For most people if you want to change your Mac computer name you just do it through the Sharing system preference, it’s quick and very easy. For those of us that are more geekishly inclined, we like to do things through the Terminal.

Here’s how to change your Mac hostname with the command line and make it permanent:

Simply replace new_hostname with whatever you want your hostname to be changed to, for example I want to change my Mac’s hostname to MacBookPro, I will use this command:

You will be asked for your admin password since you’re using the sudo command. After the command is executed you can verify that the changes took place by typing:

You can also set a temporary hostname change by using the following command:

This will reset itself after your Mac reboots though, so if you want a permanent hostname change, use the above command instead.

Mac OS X includes Samba support by default, and this is really handy if you’d like to remotely restart and monitor services running on a Windows machine.

To list services running on the Windows machine, use this command:

A practical example would be:

After identifying the service you want to restart, you issue the following command to stop the service:

Then you can restart (or start) the service by using the following command:

MAMP is a great app for Mac OS X that lets you quickly and easily run an entire pre-configured web server on top of Mac OS X, it’s really helpful and I use it frequently. Now my only complaint about MAMP is the port settings, by default they are set to 8888 and 8889, so instead of being able to visit localhost you have to load localhost:8888. Thankfully this is easy to change.

• Open up MAMP and hit the Preferences button
• Click on the Ports tab
• Click on “Set to default Apache and MySQL ports
• Click OK

MAMP will restart itself with the new default ports configured. This is the first thing I do when I setup MAMP and I find it makes working with the app much more natural.

And yes, I realize that Mac OS X comes with Apache server by default, but in my opinion nothing beats MAMP for it’s simple setup.

If you frequently access a file server from a Mac it’s pretty helpful to map the network drive to your desktop. There’s two ways to do this, one method is just mapped for one time use and will reset after a reboot, and another method is a more permanent route that allows the mapped network drive to always appear and mount on your desktop after system reboots and user logins.

Map a network drive to Mac OS X

This method maps a network drive that will disappear if the network connection drops or if you reboot your Mac:

• From the Mac OS X Finder, hit Command+K to bring up the ‘Connect to Server’ window
• Enter the path to the network drive you want to map, ie: smb://networkcomputer/networkshare and click ‘Connect’
• Enter your login/password and click “OK” to mount the network drive
• The drive will now appear on your desktop and in the Finder window sidebar

Map a network drive to Mac OS X that re-mounts after system reboot

This method allows you to reboot your Mac and have the mapped network drive automatically remount and appear on the desktop, this is more persistent than the above method:

• From the Finder, hit Command+K
• Enter the path to the network drive you want to map, ie: smb://networkcomputer/networkshare and click ‘Connect’
• Enter your login credentials and click “OK”
• The drive is now mounted, but continue on to map for system reboot persistence
• Now enter into System Preferences, from the Apple menu
• Click on ‘Accounts’
• Click on “Login Items”
• Click on the + button to add another login item
• Locate the network drive you previously mounted and click “Add”
• Exit out of System Preferences

Your network drive will now be mapped and automatically remounted when you reboot your Mac.

Make the mapped network drive visible on the Mac desktop

It’s possible that the mounted drive will not appear on the desktop due to a system setting. If you want the mapped drive icon to be visible on the Desktop, be sure to do the following additional steps:

• From the Finder, open Finder Preferences by hitting Command+,
• Click the General tab
• Select the checkbox next to ‘Connected Servers’
• Close Finder Preferences

Selecting the checkbox next to Connected Servers ensures that you’ll see the icon on your Mac Desktop, otherwise it will only be visible in the Finder window sidebars and Open/Save dialogues.

Remount mapped network drive with a click

A great additional step for either method is to create an alias of the mapped network drive. This allows you to reconnect to the share with just a click. Here’s how to do this:

• Right-click on the mapped network drive on the Mac OS desktop
• Select “Make Alias”

Now you can double-click that alias to reconnect to the network drive instantly.

using a simple tool called webkit2png you can quickly take a screenshot of any webpage from the command line too. You’ll need to have Safari and Python installed on your Mac, then you just download the app and do the following from the command line:

The screenshots of the webpage then appear in your current working directory.

You can download webkit2png at the developers home.

Before you do anything else, close Outlook. You should also note that we’ll be modifying system generated files here, so proceed with caution or not at all.

Open up windows explorer window and then paste the following text into the address bar, which should bring you to a folder with a single folder inside with a really long name.

%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Protect

What you’ll need to do is just rename that folder to something else (I suggest appending -old onto the end of it so that you could easily rename it back if things go wrong)

Now re-open Outlook, and then type in your password hopefully for the last time, making sure to check the box to remember it. You should now see that the original folder was re-created again.

At this point Outlook should remember your passwords, but you can close Outlook and reopen it to make sure. If you encounter problems with this, you can remove the new folder and then rename the -old folder back to the original name to put everything back the way it was.

Imagine that contacts and emails were lost due to virus or formatting, and you need quickly restore them with minimum efforts from web-mail service or if there is a simple need to have contactlist available, but PC is not reachable. Solution can be quiet easy and quick, let's regard as an example GMail web-server.

For the purpose of restoring contacts and then importing them to Outlook, perform the following steps:

1. Log in to GMail.

2. On the left pane navigate to Contacts section. Click on it.

3. On the opened page click "Export" button:

4. Then configure options how you want it to be exported, and whether all the contacts should be exported:

5. After clicking on "Export" button you'll be prompted to save the file with the contacts.

1. Software Update checks for available updates. In the Software Update window, select the items you want to install, then click Install. Usually, you should install all available updates. (Mac OS X v10.3 only: Click the Check Now button.)
2. Enter an administrator account name and password.
3. After installation is complete, restart the computer if required.

You can repeat these steps to see if more updates are now available. Because some software updates are prerequisites for others, you may need to repeat these steps several times to complete the software update sequence.

Note: Mac OS X v10.5 and later can automatically run Software Update checks in the background and let you know when an update is available for your computer.

Getting updates immediately (Mac OS X v10.2.8 or earlier)

1. From the Apple () menu, choose System Preferences.
2. From the View menu, choose Software Update.
3. Click Update Now.
4. In the Software Update window, select the items you want to install, then click Install.
5. Enter an administrator account name and password.
6. After the update is complete, restart the computer if a restart is required.

You can repeat these steps to see if more updates are now available. Because some software updates are prerequisites for others, you may need to repeat these steps several times to complete the software update sequence.

You can move email messages from a non-Mac OS computer, such as a Windows-compatible PC, to Mac OS X by using your Internet service provider (ISP) and IMAP.

If you are moving only a few messages, you may prefer to forward them from your non-Mac OS mail client and retrieve them with Mac OS X Mail for simplicity.

Doing this may change some message attributes, such as "Date" and "From", as well as message text formatting.

Important: By following the instructions in this document, your original email messages can be automatically removed from the original location.

You should back up your non-Apple email application's message database before proceeding.

Will mail message attributes be lost?

Moving messages via IMAP should preserve original message attributes such as "Date," "To," "From," and "Subject," in most cases.

Moving (non-AOL) email messages using IMAP

1) Open the email application program on your non-Macintosh computer. If you have not already connected this computer to the Internet, do that now.

2) If you do not already have an IMAP mail configuration in the source application, add one now. See tips.

Tips:

1. This new configuration will be similar to your existing (POP) mail account configuration, except that the incoming mail server may be different. If you use .Mac Email, for example, the incoming mail server is "mail.mac.com".
2. Check with your ISP for step-by-step directions about setting up an IMAP account on your non-Macintosh computer. If your ISP does not offer IMAP, use an Apple .Mac IMAP email account instead (http://www.mac.com/). You must use your Macintosh computer to set up an .Mac account. .Mac email is not restricted to IMAP, so you can use POP in the future if desired.

3) Locate the Inbox for the IMAP account in your email application. If you were not already using IMAP, note that this is different from your previous Inbox.

4) If desired and applicable, add custom subfolders to your IMAP Inbox. See tip.

Tips:

1. A "custom subfolder" is one that you create, name, and place within your default list of mail folders. For example, you might have created a custom subfolder titled "Messages from Rupert" that you placed within your normal mail Inbox

5) Locate and select messages, or folders of messages, that you want to move to Mac OS X Mail.

6) Drag the selected messages to the IMAP Inbox or custom IMAP subfolder. The selected messages will be uploaded to your ISP's IMAP server. See tips.

Tips:

1. At this point, your email messages may be removed from their original location. If you wish to retain local copies, you may hold an Option or Control key while dragging to copy instead of move them. This feature varies per email application. Check the support resources for your source application for more information.
2. The amount of time required to transfer content to or from an IMAP server may vary greatly depending on the speed of your Internet connection and the size of the email messages you are moving, including any attachments.
3. Your IMAP server may limit your stored mail to a smaller amount than you are attempting to transfer. If this happens, move fewer messages at a time.
4. The message transfer process should not be interrupted. You are moving messages, not just copying them, so there is a potential for data loss if the connection is lost or the transfer is interrupted. Your non-Mac OS mail application should keep you informed of message transfer progress.
5. If you move a custom subfolder that contains messages, it may remain in their original location after the transfer, instead of being automatically deleted. You might want to delete the folder from its original location.

7) Connect your Macintosh computer to the Internet. If you cannot connect both computers at the same time, you may need to disconnect your non-Macintosh computer from the Internet.

8) At the Macintosh computer, choose Applications from the Go menu.

9) Open Mail.

10) If you do not already have an IMAP account, create one. See "How to configure accounts in Mail"

11) Select the IMAP account that appears beneath Personal Mailboxes. If you do not see your Personal Mailboxes, choose Show Mailboxes from the View menu. Mail communicates with your ISP and displays messages contained on the IMAP server. Your IMAP Inbox, and any custom subfolders, appear. See tip.

Tips:

1. If desired, create one or more new Mailboxes (or custom subfolders) specifically for your transferred email messages. For example, choose New Mailbox from the Mailbox menu. Type a name, such as "Moved From Old PC," and click OK. If you do not see the new Mailbox, click the disclosure triangle that appears to the left of INBOX, beneath Personal Mailboxes.

12) Select the messages from the IMAP Inbox or subfolders, then drag them to the desired folder or mailbox in Mail. See tips.

1. Tips:
2. The amount of time required to transfer content to or from an IMAP server may vary greatly depending on the speed of your Internet connection and the size of the email messages you are moving, including any attachments.
3. Your IMAP server may limit your stored mail to a smaller amount than you are attempting to transfer. If this happens, move fewer messages at a time.
4. The message transfer process should not be interrupted. You are moving messages, not just copying them, so there is a potential for data loss if the connection is lost or the transfer is interrupted. Your non-Mac OS mail application should keep you informed of message transfer progress.
5. If you move a custom subfolder that contains messages, it may remain in their original location after the transfer, instead of being automatically deleted. You might want to delete the folder from its original location.
6. If desired, create one or more new Mailboxes (or custom subfolders) specifically for your transferred email messages. For example, choose New Mailbox from the Mailbox menu. Type a name, such as "Moved From Old PC," and click OK. If you do not see the new Mailbox, click the disclosure triangle that appears to the left of INBOX, beneath Personal Mailboxes.
7. When messages are moved to a non-IMAP folder or Mailbox, they are automatically removed from the IMAP server. The message would then only exist in Mac OS X Mail, unless you kept a backup or local copy on the PC.

You may want to remove an email account from Mail, for example if you no longer use the account.

Important: Removing an account will permanently delete its mailboxes, messages, notes, and to do items. If you want to keep those, be sure to copy them to an On My Mac mailbox before deleting the account.

Exchange, IMAP, and MobileMe accounts store their mailboxes and messages on the server; deleting these account types in Mail will not permanently delete messages from the server. However, if you are not completely certain that your account is one of those types, be sure to copy the mailboxes and messages you want to keep into an On My Mac mailbox, or save individual messages manually by selecting them and choosing Save As from the File menu.

To remove an email account in Mail:

1) Open Mail (click it on the Dock or open it from the Applications folder).

2) From the Mail menu, choose Preferences..., or press Command-, (the Command and comma keys).

3) Click the "Accounts" icon.

4) Select the account you wish to remove.

5) Click the "-" (minus) icon. You will be alerted that "The account's setup information, mailboxes, messages, notes, and to do's will be deleted permanently from your computer."

6) If you are sure you want to remove the account and email messages from your computer, click "Remove" to complete this process.