you just bought a new MacBook Air for the first time or you've had a long-term MacBook Air, with these tips you'll get a better-looking display, a bigger screen, better battery life, better performance, and better handling of limited storage capacity offered through super-fast flash storage.
1.Check panel and color calibration
Take a moment to check your MacBook Air manufacturer's internal display settings, then calibrate the monitor if you have an LG panel. This doesn't mean that some panels are inferior to others, they all work great, it's just a matter of the default color profile used. MacBook Air models feature displays from Samsung, and the default color profile seems to be better than MacBook Air models that come with LG panels, which look significantly better once calibration runs.
The fastest way to check your manufacturer panel is through the terminal located in /Applications/Utilities. Launch a terminal and paste the following into the command line:
ioreg-lw0 | grep IODisplayEDID | sed "/[^<]*
If you see something with the prefix “LP”, then you have a display panel that needs to be manually calibrated to look its best.
- Open System Preferences, find them in the Apple menu, and select “Display.”
- Select the Colors tab and click the Calibration button, then check the Expert Mode box to get better results.
The effect is very difficult to demonstrate in a screenshot because the images don't carry display profiles, so you really have to test yourself and tweak through calibration (or use pre-made color profiles for LG displays) to see as noticeable a difference as possible. The bottom line is that once the color is properly calibrated, the MacBook Air's screen will look brighter and the contrast will increase, making the display look significantly improved.
Calibrating the display in “Expert Mode” only takes a minute or two, just be sure to calibrate the colors and brightness in neutral lighting to get the best results.
2: Maximize screen usage with apps in full screen mode and hiding the Dock
By adopting full screen programs and making the best of smaller screen sizes on the MacBook Air, which is especially important on the 11″ models, it still has good benefits on the 13″ Air. Just toggle the Full Screen button in the corner in most apps and that's all that's required, or set up keyboard shortcuts for this purpose if that's your preference.
When the full screen feature that automatically hides the Dock doesn't work, there's another great way to save screen space. All you need to do to achieve this is press the keyboard shortcut Command+Option+D and the Dock will automatically disappear and reappear when you hover over it. Or you can toggle it in the Dock settings yourself.
3:Learn 2 Simple Tricks to Maximize Battery Life
The MacBook Air gets a battery that is quite powerful in its own right, but to get the absolute benefit of battery life, you need to focus on two things:
- Screen brightness control is at an acceptable level, in the best batteries it reaches 65% brightness.
- Keep actively running applications to a minimum for battery longevity.
For best results, go with 50% (or less) screen brightness, and exit every application that is not necessary at the moment. A simple trick for the latter is to use the DIY quit function and then selectively launch one app or two to get it working while keeping background activity to a minimum.
Want even better batteries? Follow some other tips to improve battery life, applicable to all MacBook Air, Pro, Retina. And be sure to upgrade to OS X Mavericks whenever possible, because it has some serious battery life-boosting features.
4:Rely on cheap external storage for media and backups
Perhaps the only weakness of the MacBook Air is the size of the built-in SSD memory, which can be inadequate compared to laptops that use old-fashioned hard drives. Luckily, cheap external storage devices are the norm, and it's very easy to add capacity with lightning-fast, affordable built-in storage and portable external solutions.
Owners of 13″ models should spend a little to get a sizable SD card with decent capacity that clips nicely into the card reader and adds a lot of storage space for a fraction of the price, making it a great place to store media files, movies, photos, etc. download files and other things that don't necessarily need to be on the main drive. Unfortunately, owners of the 11″ Air won't get an SD card, so external micro USB Flash drives can make a decent compromise and still remain small enough even if they don't stick out in the USB slot.
Speaking of external storage, take a large external portable drive and create a partition on it that will serve as a shared storage space for the media and Time Machine. This allows you to use one drive to back up and store files and avoid cable clutter if you're on the go or have your MacBook Air on your desk.
Fair, not overpriced and not underestimated. There should be prices on the Service website. Necessarily! without asterisks, clear and detailed, where technically possible - as accurate and concise as possible.
If spare parts are available, up to 85% of complex repairs can be completed in 1-2 days. Modular repairs require much less time. The website shows the approximate duration of any repair.
Warranty and responsibility
A guarantee must be given for any repairs. Everything is described on the website and in the documents. The guarantee is self-confidence and respect for you. A 3-6 month warranty is good and sufficient. It is needed to check quality and hidden defects that cannot be detected immediately. You see honest and realistic terms (not 3 years), you can be sure that they will help you.
Half the success in Apple repair is the quality and reliability of spare parts, so a good service works directly with suppliers, there are always several reliable channels and your own warehouse with proven spare parts for current models, so you don’t have to waste extra time.
Free diagnostics
This is very important and has already become a rule of good manners for the service center. Diagnostics is the most difficult and important part of the repair, but you don't have to pay a penny for it, even if you don't repair the device based on its results.
Service repairs and delivery
A good service values your time, so it offers free delivery. And for the same reason, repairs are carried out only in the workshop of a service center: correctly and according to technology can only be done in a prepared place.
Convenient schedule
If the Service works for you, and not for itself, then it is always open! absolutely. The schedule should be convenient to fit in before and after work. Good service works on weekends and holidays. We are waiting for you and working on your devices every day: 9:00 - 21:00
The reputation of professionals consists of several points
Company age and experience
Reliable and experienced service has been known for a long time.
If a company has been on the market for many years and has managed to establish itself as an expert, people turn to it, write about it, and recommend it. We know what we are talking about, since 98% of incoming devices in the service center are restored.
Other service centers trust us and refer complex cases to us.
How many masters in areas
If there are always several engineers waiting for you for each type of equipment, you can be sure:
1. there will be no queue (or it will be minimal) - your device will be taken care of right away.
2. you give your Macbook for repair to an expert in the field of Mac repairs. He knows all the secrets of these devices
Technical literacy
If you ask a question, a specialist should answer it as accurately as possible.
So that you can imagine what exactly you need.
They will try to solve the problem. In most cases, from the description you can understand what happened and how to fix the problem.
Many users who installed OS X on a PC for the first time are faced with questions about how to configure and what should be configured on the PC first. We will consider these questions in today's article.
These settings are also suitable for users of Apple computers and laptops who, for some reason, decided to change the installed system to another version of OS X.
The recommended steps apply to all versions starting from OS X Mavericks 10.9, such as Yosemite, El Capitan, Sierra. But a small number of settings are required only in El Capitan and Sierra. Versions of Mac OS X for which this or that setting will be indicated when viewing.
Well, we finally installed a brand new OS X system. We installed the Clover bootloader on the hard drive (If you haven’t done this yet, we recommend reading: where we discussed this topic in detail) and as we use it, we begin to encounter questions that have answers not yet, and without their solution, using the OS X operating system instead of pleasure only brings discomfort and inconvenience. This is what scares off users who first encounter Mac OS on a Hackintosh.
So let's get started...
The mouse wheel is not working properly
It's not that it's wrong, the mouse wheel works the opposite of what it's used to. When we scroll the wheel down, we get the opposite effect - the page does not move down, as we are used to, but up. Such management does not create a very good impression of the system in general. Not all of us are ready to relearn and get used to a completely opposite management system.
But the issue can be solved in a very easy way:
Go to System Settings -> Mouse and uncheck “Scroll direction: normal”, since for us this is far from usual.
Setting up Mac OS security
Installing programs from any source, disabling the password when entering and exiting sleep
The security of Mac OS X is at a very high level, so high that the operating system will not allow us to install absolutely anything that has not been downloaded or purchased from the AppStore. Not very tempting, considering that 80% of the applications in the AppStore are paid and not everything we might need is available on it. This can be solved in the following way.
Go to System Settings -> Protection and Security
During the transition, editing settings is not active. To open access to them:
Click on the lock in the lower left corner of the window and enter the password that we specified when installing the system.
After opening access to the settings, check “Any source” - this will allow us to install whatever we want on our computer.
Of course, there is also an item with “App Store and from installed developers,” but when you turn it on, you won’t be able to install a large number of programs and applications.
Disabling the password when exiting the sleep mode of the monitor and computer, or when turning on the computer, is carried out in the same window.
Enabling the firewall
A firewall is able to protect our computer and system from various unauthorized attempts to connect and send data to the Internet. I strongly recommend that you enable it immediately after installing OS X.
You most likely installed Mac OS not only for work, but also for security.
Enabling the Firewall is only available after unlocking access. If you closed the settings window, you may need to unlock access to the settings again, as you did when allowing installation of applications from any source.
Russification of the OS X system and adding languages
If you installed an English-language OS X system, as many people on the Internet advise, then it would not be a bad idea to Russify it for ease of use.
This can be done in System Settings -> Language and Region. As you can see in my screenshot, I already have Russian installed as the default language on the system. If you do not have it installed: Click Plus at the bottom of the window and select from the list. To install additional languages, the same operation is performed.
Important! The top language in the window is the default system language. If you will be using an English-language system, move English to the top of the list. In some cases, a reboot may be required to change the system language.
Switching the language on the keyboard
For reasons unknown to me, the developers of OS X El Capitan and Sierra decided to complicate the usual experience for Mac OS users by changing the Language switching keyboard shortcut that has existed for many years. And Spotlight was added to the usual (Command) + Space (CTRL + Space for European keyboards).
It doesn't matter and it can be fixed. Go to System Settings -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Input Sources, double-click on the installed key combination, after which an input window will appear, and click on the familiar combination (Command) + Spacebar (CTRL + Spacebar for a European keyboard). We perform the same operation in the bottom line, so that switching to the previous and next is carried out with one key combination.
After changing the hotkeys for input sources, go to Spotlight and assign new hotkeys to it in the same way, so as not to force the system to conflict.
Setting up monitor and computer sleep
According to the default settings in the OS X system, the sleep settings are designed more to save Electricity, which is important when using it on laptops, but if we have a stationary PC, turning it on every 15 minutes may not be at all convenient.
We can change the power consumption settings in System Settings -> Energy Saving.
In El Capitan, the developers have reduced the customization functionality. Now we don’t have access to separate settings for the time before the monitor and computer go to sleep, as was the case in OS X Mavericks.
iCloud activation
To be able to fully and without restrictions use iTunes and the App Store, you must enter your ICloud login and password into the system.
This is done in System Preferences -> iCloud
After which you will be able to fully use all its data synchronization and keychain functions. If you do not have an account, you can proceed to registration from the same window. Data is received and downloaded to the ICloud service only in encrypted form and with double authentication (entering a login and password, entering the received password on the linked phone), which ensures high protection of your data when transferred to Apple’s ICloud service.
Advice for hackintosh people! If after registering an account, you cannot log into it via PC. This can manifest itself as connection errors, non-connection, very long connection without a positive result, etc. and so on..
I'll tell you a secret, In order for your account to be activated and functions available when logging in from any device, you only need to log into your account once from any Apple device, only after that the account will be fully activated.After this, you will be able to enjoy the full functionality of the service.
It makes me sad when reading the reviews of many gurus of installing Mac OS on a PC, who try to justify ignorance of this rule: Hacking ICloud and similar ridiculous statements, which are quite a few on forums and in videos on YouTube.
These are the basic settings that you will have to make immediately after installing OS X, but there are many more settings that can speed up the system and make it more comfortable to work with. You can find articles about this on our website in the and section.
You can reset your personal settings on an Apple laptop or all-in-one in many cases. If your system starts to take a long time to boot, slows down during operation, the programs you need stop opening, and much more, then a reset is simply necessary. To understand how to reset your MacBook to factory settings, read our instructions.
Possible methods
First you need to determine the extent of the problem you have. There are two ways to reset the system:
- full ;
- Resetting system parameters to factory settings.
In many cases (for example, a system or program hangs) it is enough. Before you reset your Macbook Air, Pro, or iMac to factory settings using a reinstall, make sure to back up all important files and programs because this method involves wiping the hard drive.
The second option is simpler and more loyal - reset only the system parameters, but leave all the information on the disk untouched. Let's look at both options step by step.
How to restore Macbook Air, Pro, iMac to factory settings?
This method is suitable if the problem with the computer is not serious and not critical. For example, a long startup time, malfunction of a program, etc. In any case, we recommend that you use this method first before proceeding with the reinstallation. To reset factory settings, follow these steps:
- Turn off your MacBook in any convenient way. You can also read about them in the next section of our website;
- hold down the key combination Command+Option+P+R+power button;
- wait until the power-up sound is played twice, then release the keys;
- After turning on, the computer will be reset to factory settings. This way you can set up your MacBook like new.
How to restore macbook air, pro, iMac to factory settings: reinstalling the OS
Before this process, you need to complete the following steps:
- connect the Internet to your computer;
- copy all valuable information to an external drive;
- connect the device to a power source so that it does not turn off during OS installation;
- Now let's move on to the installation process:
- reboot your Macbook in a convenient way;
- During loading, press Command+R;
- wait until the computer starts recovery mode;
- in the window that opens, select “Disk Utility”;
- select boot disk;
- go to the “Erase” section;
- select the installed OS and click the “Erase” button;
- then return to the menu with the choice of programs for recovery;
- click the “reinstall OS” button;
- After this, the computer will connect to the Internet and begin downloading the distribution.
This method will not work to restore a macbook air, pro or iMac to factory settings without an Internet connection.
After the download is complete, the device will unpack all files and reboot. Next, the main screen with settings will appear. Log in with your Apple ID account, select the system language, and so on.
If you do not have access to the Internet, then you will need a bootable USB flash drive with the distribution. However, without an OS installer downloaded from the network, nothing will work anyway. Now you know how to reset your MacBook in two different ways and can put them into practice.
