macOS Sierra For Dummies. Bob LeVitus
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Название: macOS Sierra For Dummies

Автор: Bob LeVitus

Издательство: John Wiley & Sons Limited

Жанр: Зарубежная образовательная литература

Серия:

isbn: 9781119280675

isbn:

СКАЧАТЬ href="#litres_trial_promo">Chapter 20 for the scoop on how to turn the login screen on or off.

Either way, the Desktop soon materializes before your eyes. If you haven’t customized, configured, or tinkered with your Desktop, it should look pretty much like Figure 1-2. Now is a good time to take a moment for positive thoughts about the person who convinced you that you wanted a Mac. That person was right!

      ❯❯ Blue/black/gray screen of death: If any of your hardware fails when it’s tested, you may see a blue, black, or gray screen.

      Some older Macs played the sound of a horrible car wreck instead of the chimes, complete with crying tires and busting glass. It was exceptionally unnerving, which might be why Apple doesn’t use it anymore.

      

The fact that something went wrong is no reflection on your prowess as a Mac user. Something is broken, and your Mac may need repairs. If this is happening to you right now, check out Chapter 20 to try to get your Mac well again.

      

If your computer is under warranty, set up a Genius Bar appointment at your nearest Apple Store or dial 1-800-SOS-APPL, and a customer service person can tell you what to do. Before you do anything, though, skip ahead to Chapter 23. It’s entirely possible that one of the suggestions there can get you back on track without your having to spend even a moment on hold.

      ❯❯

Prohibitory sign or flashing question mark in a folder: Most users eventually encounter the prohibitory sign or flashing question mark in a folder shown in the margin. These icons mean that your Mac can’t find a startup disk, hard drive, network server, or DVD-ROM containing a valid Mac operating system. See Chapter 23 for ways to ease your Mac’s ills.

❯❯ Kernel panic: You shouldn’t see this very often, but you may occasionally see a block of text in several languages, including English, as shown in Figure 1-3. This means that your Mac has experienced a kernel panic, the most severe type of system crash. If you restart your Mac and see either message again, look in Chapter 23 for a myriad of possible cures for all kinds of ailments, including this one.

       FIGURE 1-2: The MacOS Sierra Desktop after a brand-spanking-new installation of macOS Sierra.

       FIGURE 1-3: If this is what you’re seeing, things are definitely not fine and dandy.

      

How do you know which version of the macOS your computer has? Simple:

      1. Choose About This Mac from the

menu (the menu with the symbol in the top-left corner of the menu bar).

A window pops up on your screen, as shown in Figure 1-4. The version you’re running appears just below macOS Sierra near the top of the window. Version 10.12 is the release we know as Sierra.

      

If you’re curious or just want to impress your friends, OS X version 10.11 was known as El Capitan; 10.10 was Yosemite; 10.9 was Mavericks; 10.8 was Mountain Lion; 10.7 was Lion; 10.6 was Snow Leopard; 10.5 was Leopard; 10.4 was Tiger; 10.3 was Panther; 10.2 was Jaguar; 10.1 was Puma; and 10.0 was Cheetah.

      2. (Optional) Click the Displays, Storage, Support, or Service tabs to see additional details about your Mac.

      3. Click the System Report button to launch the System Information application and see even more details.

      The System Information app shows you even more about your Mac including bus speed, number of processors, caches, installed memory, networking, storage devices, and much more. You can find more about this useful program in Chapter 22.

       FIGURE 1-4: See which version of macOS you’re running.

Shutting down properly

      Turning off the power without shutting down your Mac properly is one of the worst things you can do to your poor Mac. Shutting down your Mac improperly can really screw up your hard or solid-state drive, scramble the contents of your most important files, or both.

      

If a thunderstorm is rumbling nearby, or you’re unfortunate enough to have rolling blackouts where you live, you may really want to shut down your Mac and unplug it from the wall. (See the next section, where I briefly discuss lightning and your Mac.) If it’s a laptop, you can just disconnect it from its charging cable and continue using it if you like.

      To turn off your Mac, always use the Shut Down command from the

menu or shut down in one of these kind-and-gentle ways:

      ❯❯ Press the Power button for approximately two seconds and then click the Shut Down button in the Are You Sure You Want to Shut Down Your Computer Now? dialog.

      ❯❯ On keyboards that don’t have a Power key, press Control+Eject instead, and then click the Shut Down button that appears in the Are You Sure You Want to Shut Down Your Computer Now? dialog.

      

You can use a handy keyboard shortcut when the Shut Down button (or any button, for that matter) is highlighted in blue and pulsating slightly. Pressing the Return key is the same as clicking whichever button is highlighted.

      The Are You Sure You Want to Shut Down Your Computer Now? dialog sports a check box option: Reopen Windows When Logging Back In. If you select this check box, your Mac will start back up with the same windows (and applications) that were open when you shut down or restarted. I think that’s pretty darn sweet, but you can clear the check box and disable this option if that’s not what you want!

      Most Mac users have been forced to shut down improperly more than once without anything horrible happening, of course – but don’t be lulled into a false sense of security. Break the rules one time too many (or under the wrong circumstances), and your most important files could be toast. The only time you should turn off your Mac without shutting down properly is when your screen is completely frozen or when your system crashed due to a kernel panic and you’ve already tried everything else. (See Chapter 23 for what those “everything elses” are.) A really stubborn crash doesn’t happen often – and less often under macOS (formerly OS X) than ever before – but when it does, forcing your Mac to turn off and then back on might be the only solution.

ETERNALLY YOURS … NOW

      macOS is designed so that you never have to shut it down. You can configure it to sleep after a specified period of inactivity. (See СКАЧАТЬ