Using Automator to set up Finder windows

The sample script below is coded with the following assumptions, you want the target Finder windows to be as plain as possible, i.e. no Path Bar, Preview pane, Toolbar, Sidebar or Status Bar showing, just a plain window in Icon view with the Title Bar showing the Department name with the picture icons showing a preview of the image and set to a given size with the label shown below the image. Other configurations will require additional logic and or coding. Note: See comments in the code if wanting to set a picture or color for a common background of all target folder Finder windows wanting to be displayed and arranged.

For the test environment I used my MacBook Pro and Thunderbolt Display configured with the MacBook Pro as the main screen with Menu bar and the Thunderbolt Display to its right. The script opens the four example target Finder windows, sets the view requirements and arranges them on the Thunderbolt Display as shown in the image below.

To use this script you'll need to gather information from your fully configured scenario and make the necessary code changes and to do that, do the following:

First, open the target folders and arrange them on the screen(s) to suite your needs/wants.
Note: To make it easier, by having less information to parse in the next step, close all other Finder windows.
Open Script Editor and in a new window that has no code in it, use the following command to get the proprieties of the arranged opened target Finder windows:

tell application "Finder" to get properties of windows
In the Results pane, you'll see a lot of information that may look impossible to discern, however it won't be that difficult. You might want to copy and paste this info into TextEdit to do a bit of parsing and have the info ready to copy and paste into the script, as will be needed.

From the information gathered you'll primarily want two pieces of info for each target Finder window, its name and bounds. You can see in the code what the bounds info looks like and how it's applied.
You'll get the additional view properties needed from Show View Options by selecting a target window and then click 'Finder > View > Show View Options  ⌘J' or just press ⌘J after selecting a target window. See comments in the code about the 'Show View Options' information.
Copy and paste the code below from the Browser to a new window in Script Editor and then click the Compile button to ensure there are no initial errors in the current code. The comments and code will now be much easier to discern as the Script Editor will apply proper syntactical highlighting to the code, something the Browser just doesn't properly do.

You should be able to follow the comments throughout the script in order to modify it for your use case. If you have any questions, just ask.

#
##        READ COMMENTS FOR AN UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT THE CODE IS DOING
##        AND WHAT INFORMATION YOU'LL NEED TO PROVIDE AND OR MODIFY.
#
#
#    The 'gTargetPath' variable is a global (to the script only) variable being set for
#    the path to the target folders Finder is to open and arrange, that which contain
#    the Company's employee pictures which are arranged in separate folders by
#    their respective Departments.
#
#    It's assuming a logical hierarchical folder structure where the starting point
#    is in the User's Picture folder (or other location) and progresses e.g.,
#    Company > Departments > Department Name. Obviously you'll need to
#    modify it to suite your needs. Note however, this script is coded with the
#    assumption that all target folders to be opened are all in a given parent
#    folder so as to only have to set the path to the containing parent folder.
#
#    Thus only having to provide the 'name' of each target folder and its
#    'bounds' info, for them to be programmatically opened and arranged
#    on the attached Display(s) per the other relevant setting in the script.
#
#    Note: If the target folders to be opened are not in a centralized parent
#    folder then create Aliases for the folders and place them in a centralized
#    parent folder so as to maintain a single path to use in this script.
#

global gTargetPath

set gTargetPath to (path to pictures folder as text) & "Company:Departments:"

#
#    This first 'tell application "Finder"' statement block is where
#    you'll set the 'name' of the target folders with its 'bounds' info.
#
#    The example settings should serve as a guide. Each Department
#    code block consists of two 'set' statements and the calling of the
#    'arrangeWindow(folder_name, window_bounds)' subroutine, which
#    itself does not need to be modified.
#
#    Just provide the info, as the example info for each folder shows.
#

tell application "Finder"
    activate

    ###    Accounting    ###

    set folder_name to "Accounting"
    set window_bounds to {1495, 36, 2252, 706}

    my arrangeWindow(folder_name, window_bounds)

    ###    Marketing    ###

    set folder_name to "Marketing"
    set window_bounds to {2321, 36, 3075, 706}

    my arrangeWindow(folder_name, window_bounds)

    ###    Production    ###

    set folder_name to "Production"
    set window_bounds to {3156, 36, 3912, 706}

    my arrangeWindow(folder_name, window_bounds)

    ###    Sales    ###

    set folder_name to "Sales"
    set window_bounds to {2320, 757, 3075, 1426}

    my arrangeWindow(folder_name, window_bounds)

end tell

#
##
###    Begin Subroutines        ###
##
#
#    ONLY THIS FIRST SUBROUTINE SHOULD NEED TO BE MODIFIED.
#
#    Read comments for an understanding of what the code is doing
#    and what information you'll need to provide and or modify.
#
#    The 'setFinderViewShowViewOptions(folder_name)' subroutine handles the setting
#    available when using 'Finder > View > Show View Options  ⌘J' and the values of
#    some may/will need to be modified to suite your use case.
#
#    The current setting are what were used in the test example and I'd imagine you'd
#    only have to change 'set icon size to' and 'set text size to', to the value you need.
#
#    The other setting are conducive to what I believe one would want and shouldn't
#    need adjusting. That is sans the settings if using a picture or other then default
#    color for the background in Icon view. See additional comments around each.
#

on setFinderViewShowViewOptions(folder_name)

    #    Finder > View > Show View Options  ⌘J

    tell application "Finder"
        activate window named folder_name
        tell icon view options of window folder_name
            set arrangement to arranged by name # See Finder's AppleScript Dictionary for other values.
            set icon size to 256
            set shows item info to false
            set shows icon preview to true
            set text size to 12 # Valid values: 10~16
            set label position to bottom # Valid values: [right|bottom]

            #
            ##
            ###    THE NEXT TWO PROPRIETIES CAN ONLY BE USED ONE AT A TIME!
            ##
            #
            #    For 'set background picture to (file)', remove '(*' and '*)' to
            #    activate the 'try' code block while modifying the example
            #    path to reflect the correct POSIX path to the target image file
            #    to be used for the background.
            #
            #    Note: If the image dimensions are larger then the window,
            #    it displays only the portion starting in the upper right corner
            #    of the image and starting in the upper right corner of the
            #    window. Right sizing the image to fit the size of the window
            #    ahead of time may be necessary.
            #

            (*
                try
                    set background picture to POSIX file "/Users/me/Pictures/IMG_0866.JPG"
                    tell application "Finder"
                        close Finder window named folder_name
                        open gTargetPath & folder_name
                    end tell
                end try
            *)

            #
            #    'set background color to {RGB color * 257 for each value of RGB.}'
            #
            #    For example, a color of 85% grayscale would be '217, 217, 217' in RGB color.
            #    Multiply each RGB value by 257, e.g, 217*257=55769 so the 'set ...' command
            #    below would set the background color to 85% grayscale.
            #
            #    Remove the '-- ' from in front of '-- set ...' to activate the code.
            #

            -- set background color to {55769, 55769, 55769}

        end tell
    end tell

end setFinderViewShowViewOptions

#
##
###    THE SUBROUTINES BELOW SHOULD NOT NEED TO BE MODIFIED.        ###
##
#
#    The 'setFinderView(folder_name)' subroutine programmatically handles setting
#    the 'Finder > View' menu setting for hiding the Toolbar and Status Bar.
#
#    All other [Hide/Show ...] 'View' menu commands require GUI Scripting and
#    are handled by the 'setFinderViewGUI()' subroutine following below this one.
#

on setFinderView(folder_name)

    #     Finder > View > [as Icons (icon) | as List (list) | as Columns  (column) | as Cover Flow (flow)]
    #     Finder > View > [Hide/Show Toolbar]
    #     Finder > View > [Hide/Show Status Bar]

    tell application "Finder"
        activate window named folder_name
        try
            set the current view of window folder_name to icon view
            set toolbar visible of window folder_name to false
            set statusbar visible of window folder_name to false
        end try
    end tell
end setFinderView

#
##
###      THE USE OF 'setFinderViewGUI()' REQUIRES PERMISSION FOR ASSISTIVE ACCESS.        ###
##
#
#    This subroutine handles clicking, as applicable, "Hide Tab Bar", "Hide Path Bar" and "Hide Preview"
#    on the View menu in Finder. These are not programmatically scriptable in the same manner as
#    selecting the current view to e.g. 'as Icons'. Or 'Hide/Show Toolbar' and 'Hide/Show Status Bar'
#    and as such requires GUI Scripting and thus requires permission to do so.
#
#    See https://support.apple.com/HT202802 for additional information and note while the article
#    is named "OS X: Using AppleScript with Accessibility and Security features in Mavericks",
#    nonetheless it's applicable to later versions of OS X too.
#

on setFinderViewGUI(folder_name)
    tell application "Finder"
        activate window named folder_name
        tell application "System Events"
            set menuViewItems to get name of menu items of menu 1 of menu bar item "View" of menu bar 1 of process "Finder"
            try
                considering case
                    if menuViewItems contains {"Hide Tab Bar"} then
                        click menu item "Hide Tab Bar" of menu 1 of menu bar item "View" of menu bar 1 of process "Finder"
                    end if
                    if menuViewItems contains {"Hide Path Bar"} then
                        click menu item "Hide Path Bar" of menu 1 of menu bar item "View" of menu bar 1 of process "Finder"
                    end if
                    if menuViewItems contains {"Hide Preview"} then
                        click menu item "Hide Preview" of menu 1 of menu bar item "View" of menu bar 1 of process "Finder"
                    end if
                end considering
            end try
        end tell
    end tell
end setFinderViewGUI

#
#    The 'arrangeWindow(folder_name, window_bounds)' subroutine handles
#    the processing of the other subroutines so all settings are applied to each
#    Finder window for which a folder name and the window 'bounds' have been
#    supplied in the beginning of this script in the first 'tell application "Finder"'
#    statement block. This subroutine should not have to be modified.
#
#    Thus minimizing the amount of script modifications to achive what I think
#    would be for a reasonable appearance in the overall window that is
#    displaying the photos. Which is to hide all non-essential window controls
#    to provide a clean and uncluttered look giving the pictures better focus.
#

on arrangeWindow(folder_name, window_bounds)
    tell application "Finder"
        open gTargetPath & folder_name
        my setFinderView(folder_name)
        my setFinderViewGUI(folder_name)
        my setFinderViewShowViewOptions(folder_name)
        set bounds of window named folder_name to window_bounds
    end tell
end arrangeWindow

#
##
###    End Subroutines      ###
##
#


Why is it that my Mac would rather swap than clear inactive memory?

I recently answered a question like yours, so thought I'd restate the major points for you, in case this is still a problem.

Mac OS X allocates and uses RAM differently than most versions of MS Windows and can be confusing at times. Microsoft originally built Windows to keep as much memory free as possible. Apple's memory model follows a guideline that empty RAM is a wasted resource that could be better utilized to enhance performance.

Here is a quick and somewhat simplistic breakdown of how your RAM is currently being used:

Wired: memory reserved and used by the operating system
Active: memory used by currently running programs
Inactive: memory used by programs you previously ran since your last reboot, but have since quit. Most people use a few programs repetitively all the time and may switch between them by quitting one program and then launching another. Rather than releasing the memory to be "free", the inactive programs are cached and ready to run again. Some or all of this memory will be combined with Free memory as needed by the system or programs. OS X at times seems reluctant to release inactive memory.
Free: memory as of yet unused since the last boot.
Used: total of wired, active and inactive.

The VM statistics are reset every time you reboot.

If your MacBook is capable of being upgraded beyond 4GB RAM, I'd definitely invest in a pair of 4GB SO-DIMMs for a total of 8GB installed. One other point to keep in mind concerning your MacBook is that typical notebook hard drives are slower than many of their desktop counterparts. I replaced my first generation unibody MacBook Pro's hard drive with a 256GB SSD. Performance incomparable with any "modern" MacBook Pro. The increase from hard drive to SSD was quite a bit more noticeable than my upgrade from 4GB to 8GB of RAM.


FaceTime HD camera stops transmitting live video in Catalina -- how to fix?

I know this is an old question, but just in case it helps someone else who lands on this page: it seems this is related to a bug with MacBook Pros after they wake up from sleep. You can deal with it by simply restarting the camera plugin. Close the videoconference app, open Terminal and type:
sudo killall VDCAssistant

Type in your password at the prompt and that's it. If the issue was related to the wake-up-from-sleep bug, then the Thunderbolt Display camera should be working once you start the videoconference app again.


How do I restore my iPhone from an iCloud backup?

When you restored your phone, did you do the configuration steps in iTunes or on the iPhone itself? Try restoring again, and follow the steps on the iPhone, not in iTunes. I've seen some reports claiming that iCloud restores can only be started from the device itself.


Check if apps have been transferred in iPad backup to iTunes

You could use an app such as iPhone / iPod Touch Backup Extractor (for Mac) and iPhone Backup Extractor (for Windows) to check the backup to make sure that the files that you require have been successfully backed up.

If necessary, you could attempt to restore the files to be certain that you have access to them.


Sync iPod Touch Automatically when on WiFi but not plugged in

If you're willing to jailbreak, you can install Wi-Fi Sync.

This is a jailbreak tweak invented before Apple implemented the actual iTunes Wi-Fi Sync, and can be scripted with AppleScript to sync whenever you want it scheduled.


Connection protocols to enable external drives to connect to late 2015 27-inch iMac

I’m a big fan of using a dock or enclosure to reliably connect drives rather than chaining them. Cable chains can be safe and secure and work well, but I prefer one cable and hard mounting the drives:

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB2U3DKR2/

Most basic enclosures work in JBOD mode since you don’t usually want to RAID / mirror less than 5 drives or without a nice controller for most uses.


How can I do a Full Backup of my iTunes library (including Playlists and Album Art) to an external Hard Disk?

Luckily, Apple has heard your cries:
iTunes: Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive:

  Consolidate Library

  Open iTunes Preferences:
  Choose iTunes > Preferences.
  Click Advanced.
  Make sure the option to "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to
  library" is selected.
  Click OK.

  Note: After you click OK, iTunes
  copies any files that are added that
  weren't already in the iTunes Media
  folder and places the copies in the
  folder. The original files are left in
  their original locations. To save
  space on your hard disk, you might
  want to delete the original files
  after confirming import.

  Choose File > Library > Organize Library.
  Select the option to "Consolidate files."

  Note: If you recently updated to
  iTunes 9, you might want to consider
  selecting the option to "Upgrade to
  iTunes Media organization." This
  updates the file organization of your
  iTunes Media folder.

  Click OK.

  Move to External Drive

  Quit iTunes.
  Locate your external hard drive.
  On the desktop or Finder sidebar.
  Locate your iTunes folder:
  By default, the iTunes folder is located in: /Users/username/Music

  If the iTunes folder is not in the
  default location listed above then you
  can find where the iTunes folder is
  located by following these
  instructions:

  Open your iTunes Preferences:
  Choose iTunes > Preferences.
  Click Advanced. The location of your iTunes folder will be listed in
  iTunes Media folder location box.
  Drag the iTunes folder to your external hard drive. This can take a
  while if you have a lot of items.
  When the transfer is complete, your iTunes Library will have been
  successfully copied to your external
  hard drive.

  Restoring your iTunes Library

  Quit iTunes.
  Locate your external hard drive.
  On the Desktop or Finder sidebar.
  Drag the iTunes folder (backed up earlier) from your external hard drive
  to whatever location you desire on
  your internal hard drive. It is
  recommended that you choose the
  default location for the iTunes
  folder, which is:
  /Users/username/Music
  Open iTunes while holding down the Option key (Mac) or Shift key
  (Windows).
  In the resulting dialog, click the Choose Library button.


First I'd try to just connect to the Wi-Fi network and then run the recovery. But this will not work if you have a new and empty hard drive (i.e. no OS X  recovery partition on the hard drive) and need a full Internet Recovery from Apple's server.

If it doesn't work, I'd try and connect the Mac to another Mac or a Windows PC using a common Ethernet cable (network cable) and enable "Internet Sharing" on that system. On a Mac, Internet Sharing is simply enabled via System Preferences > Sharing. I don't know how this is done in Windows.

If that doesn't work either, I'd simply see that I connect the Mac to a different Wifi or ethernet-based network that doesn't require you to go through such a captive portal. Just remember not to enter any account credentials over public Wi-Fi (such as your Apple ID).


Mac asking for multiple "login" keychain app passwords but won't accept them

If you mean annoying popups such as:

  X wants to use the "login" keychain. Please enter the keychain password.

you need to type your correct keychain password (usually it's the same as your login password, unless you've changed it).

It happens, because different mentioned services (see the list via: sudo launchctl list) trying to access your credentials which are encrypted and stored using Keychain (e.g. in ~/Library/Keychains/) and your login.keychain file is encrypted with different password than specified.

It's not likely you can fix it without specifying the right password, however you can try the following options (which can give you some clues):

You may want to disable specific services from accessing your keychain, e.g.

sudo launchctl list
sudo launchctl stop <job label>

Run Keychain Access from Utilities and invoke Keychain First Aid from the menu to verify consistency of your keychain configuration.
Run Disk Utility and invoke Repair Disk/First aid in case there is any temporary glitch (from corruption of the file).
Check your ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain, such as size, the last modified date and time (which can lead you to specific changes on that date) or any potential backups in that folder or somewhere else (login.keychain).
Try unlocking your keychain file from the command line:

$ security unlock-keychain ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain

Using -p you can specify the password on the command line, so if you have list of potential valid password, you can write small brutal-force script.

Try the same on older login.keychain files if you've to verify that it worked.
Try dumping the content of keychain from the shell, e.g.

Try security dump-keychain command which can be used to dump the contents of a keychain.
Try keychaindump command which can read keychain file by hunting for unlocked keychain master keys located in the memory space of the securityd process, and uses them to decrypt keychain files.

$ sudo ./keychaindump ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain
[*] Searching process 16 heap range 0x7feec8c00000-0x7feec8d00000
[*] Searching process 16 heap range 0x7feec8d00000-0x7feec9000000
[*] Searching process 16 heap range 0x7feeca000000-0x7feeca400000
[*] Found 4 master key candidates
[*] Trying to decrypt wrapping key in ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain
[+] Found master key: XYZ
[+] Found wrapping key: XYZ

Try the EnCase's dumpkeychain application, which works similar as above, see: Examining Mac OS X User & System Keychains.

Restore your ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain file from Time Machine or somewhere else, and unlock it manually (security unlock-keychain <file>).
In Keychain Access Preferences try Synchronize login keychain password with account, however if you're not remembering your password, it rather won't help.
The last resort would be to do Reset Default Keychain in Keychain Access Preferences which would revert it to factory defaults and create a new empty "login" keychain and your current default keychain will be moved aside, but not deleted. That means all remembered passwords are gone unless you've some of them remembered in the web-browser, but you can start storing them from scratch.


Applescript to get Dropbox file direct/share link

To generate a shared link from a private folder you must make a request to Dropbox's servers using authentication with the Dropbox API. See the docs here.
I am not sure you can do that from an applescript, maybe you can use curl. But if you want this in an Alfred workflow you can always use another scripting language like php or python, which are more suitable.


This post is for a different problem, but contains the same solution:

How do I fix my SSD after installing Yosemite and Enabling TRIM? No boot & can't erase

I had to go to the terminal (it is available in the installation tool) and do as described in the link:

Use diskutil list
and check which volume/partition you want to delete (for me the clue was the size corresponding to my hard drive).

Then type diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ name disk0.
"name " will be the name of the volume you create.

Close the terminal, go back to the installation tool and install as you would expect.


Using USB ports for charging when MacBook Pro is not connected to power source and with lid closed

You'll need to keep your MacBook Pro awake while the lid is closed. There is no setting within macOS that lets you override the default behaviour (enter sleep mode when the lid is closed).

You can use a free 3rd party app called InsomniaX. It lets you disable the sleep mode while the lid is closed.

  It always has been a missing feature: disabling the sleep mode on a Apple Laptop. Who does not want to use it as a big juke-box or go warwalking. The best looking server ever, especially at about one inch height. This small utility is what you will want, this small utility acts as a wrapper to the Insomnia kernel extension.

Image source: http://semaja2.net/ye-ol-projects/insomniaxinfo/


Other than speed, is there a reason that a 10W iPad charger shouldn't charge a new MacBook Pro 2016?

A 10W iPad charger should in theory work and you would be correct that it would be a slow charge.   Well, to be accurate, it would be a horribly slow charge - you are getting a charger that is 1/6th (17%) of what is required (61W).

Will there be a problem?  No.

Will it charge?  Slowly.  Molasses in January slowly. From Apple's web site:

  Your Mac will charge from USB-C power adapters not manufactured by
  Apple if they adhere to the USB Power Delivery specification.

Assuming you are using a genuine Apple iPad charger, it should charge since Apple charges adhere to the spec.


Startup security utility menu not properly popping up

This utility can only be run on the following Macs with the T2 Security Chip:

iMac Pro
Mac Pro introduced in 2019
Mac mini introduced in 2018
MacBook Air introduced in 2018 or later
MacBook Pro introduced in 2018 or later

More information about the Startup Security Utility can be found at this Apple Support Document.
Information about the T2 chip can be found at this Apple Support Document.


My OS is 10.10.3, and I have both external Time Machine volume, and a secondary external volume.

I also use multiple Spaces with Mission Control, and I sometimes have Finder windows on different Spaces that refer to locations upon my secondary external volume.

When ejecting a volume, I noticed sometimes that the file system will treat the volume as "being in use," apparently because another Finder window was open. However, this behaviour is not consistent.


Looking for an app to amplify audio from YouTube

Personally, when I came across a YouTube video with low audio output, I use an app called VLC player and its audio to boost the signal.

The VLC player is free.

Just copy the YouTube video link in the VLC player, then use its Audio to modify it to your liking.

It also comes with a very handy Audio Mixer, allowing you to set up full range of audio output.

VLC also allows you to synchronize the Audio-Video playback and more.

For example, while you're watching the video, just press the J or K keys to move the audio back or forward 50 milliseconds (or more), respectively.


Diagnostic Software for iPad fingerprint button?

Beta software is not considered stable. The first troubleshooting step should have been removing the beta software. If this did not resolve, completely wiping the device using iTunes > Set up as new (not restored from a backup). If the button does not work after a full wipe and set up as new, it could be indicative of a mechanical failure. Apple can run a diagnotic over the phone or in store to see if the Touch ID module can be detected. More likely the beta software.


Macbook Pro changing desktop picture randomly

We have seen this on occasion.  Our solution has been to:

go to Desktop & ScreenSaver (Apple>System Preferences)
Choose a different photo (or folder)
Change the "CHange Picture" time to something different.
CHange back both ("change picture" time and photo) to original settings.
close Preferences tab..

The theory we hold is that the preferences are sometimes getting corrupted, and over-writing/re-writing is fixing it....


Is there a way to navigate or filter Launchpad using type-selection?

I guess you can just forgo launchpad and try Alfred. It's navigated by keyboard anyway, so you can configure it to just show apps when you type something into the bar. Because, as you said, a user probably knows the app their searching for, theres not really a point to look at a grid of all the options in Launchpad, when you know you are only going to need one.


Can I take GoPro videos that I have imported on to my iPad and later put them on my MacBook Pro?

vkvau is essentially correct, when you sync your iPad to your Mac iPhoto should open and give you the option of importing all/selected pictures/videos and then an option to delete them.

It's all quite easy and exactly as the iPad was designed to work.


How can playlists be preserved in iTunes?

The best way to preserve your playlists is to manage them, as far as possible, within iTunes.

It seems to me from your question and comment that the biggest issue arises when you rename a file you've previously added to a playlist. However, instead of renaming the file within your operating system, you should do it within iTunes. One way to do this is:

Within iTunes right-click on the song
From the context menu that appears, select Get Info (or Info)
This brings up all of the metadata for the song, including the field for its name
Rename the song
Click OK

Managing all of this via iTunes will ensure you don't break your playlists.

Also, you may want to check your advanced settings within iTunes and play with the Keep iTunes Media folder organized and Copy files to the iTunes Media folder when adding to library options to determine what works best for you.


You should be able to use a tool, such as a GParted Live CD, to delete the swap file partition and resize the OS X partition afterwards.

Per this Apple discussion forum that covered this topic:

  I believe that you can do it with a Live GParted CD.

  http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

  Boot with the Live CD in the drive and delete the swap partition. You
  may even be able to resize the OS X partition with GParted afterwards.

Alternately, back up all of your data and applications and wipe/repartition the main drive and install OS X from scratch. Takes a bit longer, but will give you a fresh OS X installation.


How can I see messages I send in Mail 5's Conversation View?

Go to Mail-> Preferences-> Viewing and check Include related messages (under View conversations: at the bottom).

This will show "related messages", which (as far as I can tell) means messages that you send in the same conversation.


How to charge MacBook Pro quickly from an iMac?

This cable costs $39 retail. At this price I am expecting better
  performance for charging than what I'm getting here. How could I
  diagnose this issue?

There's nothing to diagnose because everything is operating as it should.

The problem is not the cable (it's irrelevant, actually) nor the iMac as it's only capable of delivering up to 15W of power via the Thunderbolt 3 ports. From Apple's Support Document.

  Your iMac also has two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports....Thunderbolt 3 also supports USB 3.1 Gen 2 connectivity at up to 10Gbps, and can supply 15W of power per port to external devices.

Emphasis mine

Your MacBook Pro requires a 61W charger so, in essence, you're using a charger that can only supply a quarter (25%) of what you're MacBook Pro requires.  Therefore, the long charging time is accurate and to be expected.

Bottom line - use the charger that came with your MacBook Pro.


Can I hide a drive from the filesharing network, even from admin acct?

Hmmm... interesting question. I haven't tried this personally but it looks like you can edit /etc/fstab and add the UUID of the disk with the 'noauto' flag:

http://www.radiotope.com/content/os-x-hiding-and-mounting-partition

I was going to propose changing permissions to prevent the other user from having access to the files. But, as tubedogg mentioned, if the user is an admin they can undo anything you've done.

Perhaps it's best to eject it when you're done if you're concerned about other admins having access to the data?


The first thing I would do is reset your NVRAM.

Resetting the NVRAM on Late-2016 MacBook Pro models

Older Macs had what's called Parameter RAM (PRAM), newer Macs use Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM). To reset the NVRAM on all Late-2016 MacBook Pro models (with and without Touch Bar) follow these steps:

Shut down your machine. Yes, a full shut down, not just logging out.
Press the power button and then immediately press the commandoptionpr keys.
Keep these keys pressed down for at least 20 seconds!
Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.

Note: When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, time zone information, etc).

If resetting the NVRAM doesn't resolve it, try resetting your SMC as well.

Resetting the SMC

Shut down your Mac
Unplug the power cable from your Mac
For 10 seconds, press and hold at the same time the shiftcontroloption keys (on the left side of the built-in keyboard) and the power button
After 10 seconds let go of all keys and the power button
Plug in the power cable
Turn your Mac back on with the power button.

Let me know how you go, as there are other things you can try. However, I've found that resetting the NVRAM and also the SMC will usually resolve unusual or random issues pertaining to the Touch Bar.

--[EDIT]--

This edit adds further things to try in order to resolve this issue. However, since macOS 10.12.5 has just been released, I would update the OS prior to trying the following solutions.

Use Terminal to kill the Control Strip

This is a straightforward way to manually reset the Control Strip. To do this:

Launch the Terminal app (by default located within the Utilities folder)
Enter the following command killall ControlStrip (or you can just copy and paste it in)
Press return

There is no need to restart the Mac after doing this.

Change what the Touch Bar shows

In System Preferences you can change what the Touch Bar shows. I would change this, exit System Preferences, and then change it again (if necessary).

To do this:

Got to Apple > System Preferences
Click on the Keyboard preference pane
Ensure the Keyboard tab is selected
Around the centre of the screen you'll see a Touch Bar shows drop-down list
Change the selection to Expanded Control Strip (if this is already selected, change it to App Controls with Control Strip)
Exit System Preferences
Test your Touch Bar music controls
If it doesn't work, repeat steps 1 to 5 and change the Touch Bar shows drop-down list selection back to the original selection and test again

Troubleshooting steps

If all else fails, you can try these troubleshooting steps:

Function keys - Press the fn key and try using the F7, F8, and F9 keys respectively as your media control keys and see what happens.
Use another user account - Try using another user account temporarily to determine if the problem persists. If you don't have another user account, you can add one in System Preferences > Users & Groups. Once you've added it, log into it and see how your media controls work.
Safe Mode - Boot your MBP up in Safe Mode and try using the media controls keys. To do this, hold the shift key down as you boot up. This will take a little longer to boot as your Mac cleans caches, runs some diagnostics, etc. Once you've tested, exit Safe Mode by restarting your MBP and then test your media control keys again.

Once you've tried these troubleshooting steps, report back on what you found.


How can i install version 10.12.0 on my late 2008 macbook pro?

The latest version of Mac OS X for a Late 2008 MacBook Pro is OS X 10.11.6, and therefore if the requirements for the version of MS Word your university is using is macOS 10.12.0, you'll not be able to install it.

From the Microsoft website:

  Operating system Office 2019 for Mac is supported on the three most recent versions of macOS. When a new version of macOS is released, the Office 2019 for Mac Operating System requirement becomes the then-current three most recent versions: the new version of macOS and the previous versions.

  Product functionality and feature availability may vary on older systems. For the best experience, use the latest version of any operating system specified above.


How can I mirror one iPhone 4 to another?

Without jailbreak, No.

With jailbreak, still, No.

Furthermore, it is considered pretty rude to do that IF it's for spying on someone.


Installing Casper; a program that needs to be placed in a directory on my PATH

First of all the casper-2.1-release.tar.gz file would not extract successfully for me using the normal default OS X way and I tried three other and different methods. I was able to extract the contents however I had to set the casper file to executable after the extraction with the one method that successfully extracted all files. The other normal and default OS X method failed to extract beyond the casper-2.1-release.tar tar-ball. IMO There is something wrong with the casper-2.1-release.tar.gz archive file.

The picture below shows the line in the casper bash script executable that the "Then, the file casper should be edited such that CASPERBASE points to this directory." is referring to.

Line 19 is where you set CASPERBASE= to CASPERBASE=${path_to_casper_directory}, e.g.:

CASPERBASE=${$HOME/casper-2.1}

As I extracted the archive to my Home Folder.

Then for the part of the install instructions "Lastly, the edited casper should be placed in a directory that is on your PATH." I then edited my ̃/.bash_profile file, and added the $HOME/casper-2.1 directory to my $PATH, e.g:

export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/casper-2.1

I then closed Terminal and reopened it for the change to take effect.

Note the picture below is showing the contents of the casper-2.1-release.tar.gz file in Pacifist however it could not extract the highlighted casper file, while it did extract the other files.  I had to use Zipeg to extract all files but had to set the casper file to executable after the extraction, using chmod u+x casper while in the casper-2.1 directory in Terminal.


It's possible to forward/reverse a track with Apple EarPods remote?

To forward a track, double-press and hold the middle button of the remote.
To reverse a track, triple-press and hold the middle button of the remote.


Microsoft sculpt keyboard unresponsive on Mac OS Sierra

https://www.themtparty.com/karabiner-settings-microsoft-sculpt-keyboard/

the Karabiner download allowed my Sculpt keyboard to work on my El Capitan system.  I'm excited as the keyboard suddenly stopped working a few weeks ago for no reason.  Happy for this download, will donate coffee $ as suggested


In general - it depends on how long you missed emails.

A call to Apple Support would get you specific information about your account as well as an answer. You can also try sending yourself a message from another provider to see if you get a hard bounce error or if the message queues.

With iCloud - my experience is you get some leeway and Apple stores messages for a short amount of time (days to a week) for you to realize you are full and then clean up space. They block sending immediately so you notice the error condition and seek help.


How do I find my iPad apps that run on macOS using Catalyst?

You need to either contact the developer of that app to see if they've created a version using Catalyst or search the Mac App Store for a specific app name.  There's no automated way to find out if an iPad app was updated to run on the Mac.

Right now, Apple requires a separate purchase be made.  For example, if you have a paid iPad app that the developer updated for the Mac, you would need to pay for the Mac version in the MAS, and vica-versa.

This could change in the future but a new purchase is required right now (not applicable for free apps, of course).


Can I see if/when someone opens Messages on my Mac?

There are a number of applications which let you create macros and scripts and trigger them in various ways. I have the most experience with Keyboard Maestro, so that's what I used for the example macro below. However, as Tetsujin commented, simply password protecting your computer probably makes more sense from a security standpoint; there isn't really any reason someone else should have access to your account.


Can't play any music off-line from iPhone

Apple Music made some fundamental changes to the way the Music app works (when enabled). You now have your entire Apple Music Library in the cloud so that it is accessible from all your devices. With this, all of that content is not automatically downloaded to your device, and in fact, the opposite can occur as Apple uploads music to their cloud.

So now, you must specifically download whatever content you would like to listen to offline. To do that, open the Music app and navigate to a playlist, album, artist, or song that you would like to download. Now select the "..." (ellipsis menu icon) and choose "Make Available Offline". After the songs download, an icon will display next to each one indicating that it is available for offline listening.

You can also download your tracks directly from the album/playlist view:


Connecting a Retina MacBook Pro to a VGA Display?

You should get a mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter (sometimes referred to as a Thunderbolt to VGA adapter, but it's the same thing). Apple sells one, but they can be had elsewhere for less, including at my personal favourite, Monoprice.

You could do HDMI to VGA, but it would require a (typically bulky) active adapter. There are some HDMI to VGA adapters that aren't active, but they rely on graphics card support that Macs don't have. The DisplayPort to VGA adapters are technically active adapters, but for whatever reason they seem to be much more compact than HDMI to VGA ones.

There are USB based display adapters, and some of them have VGA output, but I'd only recommend them for situations where other outputs aren't available. They're essentially a USB connected graphics card, which means that performance is lacking, and it takes up CPU and memory resources that the built-in outputs don't. Useful for some situations, but in your case I'd stay away.


If you use 'df -h' does this show about 98GB used on your hard drive?  APFS uses a container and volumes within that container that grow as needed.  What you see in 'diskutil list' is the size of the various APFS volumes rather than the containers.  E.g:

/dev/disk0 (internal):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                         500.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     314.6 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         500.0 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +500.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            269.6 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 86.1 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                2.1 GB     disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      3.2 GB     disk1s4
   5:                APFS Volume Mojave Beta             38.7 GB    disk1s5

MacBook:~ rhe$ df -lh
Filesystem     Size   Used  Avail Capacity iused               ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk1s5  466Gi   37Gi  173Gi    18%  819616 9223372036853956191    0%   /
/dev/disk1s4  466Gi  3.0Gi  173Gi     2%       3 9223372036854775804    0%   /private/var/vm
/dev/disk1s1  466Gi  251Gi  173Gi    60% 1767851 9223372036853007956    0%   /Volumes/Macintosh HD


Can I download xcode 6 without dev account?

Apple won't provide freely a beta of Xcode. Only Yosemite is available for non dev-members. Xcode 6 will be free once it reached a release version.

Though, you'll be able to find XCode on non legal downloading site...


How can I initiate a modem connection from the command line?

To connect a network device, use the System Events dictionary:

tell application "System Events"
    tell current location of network preferences
        connect service "Sprint 3G"
    end tell
end tell

assuming the name of the service is Sprint 3G:

To disconnect, change connect to disconnect:

tell application "System Events"
    tell current location of network preferences
        disconnect service "Sprint 3G"
    end tell
end tell

Once you've saved your scripts with names, you can use the terminal open command to kick off either script.


For a given Location, I only want to connect to one specific WiFi connection. How?

Source:
Here's how to forget a wifi location so that you don't auto-connect to it when in range.

Click the Wi-Fi icon toward the upper right of your screen in the menu bar. It looks like a pizza slice.
Click on Open Network Preferences.

Click the Advanced button.
Click the Wi-Fi tab.
Select the network(s) you'd like your Mac to forget.
Click on the minus (-) button.
Click on the OK button.
Click on the Apply button.


Does the real-world MacBook Pro battery life scale linearly with it's capacity?

First of all a note, coconutBattery is a tool which helps you indicating a battery problem. It's measurements are not 100% accurate...

If you really want to know the health of your battery, I suggest you take a look at System Profiler (Applications < Utilities < Sytem Profiler) and open the 'Power' bar. Here you see information comming directly from Mac OS. It could be the same as coconutBattery, depending on what version you use, but this is the most reliable information about your battery...

You have Charge Information and Health Information

And to answer your question, I don't think their is a strict correlation between the lifetime of a battery and the number of mAh left (at least none that I found of). There's been a lot of writing about batteries, their lifespan and their health. But it depends on so much external factors, you can't make a decent prediction of it.
As your Mac ages, you battery's health will go down. Learn to live with it :)


What's the most recent Mac that will run Leopard?

These sites can be useful for such questions:

http://www.everymac.com/systems/by_capability/minimum-macos-supported.html

http://www.everymac.com/systems/by_capability/maximum-macos-supported.html


Sign out of FaceTime and Messages on the device that you want to control better.
Write down on a piece of paper all the Apple ID that are logged in to messages and FaceTime on the affected pool of devices.
De-register your cellular number from other people's AppleID at https://selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage
Sign in with your AppleID on only the select devices you want to receive messages.

Test. At that point, you can ask a follow-on question with a short list of the unique accounts and unique devices and/or ask if there is an Apple support article similar to the one that documents how to remove a phone number from an email (for instance) if that's not the sticking point.


How does macOS identify the signing status of an app downloaded from the Internet?

The information is stored within extended attributes, with additional information potentially embedded within an application.

Extended Attributes

This quarantine information is stored as an extended attribute. Use the xattr tool to view the attributes associated with a file or application.

The attribute causing this message is com.apple.quarantine.

See How do I remove the “extended attributes” on a file in Mac OS X? and App can't be opened because it is from an unidentified developer for more details.

Gatekeeper and Code Signatures

The extended attribute is used by Gatekeeper on macOS and is discussed in How to set (restore) the com.apple.quarantine attribute?

A optional digital signature embedded within an application is used to determine the application's developer. If a signature is not found, macOS presents the application as being from an unidentified developer.


PHP won't include files properly since updating to Mojave

I would sanitize your input files for non printable Unicode characters. This appears to be something common when crossing platforms or using code editors that don’t show you this clearly.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/55841767/unable-to-display-image-using-matplotlib-pyplot-on-ipython-project
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/53016584/python-no-such-file-or-directory-error-trying-to-print-a-file-list-directory-on

What's happening looks to be different handling of text encoding - the log statement is hiding characters that the program is passing as a legitimate path in the filesystem.

It’s lucky this worked before on older OS, but the error is pointing out that you don't have /Applications\xe2\x81\xa9/AMPPS as a path and instead need your web code / framework to be looking at /Applications/AMPPS

It would be curious if all of these come from copying and pasting from the get info box and then the text editor where those values are pasting take the styled text and not the plain text version of the clipboard contents.


Why is FAT16 limited to read-only with TrueCrypt on Snow Leopard?

I have used TrueCrypt 7.1a on Mas OS X 10.6.8 with OSXFUSE 2.3.8 with no problems.   MacFuse is dead.  TrueCrypt's official Mac installer 7.1a installs OSXFUSE as did 7.1.  Not sure how you installed TrueCrypt but if not with the Mac installer, then uninstall what you have (including MacFuse) and install using the installer.

Also make sure you have read/write/ownership of the TC container file on the disk.


Why do I get a HTML unescaped context menu in Chrome?

this issue has been fixed via the next update. Sorry for the late response.


Downgrade macOS Sierra of a brand new MacBook

Macbook Pro 2015 came with El Captain version pre-installed in factory therefor you can easily revert back to Factory installed OS by using Internet Recovery.
Don't forget to Backup everything. (since it is a new Macbook pro, maybe you don't have much in it yet to backup? otherwise backup everything. Use TimeMachine to backup)

Now, turn off your Macbook. Turn it on and hold Command+Option+R
You will see a rotating earth icon. Connect to your WiFi and let it download and install El Captain from Apple servers.


How can I set the screen refresh rate for a CRT VGA monitor in Leopard?

This handy utility SwitchResX can give you the option to adjust your monitor settings.

There is also this utility (which I haven't tried/tested)


Finder will not generate thumbnails for files larger than 10 MB, unless it's a package with a Quick Look preview pre-generated, such as a large Pages document. It doesn't seem to be possible to increase the limit currently. You can provide feedback to Apple here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html


Hard drive not showing up on Mac Mini A1347

I had exactly the same problem (on an iMac). And no, if the system doesn't see it, you can't do anything to test it. Opening the computer is the way to go. I opened mine and discovered that one of the Sata connectors (my Sata cable had two connectors : data and power) had come lose. It might be something similar, although most probably I'd say disk is toast.

What you can do once you open the computer is put your disk in an external enclosure and test it with another computer to see if it's recognized and properly formatted (even if it's not properly formatted, it should show up, but as long as it's in the enclosure, why not format it correctly if you see it's not). That will save you the trouble of closing the Mac mini after unplugging and plugging the Sata cable on a bad disk. If the disk is fine, check the Sata cable and Sata connectors, and try again. If you computer still doesn't recognize the disk, you probably have a bad Sata cable. Could be a bad Sata connector on the motherboard, but that's unlikely.


Lock every object across entire keynote deck using applescript?

If you look at the Keynote AppleScript Dictionary you will see that the "group" element has no property for the boolean "locked". It seems that the only things that can be locked are the individual elements of the slide, but not a group on the slide, nor the slide itself.

If you can, I'd suggest going through and ungrouping the groups in your slide, re-run your script to lock all of the individual elements on each slide, then go back and group them again (If you can group locked items, which I do not know). Depending on how or why the elements are grouped, this might have a negative visual impact on the group itself (They might not look right).

I would have posted this as just a comment, but Stack Exchange won't let me comment yet. So here is your "Answer", not that it solves your problem.


Choosing native screen resolution aspect ratio when screen sharing

After half a year and 2 bounties, no-one genuine solution, so the answer appears to be a simple "You can't do that".


How to hide Spotlight in menu bar but keep the ⌘Space keyboard shortcut?

The easiest way I know to do this is with a third party app like Bartender (https://www.macbartender.com). The app is used to hide pretty much any menu bar icon, and has a lot of great features. It's kind of a "must have" for and Mac Power User.


Unable to mail from command-line - public/pickup: No such file or directory

Sending mail from the command line involves two things.

Open the Apple mail app (/Applications/Mail.app only) and make sure your default account can send mail (or be sure you configured internet accounts preference pane to provide Apple mail credentials for sendmail )
Send the mail without making any command line or Unix changes.

How to send an email from command line?

Step 1 is missing and assumed in the linked question / selected answer. Also, if you don’t want to send mail from an account you enter in your mail app, grab a stand alone install of sendemail as it’s quite easy to set up with your smtp server of choice:

How to send email from OS X command line


UPDATE: Before using Putty, I recommend using a Q-Tip/tissue to clean the surface (while being careful not to push anything into the mesh).

Wall/Mounting Putty works wonders!

Any brand is fine (likely available in your local drugstore), here’s an example:

Push your AirPods/EarPods (1 at a time) into the putty as much as you can, and then pull them out and you’ll see a bunch of dirt left over on the putty! So satisfying and they’re good as new.


Why does Preivew.app automatically change the saturation of some images?

This seems to have something to do with the color profile.
You can change the used profile to display an image in preview by using View -> Soft Proof with Profile.

Finder uses your displays calibration-profile by default

reference: http://photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/00TmxN


Why does my Magic Mouse 2 not work on OS X login screen?

Be sure to click the mouse once to wake it up, because it will likely have gone to sleep.


Downloading songs from external hard dirve

When you add the music to iTunes to put on your phone, you're importing it into iTunes. If you import music into iTunes, it will get stored on your internal HD. ITunes has its own folders on your computer containing all of your files.


Siri: How to add an item to specific Reminders list AND set a reminder time?

Check this question for the sentence structure you need to use to achieve this:
How to add a reminder to a specific list and time via Siri

Add "list name" reminder "new item" on "date and time"
Example: "Add activities reminder basketball practice on friday at 2pm."


"Optimized" apps are adapted for the bigger screen sizes of later iPhones, they may also include functionality which requires new hardware only available in these models (e.g. for Touch ID). Besides that apps which run under iOS 7 run on all hardware supporting this iOS version.


How do I activate SNMP on Airport base stations

SNMP appears to be on by default. I bought a new Airport Express recently (the white Apple TV looking version), and just ran this command against it: snmpwalk -v 2c -c public -O e 10.0.1.1 and it returned the huge list of OIDs/values I would have expected.

You are correct that the community cannot be changed with the 6.* version of the AirPort Utility app, but 5.6.1 is still compatible even with Mountain Lion. One Mr. Frank Tisellano created an Automator Workflow to install 5.6.1. After installing this, you'll have both versions of the Airport Utility side-by-side. Using 5.6.1 will allow you to customize the community string, and the other advanced options that were lost in version 6.

See this answer to install Airport Utility 5.6 on Mountain Lion.


App-based jailbreaks: You will have to sideload the .ipa with Cydia Impactor or download it from ignition.fun(visit this website on your iOS device and go into the jailbreaks section). You will then need to "trust" the profile, then open up the app on your iOS device and click jailbreak.

Web-based jailbreaks: You open up the website on your iOS device and click jailbreak.

Computer-based jailbreaks: You download the jailbreak app to your computer. Connect your iOS device and click jailbreak on your computer(make sure your device is trusted via iTunes first).

No substrate/substitute jailbreaks: These jailbreaks do not support tweaks or Cydia and only give you root access. You may be able to use apps like Filza or NewTerm 2. There are currently no jailbreaks like this.

If any of the links are broken try using the Wayback Machine.

All iOS versions are currently jailbreakable

If your device is not supported, see my answer below about checkra1n, which can jailbreak all iOS versions.

11.0 - 13.5

unc0ver (app-based)

12.0 - 12.4

Chimera (app-based) (installs Sileo, a more modern alternative to Cydia)

11.0 - 11.4.1

Electra (app-based)

Important: If your device crashes/freezes frequently while using Electra, install Apple Maps.

10.0 - 10.3.3 (recommended, 64-bit only)

Totally-not.spyware.lol (web-based) (if you are wondering, it is safe, the spyware thing is just a joke)

Important: It will ask you if you want to install doubleH3lix or Meridian if your device supports both. Choose doubleH3lix unless your device doesn't have a headphone jack.

10.0 - 10.3.3 (64 bit only, only devices w/ headphone jack)

doubleH3lix (app-based)

10.0 - 10.3.3 (all 64 bit devices, use doubleH3lix instead if you can)

Meridian (app-based)

10.0 - 10.3.3 (32 bit only)

h3lix (app-based)

9.3.5 (32 bit only)

Phoenix (app-based)

9.3 - 9.3.3 (64 bit only) (recommended)

jbme.qwertyoruiop.com (web-based)

9.2 - 9.3.3 (64 bit only)

Pangu IPA (app-based)

9.0 - 9.0.2 (32 bit) 9.0 - 9.1 (64 bit only)

Pangu9 (computer-based)

9.0 - 9.3.4 (32 bit only) (recommended)

jailbreak.me (web-based)

9.0 - 9.3.4 (32 bit only)

Home Depot (app-based)

8.4.1 (32 bit only)

EtasonJB (app-based)

8.0 - 8.4

TaiG 8.0-8.1.2 or TaiG 8.1.3-8.4 (computer-based)


Why won't El Capitan run Homebrew after it has been successfully installed?

It's not clear to me what commands you actually entered into the Terminal, but based on the output, it looks like they were not entered correctly.

brew install upx

This is one command.  It instructs brew to install the command-line program upx.  It needs to be entered on its own line, after which you press enter.

upx -d "/Applications/Ableton Live 9 Suite.app/Contents/MacOS/Ableton Live 9 Suite"

This is the second command.  It tells the program upx to do something to the file at the path specified, with the -d option switch.  It assumes your Ableton installation exists on that exact path /Applications/Ableton Live 9 Suite.app/Contents/MacOS/Ableton Live 9 Suite with that exact name.  I'm not familiar with upx, so I assume that you're using the correct syntax for that program's execution.

The $ in the command you copied are shell prompts, and not part of the actual commands.


Are new macOS versions retained in the recovery partition?

Found the answer to my own question:

The simple answer is, whenever you perform a major OS X upgrade, the Recovery HD partition is also upgraded to the same version of OS X. So, an upgrade from Lion to Mountain Lion will result in a Recovery HD linked to OS X Mountain Lion.

source: https://www.lifewire.com/identify-os-x-version-on-recovery-hd-partition-2259968


All that is possible by using fs_usage with several options. You may also pipe it to grep to further restrict the output.

To exclude a process or a pid (and also fs_usage itself) use the -e option:

sudo fs_usage -e WindowsServer
sudo fs_usage -e 123

Specifying the -f option turns on output filtering based on the mode provided.
The possible modes are:

network    Network-related events are displayed.
filesys    Filesystem-related events are displayed.
pathname   Pathname-related events are displayed.
exec       Exec and spawn events are displayed.
diskio     Disk I/O events are displayed.
cachehit   In addition, show cache hits.

Example:

sudo fs_usage -e WindowsServer -f filesys

To just show a special pid/command and exclude all other, use the pid (enter ps aux to get it) or the name of the command or application

Examples:

sudo fs_usage -f filesys Terminal
sudo fs_usage -f filesys 178

A different possibility is to pipe the output of fs_usage to grep:

sudo fs_usage -e -f filesys|grep Terminal
sudo fs_usage -e -f filesys|grep -v grep|grep write
sudo fs_usage -e|grep -v grep|grep -v WindowsServer|grep ioctl

The part grep -v grep or grep -v WindowsServer excludes "grep" and/or "WindowsServer" from occurring in the result.

Sources:
Apple developer
Rentzsch


Messages in the Cloud was removed in iOS 11 beta 5 and wasn't reintroduced for the first release of iOS 11. It will be available in a future update.


How to track email open/forward events with Mac Mail (or standalone App)?

The mail protocol does not mandate that the other end acknowledge a message.

Most of these programs send rich text mail with a link to a web page embedded in them.  Loading the email into a browser fetches the link.  By keying the link to the web page to the user's email address, you can track who opened it.

So you set up your web server so that it has a virtual host with a rewrite rule that rewrites every request to a single 1 bit GIF file. But you log the request first.

Spam is a lot harder to detect.  Some mail servers will bounce it back.  More and more however just silently drop it.  Your best bet here is to try every month for 3 months, then delete it from your records.


I suggest going to https://developer.apple.com/support/certificates/ and do a bit of research on certificates. Certs are used to verify the identity of whoever made a program, or owns a website (for encrypted connections).

At that link you can also find the Apple-supplied root certs you can add to your keychain if you're missing any specific certificate, or have a malicious one. Certs are stored in your keychains.

* Be sure to keep an eye for a lock or green text in the safari address bar to indicate an encrypted connection! That page will be a target for middle-men! *

The beginning of this year was chaos for certificates. With OS X 10.11 and many many certs expiring, waiting for renew, many hackers took advantage. You may have picked something up, as I know I have and still have it. I have the same issue as you.

Easiest solution (maybe) is to reinstall. Back up your data, but do NOT use it to restore your account after the reinstall.

Let me know if you need more information.

Also, unless you're actually experiencing problems, stay away from the console. It'll drive you into insanity. The messages are never pleasent. Here are some of mine for example of what (According to apple tier 3 engineers) is normal behavior. If your accounts are having issues, then I would worry about it.

4/7/16 20:59:33.000 kernel[0]: decmpfs.c:579:decmpfs_fast_file_is_compressed: decmpfs_fast_get_state called on unknown file

Apr  3 17:12:06 jahheins-MacBook-Pro kernel[0] : Sandbox: SpotlightNetHelp(302) deny(1) file-read-data /Applications/Safari.app
---- This is a common one. Its due to SIP (System Integrity Protection) Apple seems to be too dumb to tell their programs to stop accessing any program files to a program they've designed to be off-limits.

I also have a lot of kernel crashes. Faulty boot ups, and GPU Issues. Logic board, bat, screen, trackpad, and keyboard were all just replaced and my board is having issues swapping GPUs in the Retina.

Regarding why it was quarantined: Between OS X 10.10 to 10.11 and the SIP changes, any SIP programs or files that are found to be not acting the "rootless" way are instantly quarantined. Usually migration helper is in one of the files and may be the culprit. I've had my airport do the same thing, and ASPD (The key to rootless).


How to do fresh install of Mountain Lion?

Back up your data.
Boot into the Recovery System by holding ⌘+R during early boot.
Select Disk Utility and format your drive where OS X and your files were stored on.
Quit Disk Utility and select "Install Mountain Lion".


On OSX what is the opposite command to "say", i.e. what command is there for speech recognition?

If you go to System preferences -- Accessibility-- Speakable items
In settings turn on speakable items, and you can provide a keyword. After saying the keyword you can say commands.


How can I backup or archive my iPhone messages?

To keep old messages for posterity, I would perform a backup and then rename it so that it does not get overwritten. A quick google search will give plenty of instructions.

As regards to restoring individual messages to your phone, I don't know that it's possible. There are certainly a number of non-free desktop apps for both PC/Mac to extract and view items from backups, again a google search will give you what you need.


iPhone Mail or GMail apps settings for Gmail label notification

Presuming you are a free gmail account I don't think it is possible in either the mail or Gmail app.

It's possible using Exchange ActiveSync and the mail app but Google hasn't allowed this to be setup since 2013 for free Gmail accounts.

It should be possible if you are a google apps user.

Apple's instructions for setup for exchange account in mail.

Once the account is set up go to "Fetch New Data" in Settings > Accounts and Passwords. Click the account and select the mailboxes to be pushed.


I think you may like Rob's Terminal History Management. You get matches, then the up and down arrow keys let you browse. Almost forgot, the file you want to edit is now ".bash_profile". Open your home folder and press ⇧⌘. to see it.


When any Unix/MacOS/BSD resides on the current directory and this directory is not in your environment variable PATH, you must prefix it with ./ to have it executed.

According to you, the binary IS on the current direcoty, so the command line has to be:

./rserver --server-daemonize=0  --auth-minimum-user-id=500


Transmission frequently locks up when writing to Samba share at more than 3MB/s

Download latest version of Transmission
Still having trouble, then limit the DL speed to 2.8MB/sec

I find that when I use Transmission at speeds less than 3.0MB/sec, I tend to not have the problems with a SAMBA share that you are having.

It writes to the disk in a different manner than what a direct connection does. Torrents create an empty file(s) that represent the downloadable content. Then they write to this file. Direct connection sends a request for the allocated space to the share/server and sees if it is available. If yes, it proceeds to start filling in the gap with the data until the transmission is complete and the end of file is written to the file system.

If you want an alternative option, create the download, add it to Transmission, but pause the download for a few minutes - THEN start the download as per normal. That way it should have enough time to write the inflated empty file first, and then start writing the data into it.


How do I switch between desktops and full screen apps when accessing a remote machine via Screen Sharing?

Will have to go into system preferences, keyboard, shortcuts, and then assign a specific key to activate Mission Control. You can do this either in your host machine or in the remote one. What matters is that the shortcut for the remote machine is not used in the local machine.

You can do the same directly for the ^right and ^left shortcuts. Change them in one of the two machines and then they will work in the remote one.

For example I indicated the F10 to be mission-control on my remote computer, so whenever I press FN+10 I'll get mission control on the remote Computer


Unable to get Intel HD 4000 graphics and audio working on EFI install of Windows 10 Bootcamp on Macbook Pro mid 2012

I realize this is an old thread, but I had this same issue and I was finally able to get the on board audio working by following this:

https://egpu.io/forums/pc-setup/fix-dsdt-override-to-correct-error-12/

I think they attempted this in order to install an eGPU but it serves the purpose of allowing the on-board audio to work. The only thing that isn't working on my 2012 non-retina MBP is the on board graphics driver (Intel Graphics HD 4000) which is fine because the NVIDIA drivers work fine (only with the most recent driver patch from December 28, 2018, the "current" drivers from December 12 crash the computer) and allow proper "sleep" which wasn't possible previously.

Only feature that doesn't work is the ability to adjust the brightness. Staring at this very bright screen will drive me crazy, but in trying to fix this one last problem, I have had to re-install Windows twice, so I am about ready to give up. Any ideas?


Does the Apple Watch (new serie 1) couple with iPhone 5 iOS 9?

According to information I got from Apple watchOS3 requires iOS10.


Mac Sierra - Batch Convert Pages to Plain Text

This script works for me, tested on MacOS Sierra and Pages Version 6.0.5

set mfolder to "Macintosh HD:Users:me:Documents:convertme:"
set destFolder to "Macintosh HD:Users:me:Documents:converted:"

tell application "Finder" to set theNames to name of files of folder mfolder

tell application "Pages"
    repeat with aName in theNames
        set theDoc to open ((mfolder & aName) as alias)
        set newFile to destFolder & (text 1 thru -7 of aName) & ".txt" -- concat destFolder and the name without the ".pages" extension
        my makenewFile(newFile)

        export theDoc to file newFile as unformatted text
        close theDoc
    end repeat
end tell

on makenewFile(thePath)
    close access (open for access thePath)
    -- delay 0.5 -- use the delay command, If you still have a permission issue,  increase the number of seconds
end makenewFile


Google Inbox as a standalone app via Chrome

Akmal has released Chrome App that does exactly this.
You could take a look at his code to see how he's done it.

I would mention that he is running the webview through scan.me, so getting analytics to how many people are visiting it.


Internet sharing option "to computers using iPhone USB"

I believe in Internet Sharing settings, OS X is just listing all of the network interfaces. iPhone USB is listed there for that reason, even though it's not a meaningful option.


Will changing an Apple ID remove the media content currently on the phone (iTunes?)

The good news is that iOS allows you to have a separate iMessage Apple ID then your iTunes store Apple ID. To remedy your problem follow the steps below:

Open Settings.app (on your son's device) and go to "Messages".
Scroll and tap on "Send & Receive"
At the top select "Use your Apple ID for iMessage".
Tap "Create new Apple ID".
Enter in the information and follow the prompts.

After this is done, you can go to Settings.app -> iTunes & App Stores, and make sure the Apple ID there is set to your Apple ID.

And, to firmly answer your question: No, having a separate Apple ID for iMessage and iTunes (and the process of changing it) will not erase content.

Note: instructions provided work best with iOS 6, but should be workable with iOS 5.


How do I merge the tabs of two safari windows when I have more than two open?

First, if the tab bar isn't showing (it usually doesn't show unless there are multiple tabs in the window), select the 1st window you want to merge, then at the menu bar at the top of the screen click View->Show Tab Bar. Next drag the now visible tab bar to the window you want to merge with.


In which part of iOS is the auto-erase feature implemented and how does it work?

When a wipe occurs, the file system key is deleted. It's as simple as that.

Page 11 of the September 2015 iOS Security White Paper states that the file system key is stored in NAND.

  The metadata of all files in the file system is encrypted with a random key, which is created when iOS is first installed or when the device is wiped by a user. The file system key is stored in Effaceable Storage.

  Effaceable Storage: A dedicated area of NAND storage, used to store cryptographic keys, that can be addressed directly and wiped securely. While it doesn’t provide protection if an attacker has physical
  possession of a device, keys held in Effaceable Storage can be used as part of a key hierarchy to facilitate fast wipe and forward security.


How can I download an older version of OS X/macOS?

Some of this answer is getting a little dated now, as it's been periodically updated over several years.
It might be simpler to first check Apple's own page on How to get old versions of macOS (which didn't exist until relatively recently), & come back here if you still have issues.
One thing that still applies throughout is - you need a Mac to get macOS easily & legitimately.

If you are trying to jump a long way - say from 10.8 to 10.14 or later, received wisdom is to first upgrade to El Capitan 10.11, then High Sierra 10.13.
This will prepare your machine for the long jump.
Some users seem to have managed to miss out El Capitan, but High Sierra still seems necessary.

Since Mojave
[This section is still work in progress]
It would appear that in the new Mojave App Store, older purchased OS Installers no longer appear at all, so the 'simple method' of grabbing it from your purchase history is no longer valid.
Sierra, High Sierra & Mojave are available via direct links - see below.
Testing the El Capitan installer which has a published URL it will appear in the App Store, but if requested to download no longer says 'not valid for this Mac' it now says 'The requested version of macOS is not available'.

Some further testing is required - contributions welcome - to see if other OS versions are similarly removed. We may need direct links for these, which I don't have at present.
Additional note:-
I've attempted from VMs of older OSes to recreate the App Store as it used to be in El Capitan & High Sierra, to see if I could still access the old 'purchase history'.. with no success. The history appears as it used to, but I have been unable to access any older versions through it.
It seems you actually need a physical Mac running those older OSes to be able to reach back for those older versions.

For macOS versions since Sierra.
Sierra itself has now vanished from everybody's Purchase History. However, Apple are keeping Sierra fully available, even though High Sierra is out. No Apple ID is required.
Apparently, you must use Safari to access these links, otherwise it doesn't correctly redirect to the App Store.

Sierra - Direct download link from the App Store
High Sierra - Direct download link from the App Store
Mojave - Direct download link from the App Store
Catalina - Direct download link from the App Store
Big Sur - Direct download link from the App Store

High Sierra link tested from Mojave Jan 2019 - still works to download, though it does it via the new Software Update control panel. It won't run on a Mojave Mac but you have the installer in your Apps folder to move elsewhere

For OS X versions from Lion up to El Capitan.
I successfully re-tested this method Jan 2019 - still working as stated for a Mac limited to El Capitan. Purchased older OSes are still listed & accessible
The simplest way - if available to you - is to use your Purchase History on the App Store.
If you have ever previously installed any OS X version, it will still be available to you from that list. This should include any public beta versions too.
The version available from that list will always be the latest version of its type - i.e. 10.7.5, 10.8.6... 10.11.6
Image heavily modified to show only OS versions.

Note, it will say Download or Install depending on whether or not you have the Installer file saved locally - even on a non-boot drive.

If the version you are trying to download is older than the Mac you are attempting to download it to - the Store will not allow the download.
[looking for workarounds to this part - edits welcome - I can't test this as the newest Mac I have is a 2012 Mac Pro]
Potential workarounds, need testing -
How to re-download Lion from Mountain Lion

For older Macs
If you are trying to update an older machine running Snow Leopard or Lion, then you can get a special version of El Capitan from the App Store

This version of El Capitan is for users running OS X Snow Leopard or
OS X Lion who would like to upgrade to macOS High Sierra. If you are
running Snow Leopard or Lion and would like to upgrade to High Sierra,
you need to install El Capitan first. This version of El Capitan can
also be installed on computers that are not compatible with High
Sierra.

Note that last sentence... this version will not install on any machine that is not currently on Snow Leopard or Lion, if the machine is capable of running High Sierra.
That leaves it as quite a specific resource & not a general 'get out of jail free card' for anyone wanting El Capitan.

Recovery Options
If you need to reinstall from Recovery, & were previously running Sierra 10.12.4 or higher, there are now 3 options available.
Hold the appropriate key combo at the boot chimes...

 Cmd ⌘  R
reinstall the latest macOS that was installed on your Mac, without upgrading to a later version
 Opt ⌥   Cmd ⌘  R
upgrade to the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac
 Shift ⇧   Opt ⌥   Cmd ⌘  R
reinstall the macOS that came with your Mac, or the version nearest to it that is still available.

The first 2 options are available to any Mac newer than Lion, approximately 2009.

Should you have access to an older point release of any OS, 10.11.0 etc & wish to upgrade, then you can download Combo Updaters from Apple that contain everything necessary to go straight to the latest point release in a single step, e.g. 10.11.6
Google is good at finding these, as the top hit if you just search combo update 10.11 etc but here are links to a few
Mavericks 10.9.5
Yosemite 10.10.5
El Capitan 10.11.6
Sierra 10.12.6
High Sierra 10.13.6

If you need to create a bootable USB to install from
How do I create El Capitan installer on a Catalina (or post-El Capitan) installed Mac for use on USB boot installer
How do I make a bootable USB OS X installer on a Mac?
How do I create a Mac bootable USB drive using Windows?

If none of these methods are available to you, you have two options

Find a friend who can access the download [recommended]

Find a torrent/sharing site [not recommended]

Additional Note:
There is no 'legitimate' way to download macOS from anything other than a Mac. It requires the Apple App store.

Note: You can not use a Time Machine backup to revert to an OS which is older than the OS of the latest backup on that Time Machine drive.
This means that to preserve your ability to ever restore to an earlier backup & OS with your Time Machine backup, you must swap out that Time Machine drive before upgrading the OS. This is because once the Time Machine drive sees the new OS, there's no going back to the older OS using it. You can still pick data out from the Time Machine manually, but cannot use it to restore to the older OS.

I've moved this section to the bottom, just to keep for historical purposes.
This certificate issue should now be resolved.
NEWS
October 2019
Because of the certificate issue Apple faced, which overnight obsoleted all the previous macOS installers, they have re-released several of these, with new certificates.
Apple KB - If an installer says it can't be verified or was signed with a certificate that has expired
This contains links to further KBs for each of the 6 most recent OSes from Catalina back to Yosemite.
The three newer ones link to the App Store, but Sierra, El Capitan & Yosemite link to direct downloads.
Caution: Use Safari if your browser doesn’t open the Mac App Store links in the App Store app. iTunes and Music and iBooks and other apps can’t download these installers - they will say item not available, often quoting your country store by name.
Note for those of us who like to keep all these for 'just in case'.
Download them one at a time & label them correctly before downloading another, so you know which is which. They are not identifiable from the dmg or installer name as to which OS they are :\
Worse… even when you run it, you get absolutely no indication of which OS it is going to install. Be careful.
The following would probably still apply if you were trying to access something older than Yosemite…
General Note
This task seems to be getting harder as time passes. A new wrinkle is that a lot of these older installers, even if you can get hold of them, have an 'expiry date'. The last widespread expiration date for many Mac installers was October 24, 2019 so you will need to re-download your installers after that date to keep them valid and signed.
If you see a message such as
“This copy of the Install OS X El Capitan application can’t be verified. It may have been corrupted or tampered with during downloading”,
or a more vague “An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running again”
A new error seems to be…
No packages were eligible for install.
Try setting your clock to a date within a year of the OS's initial release date if you absolutely cannot re-download them.
From Michael Tsai's blog - Installing Old Versions of macOS

It seems that the installer is signed with a certificate that has
expired. When booted from the installer, you can open Terminal and use
the date command to set the clock to the past, i.e. to when that
version of macOS was current. After installing, be sure to set the
clock to the correct date, or various other things won’t work
properly.


Setting a static route every boot with launchd / plist is failing

A short call to scutil should help with testing whether the network is up for a specific interface on IPv4 which should suffice to determine when you can add an IPv4 route. The following command will return a 0 if the first ethernet connection has a viable IPv4 address within the default 15 second timeout period.

/usr/sbin/scutil -w State:/Network/Interface/en0/IPv4

You could instead call a script to do the testing and routing - perhaps using the -t command to adjust the timeout if needed. I don't know a way to overload the launchd arguments to have everything contained, but it should be fine to have launchd kick off a script on the local filesystem to accomplish this task. Use care if you are not using en0 for your IPv4 or wish to have routing on other than the default networking interface.

That script can then check for errors, perhaps check for other interfaces as well as log success and failure using the logger command.


Karabiner quit working in Sierra. How do I map my menu/application key to be Command?

Found the solution here https://github.com/tekezo/Karabiner-Elements/tree/master/usage

Uninstalled existing Karabiner
Installed Karabiner-Elements according to instructions in the link.
Created ~/.karabiner.d/configuration/karabiner.json
With the following JSON inside

{
    "profiles": [
        {
            "name": "Default profile",
            "selected": true,
            "simple_modifications": {
                "application" : "right_command"
            }
        }
    ]
}


macbook pro to external monitor 1920px via hdmi?

Yes, you will get 1920x1080 resolution.

The native resolution of a 13" Retina Macbook Pro is actually much higher. From Apples website:

  Retina display: 13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology; 2560-by-1600 resolution at 227 pixels per inch with support for millions of colors

  Native resolution: 2560 by 1600 pixels (Retina); scaled resolutions: 1680 by 1050, 1440 by 900, and 1024 by 640 pixels

The 13" retina MBP can also handle 1080P and higher resolutions through HDMI:

  HDMI video output

  Support for 1080p resolution at up to 60Hz

  Support for 3840-by-2160 resolution at 30Hz

  Support for 4096-by-2160 resolution at 24Hz

http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-retina/


How do I delete a book from iBooks on Mac Book Pro

In your library, select the book you want to delete, then press the Delete key.

https://support.apple.com/guide/books/delete-books-from-your-mac-ibks67184a3a/mac


Different "free space" indications in Macintosh HD after upgrading to El Capitan

I have a solution! You need a clean up spotlight index.
Go to Preference - Spotlight - confidentiality. Press "+" and
add whole disk to this. Check it in confidentiality list. After this - remove (by press -)

Turn off you mac. And boot with "safe mode" (by pressing shift + power button, until apple logo will be on display). Please be patient, safe mode loading not fast. And you may have some 'monitor artifacts'.

Check you disk space now. All good? If yes - just reboot again in normal mode.

p.s. this is solution, I got from Apple Care by phone.


how to trace which request creates ping spike?

There's a couple of problems here...

how can I trace icmp_seq=5284

That's not how it works.  That seq or sequence number is just a two byte field (16 bits) that's used the match the packet that you sent out with the reply.  Your request doesn't create a spike.  However, technically, it's already been traced - that packet went out, was replied to and the time it took to return was x milliseconds.

I have ping spike problem and according to some topics, I write on terminal:
ping 8.8.8.8 -i 0.1

The problem here is that your pinging a public (in this case Google's) DNS server.  For me, there's 11 separate hops between my personal network and that DNS server; there's probably a similar amount for you.  The point is, anything on any of those points can contribute to a latency and a ping spike.
If you're trying to gauge your bandwidth from your ISP, you need something like http://speedtest.net (there's a CLI version available).  If you looking to check the speed transfer between two different services across ISPs, then you need iperf3.
Finally, pinging Google is an excellent way to check to see if your Internet is up.  It's not a good site to check for latency and/or bandwidth throughput.  These are heavily taxed servers subject to varying traffic at any point during the day.


Prompting personal warning before putting my Macbook Pro to sleep

You could have the drive automatically ejected when you sleep the mac instead?

Quick search found Jettison on the Mac App Store
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jettison/id447430809?mt=12

There is also an app you can use to run Apple script on sleep/wake:
http://www.lagentesoft.com/scenario/index.html


Adding column to multiple identically formatted tables in Numbers

I'm not sure I understand your question exactly. But, if all of the tables are on one sheet, and all of the tables need to get the same new column and the same column title, this will work.

Screenshot of Numbers document with three tables on the sheet, before running the script.

Screenshot of Numbers document with three tables on the sheet, with column added and titled

Here is the AppleScript that adds the column and names it.

tell application "Numbers"
    set theTables to every table of active sheet of document 1
    repeat with aTable in theTables
        set myColumn to add column before column "B" of aTable
        set value of first cell of myColumn to "Birthplace"
    end repeat
end tell

A few notes-- you can add a column "before" or "after." Also, you can refer to a column by the letter atop the column, as I did here, but you can also refer to a column by the label in the Header row. In this case, that would be Column "Month".


How to fix OS X Lion being unresponsive?

This kind of thing is a RAM problem 9 times out of 10. Your RAM is constantly being paged in and out to your (relatively slow) hard drive, causing you to wait. THe best solution is to upgrade your RAM or if it's already maxed, consider getting an SSD.


How do I retrieve photos from an iphone backup?

Software like PhoneView is able to extract information from backup files.
There might be free alternatives, PhoneView is just the one I am familiar with.


Mountain Lion : Take an image of OS X joined to a domain

The binding should remain in place when the image is captured.

Boot to your Recovery partition by holding option while powering on your Mac, then selecting Recovery
From the Mac OS X Utilities window choose Disk Utility
In Disk Utility, choose File > New > Disk Image from "Macintosh HD"
You will be asked to name the image (Save As) and select a destination (Where).  Fill in a name and select your external hard drive as the destination.
Once your image is created, which can take a long time depending on how much data is on the Mac, it will appear in the left hand pane of Disk Utility.
Select the image from the left hand pane in Disk Utility and from the menu bar choose Images > Scan Image for Restore.  This will scan the image and append the info for Disk Utility to later restore it to a disk as needed.  This process can take a while as well.

My only concern would be re-binding with the proper computer name if you end up restoring the image to a different Mac, this could be accomplished by editing the Active Directory info in Directory Utility.

Go to System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Options and click the Edit button next to Network Accounts.

Click on Open Directory Utility.

Click on the lock in the lower left corner of Directory Utility and enter your password when prompted.
Double click on Active Directory.

You might take a screenshot of your different settings here, under User Experience, Mappings and Administration, just in case they get wiped out and you have to re-enter them.  You can capture a screenshot of this window by pressing commandshift4 and using the cross hairs to grab the part of the screen you'd like to capture.
Click Unbind to unbind from the directory.  Make whatever changes you need and then click Bind to re-bind the Mac to the directory.  When re-binding you'll need to authenticate as an administrator for the corresponding directory.


How to test memory after memory upgrade?

I suggest you to install memtester for example with MacPorts:

$ port install memtester

and use it:

$ memtester 2G
memtester version 4.3.0 (64-bit)
Copyright (C) 2001-2012 Charles Cazabon.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2 (only).

pagesize is 4096
pagesizemask is 0xfffffffffffff000
want 2048MB (2147483648 bytes)
got  2048MB (2147483648 bytes), trying mlock ...locked.
Loop 1:
  Stuck Address       : ok
  Random Value        : ok
  Compare XOR         : ok
  Compare SUB         : ok
  Compare MUL         : ok
  Compare DIV         : ok
  Compare OR          : ok
  Compare AND         : ok
  Sequential Increment: ok
[...]


How to remove an icon from launchpad that does not appear in the Finder?

If you are using Yosemite here is the surgical approach to remove only what you want to, instead of wiping out all of Launchpad.

Open up your Terminal app of choice, then use the following command:

sqlite3 $(find /private/var/folders \( -name com.apple.dock.launchpad -a -user $USER \) 2> /dev/null)/db/db "DELETE FROM apps WHERE title='APP_NAME_CASE_SENSITIVE';" && killall Dock

to remove an application from the Launchpad.