![]() Install Windows updates – almost no novice user installs these, but they often improve performance and can plug security holes, this is a must.That doesn’t mean you can’t do some basic cleanup too, and it’s probably much more needed on a Windows PC anyway… so here’s some general advice for a relatives computer that is running Windows 95 through Windows 8: Obviously not everyone has a Mac, and there are many ancient Windows PC’s still clunking around out there at everyones relatives house. This is usually not an issue with Lion and Mountain Lion users, but those lingering around on Snow Leopard still may be there for a reason. We say “maybe” because you should only do this if you can make a backup of the hard drive first, and if you know for certain they aren’t going to lose out on any app compatibility, since there is nothing more frustrating than losing access to some apps. If the family Mac has an older version of OS X installed, consider upgrading the entire thing to the latest version of OS X Mavericks. ![]() If that’s the case, get the computer backed up ASAP so nobody loses any important files, pictures, or documents. You can read more about this process here.īe forewarned that if Disk Utility can not repair the drive problems, the disk itself may be going bad. Note that if you need to repair the startup disk, you can boot into Recovery Mode by holding Option during system start, then selecting the recovery partition and running Disk Utility again from there. If errors are found (as shown with red text), run the appropriate “Repair” versions of each.Choose the “First Aid” tab and run both Verify Disk, and Verify Disk Permissions.Open Disk Utility, found in /Applications/Utilities/ and choose the hard drive from the left side.Chances are good they haven’t run this ever, or perhaps since the last time you ran it for them: This is good general maintenance advice and it can help to prevent errors and problems with the hard drive. By the way, if they have a Windows PC, consider installing Chrome and/or Firefox to be essential. Sometimes just installing an alternate browser is enough for the tech support phone calls to end. Optional, but recommended: Get the Chrome browser from Google or get the Firefox browser from MozillaĬhrome and Firefox are both free and great web browsers.Update Safari (handled in the above steps).Chrome often has better performance in general when a lot of tabs or windows are open, but that is particularly true with Flash Player (which is built in and sandboxed separately). With that said, if they have any complaints about Safari, or they need to use the Flash Player often, then consider downloading Chrome. Safari is great and it should be updated in the above sequence, which typically will improve it’s functionality and stability. Install every update by choosing “Update All” (unless there is an app in there they have been avoiding updating for compatibility reasons, of course)Īpps that are outside of the App Store may need to be updated manually, but every app is different.Open the Mac App Store and head to the “Updates” tab.Either way, you’ll want to update the Mac software, which is easiest to do through the App Store: With newer versions of OS X, you can update all apps and system updates in one fell swoop by using the aforementioned Software Update method, but past versions of Mac OS X require separate upgrading. If you can do it all through the App Store, perfect. This may tie into tip #2 as well, depending on the version of OS X. If the computer hasn’t been updated in a very long time, you may need to do this one or two times after the Mac has rebooted to install all available updates. Sometimes this requires a reboot, particularly if it’s a full fledged OS X update. Go to the Apple menu and visit “Software Update”, install any lingering OS X updates.But they’re important to install because they bring new features, bug fixes, and security improvements, so this should be the first thing you do. ![]() Let’s face it, almost everyone puts off system updates.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |