[skyrim]

I am really not new to the computer. I have used PC for years. But now I got a MBP as the work computer. I have no experience for Mac OS X or Unix. Any good tips for the new Mac user? I do not need games or other fancy things. I just want this Mac can run stably and not mess my work. I tried to learn something from this article Tips for a Spammer, but got more confusion. I am a PC user for years. I know junk files can make the Windows system ugly. But is this the same to the Mac? I asked my colleague, he could not give me the clear answer either. And I cannot find defragmentation tool in Mac, which is a system utility in Windows.
Any tips will be appreciated. Thanks.

[OreoCookie]

You don't need to concern yourself with these clean up tips and worse, with clean up tools. Just use your machine.

For example, you don't need a defragmentation tool or something like that, OS X defragments files automatically in the background, no user interaction is necessary.

Regarding junk files, you don't need to worry about them slowing you down. If you find leftover files of old apps aesthetically unpleasing, then you will have to delete them. But other than reducing visual clutter, there is no ill effect.

[jmiddel]

skyrim, the reason folks use Macs is that they are not high maintenance as PC are prone to be. Oreo is right on, enjoy your newly found freedom to just use the computer without worrying about what is going on under the hood

[skyrim]

Thank you guys. You both are helpful. Mac is indeed better than Windows.

[FireWire]

"I used to perform maintenance on my Mac religiously like you.. but then I took an arrow in the knee"

[auto_immune]

Originally Posted by FireWire 

"I used to perform maintenance on my Mac religiously like you.. but then I took an arrow in the knee"

so, you left your maintenance routine at wounded knee?

[skyrim]

Originally Posted by FireWire 

"I used to perform maintenance on my Mac religiously like you.. but then I took an arrow in the knee"

"I used to only use Windows like you.. but then I took an arrow in the knee".
Ok, I have found a so useful keyboard shortcut. Press “shift + command + 4”, then press space bar. It is much easier to take the screenshots than under Windows.

[Waragainstsleep]

The other good ones that people often go years without learning are Command-Tab to cycle through open apps (Command-Shift-Tab cycles the opposite way) and Command-` which cycles through the open windows in the current app.

[Big Mac]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

and Command-` which cycles through the open windows in the current app.

Although that shortcut is highly dependent on the app you're using actually implementing the function properly. Many lesser apps don't do it, which is why Expose is a better way to go for window management.

[Macfreak7]

This thread makes me smile.

[skyrim]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

The other good ones that people often go years without learning are Command-Tab to cycle through open apps (Command-Shift-Tab cycles the opposite way) and Command-` which cycles through the open windows in the current app.

This is very useful. It has the similar function as "Alt+Tab" under Windows. Thank you.

[Athens]

Once a month open up disk utility which is in Applications : Utilities and do a Fix Permissions scan. A majority of problems that develop over time are fixed by this. Honestly you don't really need to run it once a month you can wait until the Machine starts to slow down or starts to act odd but I usually advice people to do it to prevent that.

Never let your hard drive get more then 80% full either. OS X defrags itself on the fly. The only time you develop a fragmentation problem is when you exceed 90% of the drive then it can not function correctly any more and the drive does get fragmented.

You don't need Antivirus (currently) BUT I do recommend it regardless because one day a virus could make it into the wild and do harm and its better to be protected from that already then to be one of those unlucky enough to get infected then get antivirus after the fact.

OS X actually has a built in antivirus that has no end user control or options, its just there in the background protecting you from a very narrow list of Trojans. I personally don't run antivirus.

Get a external hard drive, a large one or a time capsule from Apple. I can NOT repeat this enough but Time Machine is a god send when it comes to protecting your data. And Apple isn't a perfect company. The hard drive in your computer is the same hard drive in Dells and HPs and others which is made not by Apple but venders like Samsung or Seagate. Once in a while Macs do ship with components that are defective or fail early. Its not often and Apples prompt support in such issues is what makes apple so good. But its better to be safe then sorry if a hard drive fails. Its also great if you lost your computer or it was stolen. Many of my customers that listened to me and use Time Machine have ended up at some point using it to restore the computer. Sometimes all it takes is a good bump at the wrong time to kill the hard drive.

Also if you ever do get a fragmentation problem from letting the hard drive fill up, the easiest way to defrag is a Time Machine restore.

This is a must have product for any Mac user along with VLC, Perian - The swiss-army knife of QuickTime� components it adds most video codecs to the computer for problem free video watching in Quicktime.

Windows Media player for Mac - Flip4Mac WMV Overview - Telestream This installs the codec for Windows Media which you will come across on some sites.

You DO NOT NEED adobe acrobat reader. PDF viewing is built into Mac OS X.

Silverlight and Adobe Flash you do want (google them)

Hope I have been a help.

PS if you want to lock your screen when away quickly, open up Keychain and select the preference or menu option to always show in the menu bar. It will put a little lock in the menu which you can use to lock the screen when you walk away from the computer quickly.