First Mac. What to do first?

What is the first thing everyone does with there mac when you've only worked on pc's your entire life?

What do you mac gurus do right away with your mac when you first get one?

 

Create a total of three accounts. The first will be your admin account that you use only when you need admin rights. The second is a limited user account that you will use for your day-to-day work. The last is a second admin account that you create and never touch again, it will be used for diagnosing issues. So if you are having a problem you can go into that account and see if the problem persists. If it does you know that it is not a simple preferences issue.

Also check out the sticky at the top of the forum

 

i think having the 3 accounts is going to be more a hassle than it is worth in the end. Just having a decent way of backing up your files with the ability to restore everything is a more efficient way of protecting your computer I think.

if you are into way over protecting your computer the go right ahead though.

 

Why 3 accounts? Why not an administration account and a regular account? I'm not seeing why you would want 3.

 

I think you have to use the admin account to install software and change system prefs from time to time.. so you'd be altering one admin account to make it available for user account. Do I have that right? I found 2 accounts a hassle to constantly go back and forth between when I was starting.. I'm still confused how to make it easy.. I currently only have one account on mine. Maybe I'll change it later.. I guess the 3rd account would be unaffected.. and would help you troubleshoot hardware or system software/pref issues

 

So on the mac all the accounts are separate? Do I have this right then?

Account #1 - Administration (do not touch unless necessary)
Account #2 - Administration (used for installing software and changing settings)
Account #3 - User (Used for day to day activity)

My question is wouldn't changing the settings in the 2nd administration account affect the first administration account? If not why?

 

The first one's to troubleshoot preference issues. Some programs can screw themselves up in their preference files, and those are user-specific.

For instance, I had a friend on Windows who was having trouble getting Photoshop started. I sort of poked it a bit, thought "hmmm...", and then trashed his personal settings folder. Started right up

 

I don't think you need 3. You shouldn't really ever need to log in as admin anyway. I only have had to do that in a few cases, where instead of asking for my admin user/pass when installing a program, it just denies it. That is the ONLY time I've ever had to log in as admin.

All other installs and stuff can be done on your limited user account, you just have to enter your admin user/pass. Simple as pie.

If your using a laptop, get the SMCFanControl app and I would also look at getting some of the other apps listed in our stickied thread.