OS X

Clean up time: how to remove your account name from your Mac Menu Bar

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated February 10, 2023

Any time you set up a new Mac, or make a new user account, macOS will automatically display your account name in the Menu Bar so you know what account you're logged into.

But for some people, you probably already know what account you're logged into because you only have one account, or perhaps that text is just cluttering up your Menu Bar and you want it gone.

No matter what the scenario may be, there's an easy way to remove your macOS account name from the Menu Bar and we'll show you how it's done in this simple tutorial.

Customizing the toolbar in your Mac Finder window

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated August 14, 2018

If you own a Mac, you most likely use the Finder window on a daily basis; probably more than you even realize. But one thing you may not have known throughout the eons of using the Finder interface as Apple has created it to be used, is that you can actually customize the Finder toolbar to your liking.

By doing so, you can supercharge your Finder window's functionality with additional easy-to-reach features, and we'll show you how to customize your Mac Finder toolbar in this simple tutorial.

Mac tip: preventing Login Items and Finder windows from opening when you log in

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated July 15, 2019

Like Windows, macOS makes having apps, documents, folders or server connections launch automatically whenever you log in to your Mac as easy as dragging them to the System Preferences → Users & Groups → Login Items section.

Sometimes, one or more Login Items may cause software problems or prevent your computer from starting up properly.

Rather than remove all of your Login Items permanently, here's how you can temporarily prevent them from opening automatically when you log in, without needing to adjust your settings.

19 useful Mac startup keyboard shortcuts you should know

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated July 14, 2022

For those of you who have wondered about the many ways you can start up your Mac, here's a list of the Mac startup keyboard shortcuts you can invoke to access handy macOS features, which are only available at boot time.

Most of the time, your Mac just works—until it refuses to start up properly due to an unforeseen system error, a misbehaving app, a broken system component, and whatnot. Beyond system errors, different people have different needs when it comes to starting up their computers.

For example, you could be a pro user who dual boots between macOS and Windows on a daily basis. Others might wonder about booting a Mac from a disk other than their designated startup disk. Or perhaps you're looking to isolate the cause of a software issue in the macOS Safe Mode or boot straight into Recovery OS as the last option?

Apple seeds first betas for OS X 10.11.6 and tvOS 9.2.2 to developers

Cody Lee ∙ May 23, 2016

In addition to iOS 9.3.3, Apple on Monday also issued first betas for OS X 10.11.6 and tvOS 9.2.2 to developers. The new 10.11.6 beta, build 15G7a, can be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center or via the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store, and tvOS 9.2.2 can be installed via iTunes or Apple Configurator.

How to find the RGB or Hexadecimal value of any pixel on Mac

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated October 10, 2023

RGB, otherwise known as red/green/blue, is a color identification method used by digital computer monitors. Every color gets its own RGB value, and this is because a mixture of those three colors makes up the color you're looking at.

RGB values may be used for a variety of reasons, but mostly for those that do a lot of photo editing or who may be tinkering with graphics or web design.

A little-known feature of your Mac is that its operating system comes with a meter that can identify the RGB color of any single pixel on your screen, and in this tutorial, we'll show you just how that's done.

How to use your iPhone as a keyboard for your Mac or PC

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated July 5, 2022

Mobile Mouse Remote is a great app that turns your iOS device into a powerful utilitarian accessory for your Mac or PC. So far, we've shown you how the app can be used as a mouse or trackpad for your computer and how you can use the app as a remote control for your computer, but it also has a lot of keyboard functionality built into it to make your device into a software-based keyboard for your computer.

In this tutorial, we'll show you how you can use Mobile Mouse Remote to type or perform keyboard commands on your Mac or PC directly from your iPhone or iPad.

MacID to remain available even if Apple introduces Touch ID unlocking for Mac

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 20, 2016

There has been some talk recently about Apple potentially launching a new way to unlock your Mac with Touch ID in an upcoming OS X release.

For those who are aware, this can be done already with apps from the App Store, such as MacID, but if Apple brings this feature to the native installation of OS X, what will happen to these premium third-party apps?

What to do when iTunes can’t locate your music files

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated October 25, 2022

Have you ever had the problem where an exclamation point appears next to a song in iTunes when you try and play it? This is the last thing you want to deal with when you're in the mood to listen to your jam, but fortunately, it's usually a pretty easy thing to fix. In this tutorial, we'll show you how to get around this problem and get iTunes to play your music once again.

OWC’s new driver adds Boot Camp support to all of its aftermarket SSD upgrades

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 19, 2016

In March, Other World Computing (OWC) launched the world's first SSD upgrade for 2013 and later MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with Retina display computers. The storage upgrades came in 480GB and 1TB flavors, and we recently showed you the install process of the 1TB OWC Aura SSD upgrade.

There was unfortunately a caveat that disallowed you to use Apple's Boot Camp feature with the drives, which meant you were limited to installing one operating system on it at a time, or using a virtual machine instead of partitioning the drive and dual-booting your Mac.

As of today, OWC has fixed this problem with a new universal driver that enables Boot Camp on all of OWC's SSD upgrades to date.

Clearing your Apple Music search history from iTunes on Mac

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 18, 2016

Not long ago, we showed you how you can delete your Apple Music search history on your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad to protect your song-searching privacy, but this capability can also be achieved on your Mac.

In this tutorial, we'll show you how you can clear your search history from Apple Music on your Mac directly from the iTunes app itself.

New Mac extension simplifies opening and switching Terminal to the current folder

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 5, 2018

A new OS X extension from Hasbrang Productions, the prominent jailbreak community development team, makes it easy to open and switch a new Terminal window to the current working directory, right from the Finder's contextual menu.

Available at no charge on the Mac App Store, the aptly named TermHere installs itself as a Finder file extension, readily accessible from the right-click menu. It works as advertised and is pretty convenient, more so if you use Terminal frequently.