One potential route by which an attacker can compromise your Mac is to modify a legitimate software package to contain malware. While this is difficult to do through official software distribution channels (e.g., the Mac App Store), it can be done through popular alternative approaches like peer-to-peer networking and third-party software distribution Web sites. Continue reading
Whenever you upgrade OS X, you always chance an application or two not working with the new software changes. Hopefully problems are kept at a minimum, or are insignificant enough to not require any attention; however, there may be times when apps crash, hang, or show other odd behavior that directly impedes your ability to use them. In these cases, there are several general approaches you can do to fix the problem, before having to dive into specifics troubleshooting steps. Continue reading
The App Store included in OS X allows you to purchase and download many programs to your system, and while each download is registered to the Apple ID used to purchase it, any user on the system should be able to open the program and use it. However, when it comes to updating the program, only the Apple ID used for purchasing it can be used to download updates. Continue reading
If you regularly use your Mac for multiple tasks, you might have a number of applications, application windows, and documents open at the same time. These may include browser windows, preference windows for open applications, and perhaps iTunes, iPhoto, and multiple Terminal sessions, among many others. Continue reading
Most programs and services you run in OS X will save preferences to disk as a property list (.plist) file in your account’s hidden Library > Preferences folder. Since these files contain settings that are loaded and interacted with as the program is run, if a fault exists either in a specific setting or in the structure of the file itself, then a program may experience hangs, crashes, the inability to save and retrieve settings, or other odd behaviors. Continue reading
When you install applications in OS X, you usually download an installer in a .dmg image from the developer, in which there is either the program itself ready to be dragged into your Applications folder, an installation program to run from the disk image itself, or an installation package.
The later of these options will look like an orange box, and when double-clicked will launch the OS X installer program. Continue reading