Couple of questions - Newbie

Just switched from PC to Mac and have a couple of questions.

1. I know you don't need anti-virus but is it worth getting? An which is best for Mac?

2. I downloaded coconut battery app. In windows you can delete the file you downloaded once the program is installed on your hard drive. How does this work on the mac?

3. Any good apps that anyone had downloaded?

Thank you in advance!

I moved your post here. (The Switcher Forum)

First, please read our Sticky notice at the head of this forum: "Official antivirus, malware, and firewall FAQ"

Some applications will remove themselves after installing, others which provide an image file "DMG" should be ejected after the application is installed. Just drag the dmg file to the Trash.

Please use our Search function regarding good apps to install. This question has been asked and answered a myriad of times.

Thanks. I forgot that my Uni tell us to use Sophos and when searching the forums a number of users have that so have chosen to install that.

Another thing that has popped up is:

When i look to see the space on my HDD, I click on iDisk on Finder and the following pops up

Enter your name and password to connect to "idisk.mac.com".
If i click guest I can then see the drive.
What is this all about?

Thank you again!

idisk is an old mobile me service that will be going away. Pay no attention to it.

Is there another way of viewing the Hard drive?

View the HD how? If you open up a Finder window, you'll be able to access the filesystem.

If you need to access the root directory (this is the equivalent to "C:" in Windows), open up Finder > Preferences > Show these items on the desktop > check "Hard Disks." You can also add it to the sidebar by looking under the "Sidebar" tab and checking your computer under "Devices." You shouldn't need to access anything outside of your home folder though, especially if you're new to OS X.

Cheers.

I started a scan on Sophos just to see how long it takes and it had scanned about 237,000 files out of 280,000 and then stopped. Any ideas why it didn't scan the last 30,000 files?

Any particular reason that you're scanning your machine?

Just to see roughly how long it took!

Looking for a maintenance app for my Mac. I used CC Cleaner for PC. I have searched the forums and people recommend OnyX but there is only beta version for Lion. Anyone tried it?

OnyX's beta versions are very reliable, no worries there.

Thank you I will check it out!

I am trying to setup a backup of my HDD on a External HDD using time capsule. The hard drive is portioned and was done a windows PC.

It is portioned as follows:

Windows NTFS
MAC FAT32 32GB
Music FAT32 34GB
Backup FAT32 34GB

It comes up when i plug the drive in and i select backup to back it up on. It says it will erase the hard drive and the backup. I then get a message saying it can't backup the on that partion map. Any ideas why?

To use Time Machine, the hard drive/partition must be formatted as HFS+ (Apple's filesystem for Mac OS X). So, use Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities) to format the drive/partition that you want to use as HFS+. As always, remember that formatting deletes all data on the drive/partition being formatted so backup before hand if you need to do so.

Thank you to everyone for your help.

Rarely do I do any maintenance on my Mac... unlike a PC that requires almost a daily upgrade/updates/maintenance/cleanup... this is where most "switchers" twiddle their thumbs... they don't know what to do.....

Just enjoy your new toy! dont' treat your Mac like a PC....

To answer question 2, F.lux: software to make your life better. Not Mac specific but still a cool app.

MACyMouse said:

Rarely do I do any maintenance on my Mac... unlike a PC that requires almost a daily upgrade/updates/maintenance/cleanup... this is where most "switchers" twiddle their thumbs... they don't know what to do.....

Just enjoy your new toy! dont' treat your Mac like a PC....

Click to expand...

Truth- I guess I am still getting used to that aspect

Hello,

Obviously I'm a newbie. I also don't know much about computers..really...I can't even figure out a cell phone.

But I have a question. I just bought a 27" IMac. I thinks it's pretty incredible. But one thing really bugs me about it. It has this big beautiful screen, but all the applications except one open up in tiny little windows. For instance, internet opens up only in the middle third of the screen in hard to read small font. Letters opens up in boxes so small I can barely read what I'm typing in them. I can blow it up, but then it gets fuzzy and "blown up" looking and hard to see.

My e-mail opens whole screen, but new messages are crammed up in the top 2" of screen, and they also open up in tiny little boxes.

I just know I'm not doing something right here. Would someone clue me in?

Thanks

Are you running OSX Lion? Most of the built in zoom functions in it should allow you to zoom without the blurriness. Also Mail and internet can be opened in full screen mode.

The zoom functions were also available in Snow Leopard, but the full screen thing is specific to Lion.

If you don't have Lion you should be eligible for a free upgrade.

You may also want to consider turning down the screen resolution to 1920x1080, that may help things.

HTH