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How To: Create a Bootable Install USB Drive of Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite

Apple released the new Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite in the Mac App Store for everyone to download and install for free on October 16th, 2014, but downloading a 5+ GB file for each of your computers will take some serious time. The best thing to do is download it once and create a bootable install USB drive from the file for all of your Macs.

How To: Install the Command Line Developer Tools Without Xcode

OS X is built upon a UNIX foundation, which grants you access to the benefits that UNIX offers, including the standard toolkit (make, gcc, clang, git, perl, svn, size, strings, id, and a lot more) via the command line developer tools, which are an essential if you're a developer. Aside from developers, the command line tools can offer benefits to normal users as well, like the ability to purge RAM for better performance.

How To: Close All Open Apps on Your Mac with a Single Click

Normally, if you want to close all of the open apps on your Mac, you'd have to either quit them all one by one or restart, shut down, or log out while making sure to deselect “Reopen windows when logging back in." The latter option is great, but it doesn't always work in Mac OS X, and what if you don't want to restart, shut down, or log out?

How To: Run Multiple Instances of the Same App in Mac OS X

With the use of Terminal, anyone can run multiple instances of the same application on a Mac. When you have multiple windows open in a web browser, the windows are all running under the same Process ID (PID). But, with multiple instances, each has its own unique PID. So why would you want to run multiple instances of the same app? There are several reasons a person may run clones of the same application, but the most popular would be so that the user could multitask. Some applications, like t...

How To: Export Your Original Images, Live Photo Videos & Metadata in Apple Photos for Mac

When you export an image from the Photos app in macOS, you may not be getting the whole deal. In the export menu, you need to select either JPEG, TIFF, or PNG, and if you don't make any adjustments to the quality settings, it'll likely be compressed. If you need the original full-resolution file or want to get the video that's attached to a Live Photo, there's a simple way to do it.

How To: Speed Up Your Mac in 2 Minutes Flat

If you've been around computers long enough, you've probably heard the phrase "have you tried turning it off and on again?" This trick usually works because it forces your computer to empty out the contents of its RAM and disk caches when you restart.

How To: Tired of Chess? Here's How You Find the Secret Games Hidden on Your Mac

I can definitely say that my MacBook is one of my best friends, but I was still very disappointed when I realized that the only game my laptop came with was chess. For starters, I'm not very good at chess. I haven't even beat the computer once, which really grinds my gears. But, it has come to my attention that chess isn't the only pre-installed game on my Mac—there seems to be some hidden gems that I simply wasn't cool enough to know about. For some of you, this may be old news, but for me, ...

How To: Reformat Mac OS X Without a Recovery Disc or Drive

As I've said before, slowing down is not an option for me. At one point, I realized that there were plenty of files on my Mac that I didn't need any more, but too many to delete individually. In other cases, your Mac can be experiencing some major malfunctions: constant crashing, locked controls, slow boot times, missing files, etc.

How To: You're Uninstalling Mac Apps Wrong: Here's How to Remove Them Completely

Uninstalling an app on your Mac isn't as straightforward as you would think. When you drag and drop an app into the Trash, then empty it, the main app itself may be gone, but many associated files and folders are left behind. So how do you get rid of them? There are a couple of ways.

How To: Take Screenshots & Save as JPEG in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or Lower

This video demonstrates how easy it is to take a screenshot with shortcuts in Mac OS X. Pressing Command-Shift-3 will take a screenshot of the entire screen, while Command-Shift-4 will let you take a screenshot of just a selected area of the screen instead. For the latter, once you use the shortcut, your mouse pointer will turn into crosshairs, and you would click on one point of the screen, then drag and release your mouse to take a capture of the selected area.

How To: Increase the Sound & Quality of Your Mac's Speakers

During a power outage at my apartment this year, I watched movies on my MacBook Pro instead of on my television. While I had no complaints about the screen size, I did have an issue with how low the audio coming from my speakers was. External speakers would help, but I don't want to buy them or lug them around every time I want to watch a movie.

How To: Remove Duplicates & Customize the “Open With” Menu in Mac OS X

As a regular Mac OS X user, I have a love/hate relationship with the "Open With" contextual menu. Sometimes, it has just what I need. Other times, it's often packed with unnecessary or duplicate items, or missing the app I want to open the file up with the most.

How To: Open Third-Party Apps from Unidentified Developers in macOS

Apple has a built-in way to protect you from opening up potentially malicious apps on your computer in Mac OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan, and macOS Sierra. This setting, named Gatekeeper, will never stop you from installing apps from the Mac App Store, but it could from anywhere else. If it's an app you're sure you want to install on your system, here's how to do it.

How To: Take Control of Your Mac's Sleep Functions with These Commands

Macs are generally highly power efficient due to, in part, the optimized sleeping schedule with OS X. Yet in certain scenarios, you might not want your Mac to go to sleep: downloading a huge file, reading a book, reviewing a spreadsheet, analyzing some content on the screen... the list goes on. To resolve this, you can go to System Preferences and mess with the settings, but this can be an annoying process if you need to do it often.

How To: Organize Your Mac's Dock by Adding Blank Spaces as App Icon Dividers

Terminal is powerful tool that every Mac OS X user should explore. With it, we've shown you how to save iPhone voicemails, extract and back up text messages, and even check for vulnerabilities in your system, all using commands issued from within Terminal.

How To: Lower Screen Brightness on Your Mac Below the Default

You can use the F1 key to notably dim your Mac's display, but sometimes that just isn't dark enough. If you're working in pitch black conditions, have a migraine or tired eyes, or just want a more comfortable environment, you might want your screen even darker—without making it pitch black.

How To: Import Your Spotify Playlists into Apple Music

With iOS 8.4 and iTunes 12.2, we got our first look at Apple Music, Apple's new streaming subscription service. While it's a little late to the party, there is definitely an incentive for iOS and Mac OS X users to switch over from competitors due to its heavy integration with the Apple ecosystem.

How To: Resize Extremely Long "Open" & "Save" Dialog Boxes in Mac OS X Yosemite

Yosemite is definitely an improvement over Mavericks, but there are still some painfully obvious and annoying bugs that occur within certain apps.

How To: Install the Classic Windows 3D Pipes Screensaver on Your Mac

Back when CRT and plasma monitors were still a thing, screensavers served a purpose beyond just aesthetics: the moving images and patterns prevented static images from being burned into the display.

Mac Troubleshooting: How to Find Your Restart, Shutdown & Uptime History

When was the last time you restarted or shutdown your Mac? In the post-iPhone era, most devices are now powered on almost constantly. For better or for worse, the computing landscape has accommodated this "always on" trend, but you still need to periodically restart your devices—especially your Mac.

How To: Get the Dark Mode Boot Screen on Your Pre-2011 Mac Running Yosemite

When Yosemite was released, a more detailed boot screen came to your Mac. So now, just like on Apple's mobile devices, you will see a loading bar telling you how far into the startup process you are. Apple also decided to add a black version of this boot screen to newer Macs, leaving those of us who purchased a computer before 2011 out of the loop.

How To: Cast Music (Or Any Audio) From Your Mac to Chromecast

Although I know it will never happen due to Apple and Google's tempestuous relationship, I sometimes wish I could cast iTunes or Apple Music from my Mac to Google's Chromecast. When you don't have speakers to blast your music, the television is a great alternative to amplify your music.

How To: Prank Your Apple Friends with 1,000s of iMessages in Just One Click

Apple scrubbed the floor clean of all existing text-bombing apps in the iOS App Store, and even though there were once a ton of these apps in Cydia, the go-to store for jailbroken devices, there few and far between these days. If they do exist, they either cost money or don't work as advertised.

How To: Monitor System Usage Stats in Your Mac OS X Menu Bar

Like a car, your Mac needs to be monitored and cared for to keep it running as smoothly as possible. While your vehicle comes with a ton of gauges to keep track of your oil, temperature, and in some cases, even tire pressure, your Mac has no easy way to watch for low memory or high disk usage. Normally you would have to open up Activity Monitor to take a look at your usage stats, but now there is something better.

How To: Use WhatsApp on Your Mac (A Guide for Both Android & iPhone Users)

Boasting over 800 million users a month, WhatsApp has quickly become one of the most popular messaging services available today. Thanks to its low price, ease of use, lack of ads, cross-platform functionality, and great features, its popularity is well-deserved.

How To: Convert HEIF Photos from HEIC to JPG or PNG with MacOS Monterey's New Time-Saving Shortcut

If you regularly run into issues opening images that use the .heic extension, the easiest solution is to convert the file into a more compatible format. Using apps like Photos and Preview on a Mac makes the process simple, but macOS Monterey just streamlined the process so that you don't even have to open an app anymore.

How To: Instantly Tune Out a Loud Room with White Noise from Your Mac's Menu Bar

Coffee shops are great places to unwind and get some free Wi-Fi, but all the bandwidth in the world can be ruined by someone being a noisy jerk. I usually start blasting music through my headphones whenever that happens, but that isn't always the most ideal situation, especially if I'm trying to study or work.

How To: Add Custom or Pre-Made HTML5 Widgets to Your Mac's Desktop

Apple hasn't been the most avid supporter of widgets over the years. Yes, they added them to the Notification Center in Yosemite, but that requires a drawer to be opened and closed whenever you want to check them. In my search for a better solution, I came across Ubersicht by developer Felix Hageloh.

How To: Use Split View Mode in Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan

Catching up with Windows 8, Apple has finally included a way in Mac OS X to use two apps side by side in full screen view. In the 10.11 El Capitan update, it's called Split View, and it works fairly well for the most part. It's not quite as intuitive as it should be, but easy enough once you get the hang of it.

How To: Permanently Silence Your Mac's Annoying Notification Center

When Apple wanted to bring their Notification Center to Mac OS X, I loved the idea. But after using it since its integration in Mountain Lion, it's been more annoying and distracting than anything. More and more apps incorporate notifications, so I'm constantly getting sound alerts and banners in the top right corner that I don't want.

How To: Dual Boot Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan & 10.10 Yosemite

Since the new Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan is brand new, I recommend installing it on a separate partition on your hard drive. This will keep your current Yosemite system safe from harm, and will let you easily switch back to it should El Capitan become unusable for any reason.

How To: Use Siri to Control iTunes, Put Your Mac to Sleep, & More from Your iPhone

While Apple's Continuity feature has certainly impressed me, I can't help but feel like it could be used to create a better connection between my iPhone and Mac. Sure, Handoff allows me to pick up where I left off in certain applications between the two devices, and it lets me pick up calls and send text messages on my Mac, but I want even more functionality.

How To: Conserve Data When Tethering to Your Personal Hotspot

I'm lucky enough to have internet access on my laptop practically everywhere I go because of my mobile hotspot plan. All I have to do is enable the personal hotspot feature from my iPhone and I can surf the web on any Wi-Fi enabled device. But of course, there's a catch.

How To: These 9 Tips Make Gaming on Your Mac Not Suck

When most people think of "gaming computers," they're probably thinking of Windows-based PCs. They offer a huge variety of devices with better equipped software and hardware for a cheaper price, and there are more available games than there are for OS X-based systems.

How To: Create a Bootable Install DVD or USB Drive of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion

If you have a Mac, you've probably been anticipating the release of OS X Mountain Lion. If you have multiple Macs, you've probably been dreading the long process of downloading and installing it on all of them. Here's how to create a bootable backup disk and save yourself some time. Before You Start

How To: Make Your Mac Look & Feel More Like Your iPhone

Is your Mac starting to feel messy and sluggish after using iOS 8 on your iPhone every day? Even with all of the iOS-friendly features built in to Mac OS X Yosemite, your Mac can still feel kind of "old" in comparison to an iOS device—but it doesn't have to. Using the tips and tricks below, you can easily make your Mac desktop or laptop look and feel like iOS 8 in no time.

How To: Easily Resize Images for the Web with This Drag & Drop Automator Action

Automator takes the work out of common repetitive tasks in Mac OS X. One of my least favorites is resizing images for the web, so I created a drag and drop action to quickly do it for me.

How To: Get the Beautiful New El Capitan Wallpaper for Your Mac & iPhone

Apple just released the latest developer preview of OS X 10.11 El Capitan, currently in its sixth beta. While this latest build mostly deals with tiny improvements and bug fixes, it also includes a brand new breathtaking wallpaper of the El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park.

How To: 6 Ways to Get More Out of Your Mac's Notification Center

You can check stock quotes, make quick calculations, see the weather forecast, get reminders, and view upcoming calendar events all from the Notification Center on your Mac. But if that's all your using it for, you're just barely scratching the surface.

How To: Dual Boot Windows 10 & Mac OS X on Your Mac

While Windows 10 is still a few weeks away from a public release, that doesn't mean you can't enjoy its brand new features right now. Anyone with an Insider Preview account can install Windows 10 on their computer. And that doesn't just go for those that own a Windows PC—Mac users can get their hands on Windows 10 as well.