The Mac Admin's Blog

I remember an issue reported by a user last week who complained that his Mac asked for DVD region code multiple times for the same disc. This was in fact a PRAM or NVRAM issue. The user who called in was on iMac 27” so it was NVRAM which I had to fix. For readers who are not sure what NVRAM and PRAM is, can refer to my last post : What is PRAM and NVRAM . As we know that information regarding DVD region setting is saved in NVRAM of an iMac, so all I had to do is reset the NVRAM by pressing Command+Option+P+R before the grey screen appeared during the start up. Just by this small step, the issue was resolved.

How to disable the spotlight in Leopard Here is small tip to disable the spotlight, if you don't want it to work, just m ove these two files to another safe location and then reboot your mac. /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.Spotlight.plist /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist If you want to re-enable Spotlight just move those files back to their previous/original location, reboot your Mac and Spotlight will start working again. Please make sure that you  backup these files, if by any chance you delete them, you will not be able to reactivate Spotlight without a reinstalling the OS.

How to enable Tab key to switch between option buttons For around a year I was not aware of the fact that we can enable this option in Mac and I had to use mouse to select options like Close/Cancel/Save. Finally I managed to find out how to enable the tab key to toggele between dialog boxes. To activate this, go to System Preferences > Keyboard & mouse > Keyboard & Shrotcuts . At the very bottom there will be an option saying about full keyboard access. Check the radio button that says “All Controls”. Now when you find a dialog box (a new file in TextEdit is quickest), when you hit tab and it will take you to the other button displaying alternate option on the box.

Getting rid of confirmation prompt in Terminal while closing Sometimes when you close an application, you get a confirmation prompt if you really want to close it. We rarely close the window accidentally and if there is nothing to save in the application then this prompt is irritating, though not useless for novices. So if you find it irritating, here is an option for you to close this down so that it will not bother you next time when you close it. All you have to do is follow the below mentioned steps: i. Once Terminal is launched, go to Preferences > Settings > Shell. ii. Here you will find multiple options. iii. The one you have to work on is at the bottom under “Prompt Before Closing”. iv. Turn it to never and this will stop the warning/prompt every time.

When clicking on Apple menu, there is not list under drop down Last week I came across a case where user was not able to find any menu item when he clicked on Apple menu and he has some changes to make in System Preferences which he could not do just because of this problem. The solution for this issue is very simple, if you face this just follow these steps: Go to your account and open Library . Under library locate and open the Preferences folder. Find the .plist file for finder and drag it to the desktop. After this, launch the Apple menu, it should work fine. Once it starts working fine, just move the .plist from desktop to Trash . In any troubleshooting when you move the .plist file and it does not fixes your issue then make sure that you move that file back to its place.

The very Basic Entourage troubleshooting. 1. The very first thing you need to make sure of, is you need to be updated. Not just OS X but also your MS Office suite. Most of the problems are solved by simply keeping the machine updated. Make sure you are using the latest versions for the OS and Microsoft Office. 2. Sometimes just a normal rebooting of your Mac is required. This often fixes many problems. 3. Running Repair Permissions is another standard tool used to repair problems, but it is more effective with the inbuilt OS X applications. 4. The very first recommended step is to delete cache files which is effective many times. 5. Finally you have the option to delete the plist i.e. deleting the preferences files. Doing this the application changes all the settings to default hence solving the issue if it was due to any changes made.