Utilities

Some apps on the Mac automatically start when you log in. It can even happen after you have deleted an app! How do they do this and how do you stop them? Here’s the solution and it’s not obvious.

It seems that everything on the internet requires a password these days and it is hard to keep track of them. Avast Passwords is a free (for now) Mac tool that can do the job for you.

Do you have files on your Mac’s disk that you want to keep private? Encrypt them! Use the openssl command line tool in Terminal to make sure no-one can access them. They’re safe for emailing too.

When files are deleted they are not removed from the disk and they remain there. If someone had access to your Mac they could recover them. Here’s how to stop them

Operating system upgrades are interesting and macOS has some nice features, but there is a downside to them. You Mac runs slower and slower. However, you can use this trick to speed it up again.

No matter how hard Mac users try to give up Windows, it still draws us back. If you need to use Windows on your Mac it will cost a lot of money for a license. Or you can download a copy for free!

When I first looked at Dr. Safety, a security app from Trend Micro, it had some irritations and was disappointing. However, it has been improved and it now much better. It is worth another look.

Your internet connection needs to be secure for many online activities, but sometimes it is not, such as when using public Wi-Fi hotspots. Avira Phantom VPN connection makes sure no-one can spy on you.

Duplicate files are a waste of space. They use megabytes or even gigabytes of disk space and serve no purpose, so why not hunt them down and delete them? It will free up space for other things.

Douglas Gordon highlights the methods to clone Mac hard drive to SSD - Disk Utility and third-party Drive Clone software. He also provides an opinion in which disk cloning strategy is better of the two.

The standard advice to someone wanting to uninstall an app on the Apple Mac is to drag it to the Trash and the job’s done. I will show six different cases where that is bad advice.

The disk in an Apple Mac is probably the one component that is most likely to fail. Perhaps that is because it is neither designed nor built by Apple. There is a geeky secret tool that can be used to repair faults and here's how to use it.

Not every Apple Mac user has an iPhone or iPad and some people have an Android phone or tablet. How can you browse the folders and files on an Android device and copy them to your Mac’s disk?

When you need to convert images from one format to another, what’s your favourite software? XnConvert for the Apple Mac is one of the most powerful you’ll find. What’s more, it’s free!

Viruses, Trojans, spyware and other types of malware are to be found on the internet, but the internet also provides means to protect your Mac. Use VirusTotal to stay safe.

OS X, soon to be called macOS, has some weather forecasting ability, but it is very limited. The Today widget provides some information, but 3D Weather Free is far superior and a great app.

Where is the hash (#) key on the Apple Mac? Do you know how to type as tilde (~)? What can you do when there isn’t a key for the symbol you want? Get keyboard assistance.

Setting the Mac desktop background is easy enough, but how do you set the Mac wallpaper for the login screen? There is no obvious way to do this, but with the right tool it can be done quite easily.

Don’t let small disk problems grow into big ones on the Apple Mac. Fix them before they become serious and begin to affect performance and reliability. Here are three methods you can use.

We all want a faster computer, especially when it it old and not quite the latest specification, but what can you do? Dr. Cleaner Elite can help speed up your Mac by cleaning and optimising.