If you don't plan on installing macOS High Sierra for whatever reason, your Mac will still inform you of the software update every now and then via persisting system notifications.
How to stop “Upgrade to macOS High Sierra” notifications
OS X El Capitan
Ensuring your Mac is receiving updates about new malware and compromised web plug-ins
Among the plethora of built-in OS X features that help keep your Mac secure is something called File Quarantine, a download validation technology that checks any downloads for known malware when you try to open them.
File Quarantine is also available in compatible applications like Safari, Messages, iChat and Mail that download files from the Internet or receive files from external sources, such as email attachments.
Additionally, OS X blocks compromised versions of web plug-ins from functioning, including Java web apps and Adobe Flash content, to further limit your Mac's exposure to potential zero day exploits.
In this tutorial, we'll discuss how you can make sure that File Quarantine updates are turned on, which will allow your Mac to receive latest malware definitions and information about compromised web plug-ins from Apple.
How to create blank disk images with Disk Utility
Should you ever find yourself in the need to create blank disk images, OS X's built-in Disk Utility is your friend. A disk image usually has a .dmg extension and appears, looks and behaves like any ordinary file, with one key exception: launching it prompts OS X to mount the volume on the desktop.
These mountable disk images can be useful in a number of situations. For example, you may want to create blank disk images for storage.
Furthermore, disk images can be used as a virtual disk for software distribution, to burn CDs or DVDs and so forth. In this step-by-step tutorial, you'll learn how to create blank disk images in Disk Utility, at any size, with optional password protection, formatting options and more.
The ultimate guide to protecting your private information in Notes from the prying eyes
According to Apple, Notes is one of the most popular and most-frequently used stock applications on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.
People use Notes for everything from memorizing recipes to keeping track of errands, creating shopping lists, storing inspirational quotes and even passwords, codes and medical data.
Not all notes contain sensitive information, but many do. Beginning with iOS 9.3 and OS X El Capitan 10.11.4, you can protect your notes with a password or Touch ID.
In this tutorial, you'll learn how to set up Notes protection, secure items on a note-by-note basis so no one can view their contents and more.
How to move Photos library to an external drive
In addition to moving your multi-gigabyte iTunes library to an external drive, a significant amount of Mac storage space can be freed up by moving your photo libraries onto a separate drive.
If you take a lot of pictures with a DSLR camera or your iOS devices and import them in Photos, you'll fairly quickly run out of free space on most Macs.
This tutorial will guide you through the process of moving an entire library of photos to an external drive, preferably to a much larger external hard drive, in a way that won't disrupt your photography workflow.
How to disable transparency effects on your Mac
The release of OS X Yosemite in 2014 gave the Mac's user interface a fresh coat of paint in part through adopting much of the transparency effects that Apple added to iOS 7 in prior year.
Transparency is used throughout macOS and can be observed on the desktop and seen in drop-down menus, title bars, sidebars and toolbars.
This post will teach you how to disable transparency for all user interface elements that have a translucent appearance on your Mac.
How to go into and exit Split View multitasking mode from within Mission Control on your Mac
macOS has a nifty little productivity boost that makes it both easy and fun to run two apps side-by-side in your Mac's native full-screen mode.
This can be indispensable when focusing on specific tasks at hand while disregarding everything else, like online research and taking notes, or blogging and writing, or reading news while keeping tabs on your Twitter feed and so forth.
This mode, called Split View, is normally activated by dragging an app to either side of the screen by its window's upper left green button, and then choosing another app to fit the other half of the screen.
But the multi-step process is often a tad confusing for novice users, especially those accustomed to Windows 7's effortless window snapping. Thankfully, your Mac supports creating Split Views right within Mission Control, which in macOS has been tidied up and made clearer and more obvious.
In this tutorial, you'll learn how to go, and exit, Split View just by dragging app windows inside your Mac's Mission Control.
How to create shopping lists, to-dos and other checklists in Notes app
A much-improved Notes application is one of my favorite features of iOS and macOS. With it, you can now draw sketches with your finger, enrich your thoughts with photos, maps and web links—and even create a checklist of to-dos.
Checklists work perfectly for stuff like grocery lists, wish lists, quick to-dos and what not, and they're interactive so you can tick off individual items to mark them as completed. And with iCloud, changes to your notes are automatically pushed to all your devices.
In this post, we're going to demonstrate how easy it is to create interactive checklists in Notes on your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Mac and iCloud.com.
How to send video wirelessly from your Mac to TV
Since OS X 10.9 Mavericks owners of the Apple TV have been able to wirelessly mirror their Mac screen to the big screen TV with an AirPlay feature called AirDisplay. There was just one slight problem: you couldn't stream individual videos without mirroring the whole screen.
Apple has solved this annoyance with OS X 10.11 El Capitan, which introduced richer AirPlay support permitting you to send video from Safari and other apps to the Apple TV.
How to disable the mouse pointer shake gesture on Mac
Have you ever woken your Mac up from sleep, and couldn't find the mouse pointer among the mess of windows and desktop icons. We've all been there before.
Starting with El Capitan, macOS is hoping to help out with that, courtesy of a brand new addition to the operating system. It's certainly not a headline feature, but macOS can help you quickly locate your mouse or trackpad pointer by simply shaking your mouse or swiping your finger back and forth on the trackpad in quick succession.
Watch our video inside to see how it works. We'll also show you where to go to disable the feature in System Preferences.
How to create a USB install disk for OS X El Capitan the right way
Now that the final GM version of OS X El Capitan is released, it's time to revisit how to create a USB install disk. Chances are high this GM seed will be the same version of OS X that ships later this month on September 30th.
Not only is the OS X 10.11 GM available to registered Apple developers, but it's also available via Apple's public beta program. With this in mind, you may now deem it the appropriate time to take the plunge, if you already haven't thus far.
In this post, we'll show you how incredibly simple it is to create an OS X El Capitan USB install disk from scratch. All you need is a USB disk with at least 8GB of storage space.
How to install beta software on a separate partition
Itching to run the latest macOS beta, but don't want to upgrade your primary Mac installation with a beta release? You'd be wise to carefully consider the prospects of running a beta release as a daily driver. That said, it is possible to run beta software on your primary machine without compromising your current installation.
By creating a small test partition on your primary drive, you can create a great landing space for the beta. Read and watch our walkthrough to see how easy it is.