Categories
macOS

[SOVLED] Steam won’t open on Mac

As one of the largest a video game digital distribution service in the world, Steam boasts 120 million monthly active users (MAUs). For those who play games on Mac, Steam is definitely an essential app. If you find Steam won’t open on Mac, with a Error message telling you that your Mac could not connect to the Steam network, you’re not alone! Fortunately, you should be able to fix this issue easily using the fixes in this article.

Couldn't connect to the Steam network

Try these fixes

Here are the fixes that helped many Mac users resolve the Steam won’t open issue. Just walk your way through the list and start troubleshooting.

  1. Check Steam & game stats
  2. Relaunch Steam
  3. Set correct date and time on your Mac
  4. Delete Steam.AppBundle to reinstall Steam
  5. Clear Steam cache files

Check Steam & game stats

Before trying anything more complicated, the first thing you should to check is whether Steam’s servers are online or not.

Sometimes, if there are too many players visiting Steam at the same time, its servers may not handle the amount of requests coming in, causing the Steam client on your Mac to disconnect to Steam network.

To check Steam servers status, you just need to visit the STEAM & GAME STATS page.

STEAM & GAME STATS

If you find that Steam servers are up, it means that it’s not a server side issue. But don’t worry. Just read on and try the fixes one by one to troubleshoot your Mac or your local network.

Relaunch Steam

When you get the “Could not connect to the Steam network” error message after you tried to launch the Steam client on your Mac, it gives you to options: RETRY CONNECTION or START IN OFFLINE MODE.

Click RETRY CONNECTION, then the Steam client will try to connect to the Steam server once again. According to many Mac users, a few tries in a row might do the trick.

If this issue persist, then click START IN OFFLINE MODE. Once the Steam client is opened, in the menu select Account -> Go Online… -> RESTART AND GO ONLINE.

Steam go online

In addition, you can also go and check if there are any Steam updates in Steam -> Check Update.

Steam check for update

If there is no updates available, or if Steam still won’t open after installing the latest updates, you can try quitting the Steam app completely with any auxiliary processes it might be running:

  1. Launch Activity Monitor.
  2. Locate Steam in the list of processes. Then select it and click the stop button in the top bar.
    quit Steam completely
  3. Relaunch the Steam app.

See if this fix resolve the Steam won’t open issue. If not, try the next fix, below.

Set correct date and time on your Mac

Steam’s server might output an error if the time and date on your Mac are not in sync with Steam’s server. This may happen when your time and date are not set to automatic. You can follow the steps below to set your time and date to automatic:

  1. Go to System Preference -> Date & Time.
  2. If you notice that “Set date and time automatically” is not checked, click the lock icon at the bottom left corner to make changes. Then check the box next to Set date and time automatically.
    Set the time and date automatically
  3. Launch Steam and see if this issue persists.

If this fix doesn’t work for you. Try the next one, below.

Delete Steam.AppBundle to reinstall Steam

This fix allows you to reinstall Steam on your Mac quickly, without removing any games already installed. To do so:

Open Finder and go to the following location:

~/Application Support/Library/Steam

Once the Steam folder is opened, locate the folder Steam.AppBundle and delete it. Then simply launch Steam like you normally would. This will force Steam to download the latest version and perform a fresh install.

Relaunch Steam to see if this fix works. If this issue reappears, try the next fix, below.

Clear Steam cache files

Sometimes, corrupted Steam cache files may also lead to the Steam won’t open issue .These cache filed are kept in your Mac’s Library folder. To delete Steam’s cache from your Mac, just follow the steps below:

  1. Open Finder and go to your hard drive -> Library -> Application Support to delete the Steam folder.
  2. Then on your keyboard, press Shift + + G to visit ~/Library/Caches, delete the Steam folder.
  3. Go to ~/Library/Preferences and ~/Library/Logs to delete Steam from all of them.

Now Steam should be completely removed from your Mac and you can proceed with trying to reinstall it once again. Normally, after you installed the Steam app, this issue should be resolved.


Hopefully, after reading this article, you’ve fixed the Steam won’t open on Mac issues. Free feel to drop a line if you have any suggestions or questions on this issue!


Image Credit

Infographic vector created by pch.vector – www.freepik.com

Categories
macOS

Ultimate guide: how to take screenshots on your Mac

New to macOS and don’t know how to take screenshots on your Mac? If so, you’ve landed on the right spot! On macOS, you can use its built-in Screenshot app or keyboard shortcuts to capture your screen. In this article, you’ll learn how to take screenshots on your Mac quickly and easily!

3 methods to take screenshots on your Mac

There are more than one method to take screenshots on macOS. You don’t have to try them all. Just pick the method that works best for you.

  1. The built-in Screenshot app
  2. Snipaste
  3. Snagit

Use the built-in Screenshot app to take screenshots

In macOS Mojave 10.14 and later, you can use the built-in Screenshot app to capture your screen. If you just need to capture your screen and share it to others, the built-in Screenshot app is convenient enough to complete the task.

To take screenshots or screen recordings using the Screenshot app:

  1. On your keyboard, press Shift – Command – 5 to launch the Screenshot app and display the tools.
  2. Click a tool to select what you what to capture or record.
    The Screenshot app on macOS
capture the entire screenCapture the whole screen
Capture a windowCapture a window
Capture a potion of the screenCapture a potion of the screen
Record the entire screenRecord the entire screen
Record a portion of the screenRecord a portion of the screen

Click Options if you want to modify the advanced settings. For example, you can specify where to save screenshots. You can also choose to set a time delay or show the mouse cursor when taking screenshots.

The Show Floating Thumbnail option, once selected, will display a thumbnail of the screenshot or recording you just took in the bottom-right corner of the screen for a few seconds, so you have time to mark it up, drop it to a document, an email or a Finder window, or share it before it’s saved to the directory you specified.

To take screenshots using keyboard shortcuts:

If you prefer to use keyboard shortcuts to take screenshots, here are the frequently used keyboard shortcuts:

Keyboard shortcutfunction
Shift-Command-3Capture the entire screen
Shift-Command-4Capture a portion of the screen
Shift-Command-4-SpacebarCapture a window or the menu bar
Shift-Command 5Open the Screenshot app
Shift-Command-6Capture the Touch Bar

If you want to customize these keyboard shortcuts, on your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Keyboard, then click Shortcuts.

Note: On macOS, screenshots are saved as .png files and screen recordings are saved as .mov files.

Use Snipaste to take screenshots

If you need to edit the screenshot you just took, you may need to use a more efficient tool.

Snipaste is a simple but powerful screen capturing and snipping tool that allows you to pin the screenshot back onto the screen.

In other words, after taking the screenshot, you can easily add texts, lines, arrows, frames and blurs to the screenshot right on your screen (without opening the editor)!

Use Snagit to take screenshots

First launched in 1990, Snagit is created and distributed by TechSmith. Believe it or not, up to now, over 39 million people world wide use Snagit! Snagit may be the best screen capture and recording software for content creators.

Snagit enables you to quickly capture your screen, add additional context, and easily share with coworkers. With Snagit, you can:

  • give quick, simple answers
  • organize and save captures
  • make step-by-step instructions

Snagit is so powerful that it provides over 15 sharing outputs. With it, you can use images, videos and GIFs to share idea, give feedback and communicate more efficiently.


That’s it! Hopefully, after reading this article, you’ve learned how to take screenshots on your Mac. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to drop a line in the comment area below. Thanks for reading!

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Categories
macOS

How to force quit apps on Mac [step-by step-guide]

Although apps on macOS are usually well-behaved, there are times when they stop responding and you cannot quit them normally, and the pointer becomes a pesky spinning wheel. In this case, you have no choice but to force quit the app. If you happen to experience the exact same issue, but don’t know how to force quit the app, don’t worry. You’ve come to the right place. After reading this article, you’ll learn how to force quit apps on your Mac easily!

How to force quit apps on Mac

It’s quite easy to force quit apps on your Mac, and there are more than one method to do that. However, before taking this drastic route, try closing the frozen app from the app’s menu in the menu bar, or use the keyboard combination Command + Q to quit the app.

Use Command + Q to quit the app

If the app is still hanging, try the methods below one by one until you find the method that does the trick for you.

Note: you may lose unsaved changes when force-quitting an app.

Method 1: force quit from the Menu bar

If the app still doesn’t quit, you can Force Quit it from the Menu bar. Here’s how to do it:

  1. Click the Apple icon in the top-left corner of your screen and select Force Quit.
    Force quit apps on Mac
    Or you can press Command + Option + Esc at the same time, which works very similar to pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del on a Windows PC.
    Command + Option + Esc
  2. Either way, it will bring up the “Force Quit Applications” box, in which you can find all the active apps currently running on macOS. You just need to select the misbehaving app and click the Force Quit button.
    Force Quit applications

Normally, the problematic app would be closed.

Tips: You can also press Command + Option + Shift + Esc at the same time to force quit an app immediately.

Method 2: force quit from the Dock

You can easily quit an app from the Dock by simply right-clicking the app you want to quit and select Quit. You may probably not know, macOS also allows you to force quit an app from the Dock. Here’s how:

  1. On the Dock, right-click on the app you want to quit. The shortcut menu will pop up.
    Quit apps from the Dock
  2. Press the Command key. You’ll see that Quit will change to Force Quit in the shortcut menu.
    Force quit from the dock
  3. Select Force Quit to close the app.

Method 3: force quit from Active Monitor

Activity Monitor on macOS is very similar to Task Manager on Windows OS. It’s designed to monitor the performance of processes on your Mac. If the methods above failed to force quit the frozen app, you can force quit it from Activity Monitor.

In Activity Monitor, you can see all the processes currently running in macOS, and you can easily quit a certain process. By doing that, you force quit the misbehaving app. You can follow the steps below to force quit the app in Activity Monitor:

  1. On your keyboard, press Command + Spacebar at the same time to bring up Spotlight search bar. Type activity monitor and press Enter to open Activity Monitor.
    Spotlight search bar activity monitor
  2. In Activity Monitor, you’ll see a list of active processes. Among the list, locate the frozen app and click the “X” icon at the top of the window.
    Force quit apps from activity monitor
  3. Click on Force Quit to end the process. Then macOS will force quit the app.
    Force quit apps from activity monitor 1

Normally, one of the methods should do the trick for you. If none of these solutions works, you can restart your Mac.

Hopefully, after reading this article, you’ve learned how to force quit apps on your Mac. Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any questions or suggestions on this topic. Thanks for reading!

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macOS

[SOLVED] Your Mac was unable to communicate with your Apple Watch

Wearable devices are becoming more and more popular. With an Apple watch, unlocking your Mac is much easier. You just need to wear your Apple Watch and be near your Mac, then your Mac will be unlocked automatically by your Apple Watch.

However, sometimes this feature may not work as expected. If you’re seeing the error message “Your Mac was unable to communicate with your Apple Watch” when trying to unlock your Mac with your Apple Watch, don’t worry. You’re not alone. This is a common issue reported by tons of Apple Watch users. The good news is that you should be able to fix this issue easily after reading this article.

Check if you meet the requirements for this feature

To use this feature, you need to ensure:

  • The model of your watch is Apple Watch Series 3 or higher
  • Your Mac is running on macOS High Sierra or later
  • To use Auto lock to approve requests for your Mac administrator password, a Mac running on macOS Catalina or later and an Apple Watch running on watchOS 6
  • Your Apple Watch is using a passcode
  • You’ve enabled 2-factor authentication for iCloud
  • You’ve signed into the same Apple ID on your Apple Watch and Mac
  • Bluetooth and Wi-Fi is enabled on your Mac
  • You’ve disabled automatic login

Note: to disable automatic login, you need to go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy. Under the General tab, check the box next to Disable automatic login to turn it off.

Try these fixes

  1. Restart your Mac
  2. Reset the radios
  3. Re-enable Handoff on your iPhone
  4. Sign out of your Apple ID, then sign back in
  5. Check “Keychain Access” on your Mac

Restart your Mac

Sometimes, after a fresh restart, everything on your Mac would return to normal. If this is the first time for you to receive the error message, simply restart your Mac and see if your Apple Watch can unlock your Mac.

If this issue persists after you restarted your Mac, try the next fix, below.

Reset the radios

The Auto unlock feature will stop working if the Bluetooth or Wi-Fi is turned off or somehow stopped responding on your Mac or Apple Watch. If it’s the case, you may need to reset the radios on both devices. After recycling them, you may fix this issue. Here’s how to do it:

On your Apple Watch:

  1. Swipe up from the watch face and tap the Airplane Mode button to turn the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi off.
    Reset the radios on Apple Watch
  2. Tap the Airplane Mode button again to turn all the radios back on.

On your Mac:

  1. Go to System Preferences > Network > Wi-Fi. Then click Turn Wi-Fi off to disable Wi-Fi. Click the button again to turn Wi-Fi on.
    Turn off Wi-Fi macOS
  2. Back to the System Preference window, then click Bluetooth > Turn Bluetooth Off. Click the button again to turn Bluetooth on.
    Turn off Bluetooth macOS

Try auto-unlock again after you’ve reset the radios. See if this fix works. If not, move on to the next fix, below.

Re-enable Handoff on your iPhone

Some users reported that they fixed this issue after they re-enabled Handoff on their iPhone. You can give this fix a shot if you haven’t tried it yet.

To re-enable Handoff on your iPhone, follow the steps below:

  1. On your iPhone, go to Settings > General > AirPlay & Handoff. Tap the toggle next to Handoff to turn it off.
    Re-enable Handoff on iPhone
  2. Wait a few seconds and tap the toggle again to turn it back on. See if this fix helps. If not, try the next fix, below.

Sign out of your Apple ID, then sign back in

If this issue persists, you may also need to sign out of your Apple ID, then sign back in on your Mac. Here’s how to do it:

  1. On your Mac, go to System Preference > Apple ID > Overview.
    Sign out of your Apple ID on Mac
  2. Click Sign Out… to sign out of your Apple ID, then sigh back in.

See if you can unlock your Mac with your Apple Watch. If not, just move on to the next fix, below.

Check “Keychain Access” on your Mac

The Auto Unlock feature may not work as expected if keys and plists are not reset properly. To fix it, you need to delete those plists in Keychain Access. Here’s how to do it:

  1. On the keyboard of your Mac, hold the Command key and Spacebar at the same time to invoke Spotlight. Type Keychain Access and press Enter to launch Keychain Access.
  2. In Keychain Access, from the menu bar, select View > Show Invisible items.
    Show invisible items in Keychain Access
  3. In Keychain Access, search for “Auto Unlock”. You’ll see a bunch of application passwords for “Auto Unlock: xxx’s …”. On your keyboard, press the Command key and A to select all records, then delete them. (this will reset auto lock on other Macs if you’re using multiple Macs)
    delete records in Keychain Access
  4. In Keychain Access, search for ‌”AutoUnlock” (no space). There should be 4 kinds of entries for “tlk” “tlk-nonsync” “classA” “classC”. Select all records and delete them.
    delete records in Keychain Access 1
  5. Open Finder and go to ~/Library/Sharing/AutoUnlock. There should be two files “ltk.plist” and “pairing-records.plist”. Delete both files.
    delete ltk.plist and pairing-records.plist
  6. Go to System Preference > Security & Privacy, under the General tab, check the box next to Use your Apple Watch to unlock apps and your Mac. If your first attempt fails, try it again.
    check the box next to Use your Apple Watch to unlock apps and your Mac

See if this fix works for you. If not, try updating the OS of your Apple Watch and Mac to the latest version. If there is no system update available, you may need to contact Apple for further assistance.

Categories
macOS

[SOLVED] AirDrop not working on Mac or iOS devices

AirDrop not working on your Mac or iOS devices like iPhone and iPad? You’re not alone. Recently we’ve seen many users reporting this issue. Some people find that their devices cannot discover each other when they try to share files via AirDrop, others complain that their device often failed to receive the file even after they selected the receiving device.

Luckily, you’ve come to the right place. After reading this article, you can fix this issue easily.

Step 1: Check if your devices are compatible with AriDrop

Some old model of iOS devices and Macs are compatible with AirDrop. To AirDrop items between your devices, you need to make sure both of your devices are compatible with AirDrop.

AirDrop between to two Macs:
You need ensure both Macs are running Mac OS X Lion (10.7) or later:

  • MacBook Pro (late 2008 or newer)
  • MacBook Air (late 2010 or newer)
  • MacBook (late 2008 or newer)
  • iMac (early 2009 or newer)
  • Mac mini (mid-2010 or newer)
  • Mac Pro (early 2009 with AirPort Extreme or newer)

AirDrop between two iOS devices:
Both iOS devices need to be running on iOS 7 or later:

  • iPhone 5 and newer
  • iPad (4th generation) or newer
  • iPad Air (all models)
  • iPad Pro (all model)
  • iPad Mini (all model)
  • iPod Touch (5th generation) or newer

AirDrop between a Mac and an iOS device:
The iOS device should be running on iOS 8 or later; and the Mac running on OS X Yosemite (10.10) or later:

  • MacBook Air: Mid 2012 or newer
  • MacBook (Retina): all models
  • MacBook Pro: Mid 2021 or newer
  • iMac: Late 2012 or newer
  • iMac Pro: All model
  • Mac Mini: Late 2012 or newer
  • Mac Pro: Late 2013 or newer

Step 2: Make sure your devices are discoverable in AirDrop

If you cannot find the device you want to AirDrop files to, check if you have it set its AirDrop receiving settings correctly.

To set AirDrop receiving setting on the iOS device:

  1. Unlock the receiving iOS device, then go to Settings > General > AirDrop.
  2. If you’re in the Contacts of the device you’re sending to, you can set its AirDrop receiving settings to Contacts Only; if you’re not in its Contacts, then you should set its SirDrop receiving settings to Everyone.
    tweak AirDrop receiving setting on iOS devices

To set AirDrop receiving settings on Mac:

  1. Open Finder on the Mac that needs to receive files.
  2. On your keyboard, press Command + Shift + R to invoke the AirDrop window.
  3. At the bottom of the AirDrop window, set the AirDrop receiving setting to Contacts Only if you’re in the Contacts of the device you’re sending to; if not, set the AirDrop receiving to Everyone.
    tweak AirDrop receiving setting on Mac

Normally after the AirDrop receiving settings is set correctly, AirDrop would function properly again.

Note: if you’re in the Contacts of the receiving device, but the device holder has blocked you in Contacts, you’ll not be able to AirDrop files to that person until he unblock you in his Contacts.

Step 3: Awake & unlock your devices

One common error that would lead to AirDrop problems is that the receiving device is asleep.

To function properly, AirDrop requires the display to be active on both devices. And it’s better to unlock the devices before you start AirDropping.

Step 4: Turn on Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on both devices

AirDrop uses Bluetooth to detect compatible devices nearby and uses Wi-Fi to perform the transfer.

Even if you have turned on Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on both devices, simply toggling turn off and on may fix the problem.

Step 5: Turn off Airplane Mode

Another common error that would causes AirDrop not working is that you forget to turn off Airplane Mode on the receiving devices.

Just as mentioned above, AirDrop needs Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to operate, and if the Airplane mode is turned on, it disables the both.

If you accidentally turned on and forget to turn it off, just Go to Settings > Airplane Mode to check turn it off.
Turn off Airplane Mode on iOS devices

Step 6: Reboot your devices

Sometimes, a simple restart would let AirDrop work again. If you’ve tried all the troubleshooting steps above but AirDrop is still not working, try reboot your devices. Normally, after a fresh restart, this issue will get fixed.


Hopefully, this article helped you resolve AirDrop not working issue. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave us a comment below. Thanks for reading.

Categories
macOS

How to hide files and folders on macOS

If you need to share your Mac with other people, you may not want them to see the private files and folders. To avoid this situation from happening, macOS offers us a way to hide files and folders.

If you don’t know how to do it, don’t worry! You’ve come to the right place. After reading this article, you’ll learn how to hide files and folders on your Mac quickly and easily!

To hide files and folders on macOS

It is recommended that you put all the files you’d like to hide into a folder, then you just need to set the properties of that folder as “hidden”.

After you moved all the files you want to hide to a single folder, follow the instructions below to hide that folder:

  1. On your keyboard, Press the Command key and Space bar at the same time to invoke Spotlight. Then type terminal and select Terminal from the search results.
  2. After you launched Terminal, enter the following command line, including a space at the end of it.
    chflags hidden
  3. Drag the folder that contains the files you want to hide into the Terminal window and drop it next to the command line.


    After you dropped the folder, the path of the folder will appear next to the command line in the Terminal window.
  4. Press Enter on your keyboard to execute the command. The Terminal window will not show the result of that command line. But if you go to the folder where you store the folder you wanted to hide, you will find the folder already “disappeared”.

To access the hidden file or folder on macOS

After you hid the files or folders, you can access them by simply pressing the Command-Shift-. combination.

Here is how to do it:

  1. Go to the folder where stores your hidden file or folder.
  2. Press the Command Key, the Shift key and the Period key (the . key) at the same time, then you will see those hidden files and folders.

You can also view hidden files and folders in Finder by executing the following command lines one by one:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder

The command lines above tell Finder to show hidden files and then restarts it.

If you want to stop Finder from showing hidden files, run the command lines below one by one:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
killall Finder

The command lines above tell Finder to stop showing hidden files and then restarts it.

To unhide a file or folder

If you want to unhide a file or folder, follow the steps below:

  1. Launch the Terminal app.
  2. Type the command line below into the Terminal window, and also remember to type a space after the command:
    chflags nohidden
  3. If the file or folder is hidden, you can open Finder and go to the folder where the hidden file or folder is stored, then press the Command key, the Shift key and the Period key (that’s the . key) at the same time to make them visible. Once you can see the file or folder, drag it to the Terminal window and drop it after the command line, as you did earlier.
  4. Press the Enter key to run the command.

After you run the command, the file or folder will become visible.

One more thing

It is not a foolproof way to protect your files and folders from others, since other people can easily find those files and folders using the method in this article. To secure your files and folders, you should encrypt them. By encrypting, you prevent others with out encryption password from open them.

Categories
macOS

Snagit – The Best Screen Capture Software for Windows and Mac

Both Windows and Mac have the built-in screen capture tools, however, those built-in tools are not powerful enough for the technical writers or bloggers who need to write how-to guides. For technical writers or bloggers, they deserve a versatile screen capture tool: Snagit! To be honest, Snagit is the best screen capture software I’ve ever used.

What is Snagit?

Snagit is a screen capture and recording software developed by TechSmith. It is elegant, beautifully designed and simple to use. With Snagit, you can not only capture your computer or smartphone screen easily, but also edit the screenshots efficiently using Snagit editor and share them to various destinations.

Main features of Snagit

As a professional screen capture tool, Snagit provides its customers with all the features they may need. Briefly speaking, with Snagit, you can

  • capture or record your computer screen;
  • edit the screenshots with drawing tools and effects in Snagit editor;
  • Share screenshots to various destination.

Screen capturing & recording

Unlike the most screen capture software on the market, Snagit not only provides you with the screen capturing feature, but also allows you to record the computer screen.

As you can see from the screenshots below, Snagit provides all the screen capture modes you may need:

(Snagit 2020 for Windows)
(Snagit 2020 for macOS)

Compared with the screen capturing feature, the screen recording feature in Snagit is quite simple. After all, Snagit is a screen capture tool from TechSmith. If you need a professional screen capturing tool, Camtasia is a better choice.

(Snagit 2020 for Windows)
(Snagit 2020 for macOS)

Screenshot editing

Snagit is famous for its powerful screenshot editing features. It provides you with lots of drawing tools and effects so that you can edit the screenshot directly in the Snagit Editor the next second after capturing it, which is really efficient!

(Snagit 2020 for Windows)
(Snagit 2020 for macOS)

Screenshot sharing

Snagit enables you to share screenshots to various destination quickly and easily!As you can see from the screenshots below, you can share screenshots to MS office, cloud drives, IM apps, etc.

(Snagit 2020 for Windows)
(Snagit 2020 for macOS)

Fuse: connect mobile device to Snagit

Fuse is an app available in AppStore and Google Play. With the Fuse app, you can send the image files like smartphone screenshots to Snagit via your network connection, then you can edit them with the drawing tools and effects in Snagit Editor.


To sum up, Snagit is an excellent screen capture software on the market. In my opinion of view, it is the best screen capture tool I’ve ever used. If you need to deal with screenshots frequently and if you haven’t tried it yet, It’s worth a try! Snagit can definitely boost your productivity.

Categories
macOS

Create a Windows 10 virtual machine on macOS with VirtualBox

If you’re a macOS user and you need to use apps available on Windows platform only, usually there are two options for you:

  • Dual boot
  • Virtual machine

Which option is better for you?

The Dual boot option can provide you with a stronger performance than the virtual machine does. However, you cannot use the two operating systems at the same time. In other words, if you need to use apps on the Windows platform, you have to shut down macOS first, then restart your Mac to boot from Window OS.

In contrast, the virtual machine option allows you to run Windows OS directly on macOS, which means, you can use these both macOS and Windows OS at the same time. That’s cool, right? However, the virtual machine is always a big consumer of your Mac system resource. So, it might not be a good choice to install a Windows 10 virtual machine on the Mac that equipped with a small memory.

*In this post, I’d like to focus on the latter option: how to create a Windows 10 virtual machine using VirtualBox. After reading it, you’ll be able to install a Windows 10 VM with VirtualBox quickly and easily!

What is VirtualBox?

Oracle VM VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Created by Innotek, it was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 2008, which was in turn acquired by Oracle in 2010 (excerpt from Wikipedia).

VirtualBox can be installed on the following platforms:

  • Windows
  • macOS
  • Linux
  • Solaris
  • OpenSolaris

How to create a Windows 10 virtual machine using Virtualbox?

  1. Download and install the latest version of VirtualBox on your Mac.
  2. Download the Windows 10 ISO file from Microsoft.
  3. Launch VirtualBox. Click New to start creating Windows 10 VM.
  4. Name your Windows 10 VM, then select where you’d like to store your VM. As for Type and Version, select Microsoft Windows and Windows 10 (64-bit) respectively. Then click Continue.
  5. Move the slider to allocate the memory size of your Windows 10 VM. Then click Continue.
  6. Follow the on-screen instructions to decide whether you need to add a virtual hard disk or not. Here I’d like to select the second option and click Create.
  7. Select the file type of the virtual hard disk.If you don’t need to use this VM with other virtualization software, you can select the first option. Then click Continue.
  8. Choose whether you’d like the virtual hard disk file to be dynamically allocated or not, then click Continue. In this step, I’d like to select the second option: Fixed size.
  9. Confirm the file location for this VM. Move the slider to allocate the file size of the virtual hard disk. The recommended file size is 50 GB. Then click Create. It make take some time to complete.

  10. Click Start.
  11. On the popping-up window, click the file icon to locate the Windows 10 ISO file you downloaded.

    Click Choose.

    Then click Start.
  12. Follow the instructions on the popping-up window to install Windows 10 (VM). It may take some time to finish the installation process. During installation, the Windows VM will restart several times.
  13. If you see the Windows 10 desktop in VirtualBox, Congratulations! You’ve created a Windows 10 VM on your Mac.

That’s pretty easy, right? If you have any questions or suggestions on this issue, you’re more than welcome to leave me a comment below. Thanks for reading!

Categories
macOS

The document-Level macOS Keyboard Shortcuts You Should Know

If you’re a Windows veteran like me, after switching to macOS, you may be confused by the document (file)-level keyboard shortcuts on macOS. So in this post, I’m going to show you some of the most frequently used document-level keyboard shortcuts on macOS. After reading it, you’ll be familiar with those document-level keyboard shortcuts!

Document / file -level keyboard shortcuts

Copy the selected item to the Clipboard:

Cut the selected item and copy it to the Clipboard:

Select All items:

Duplicate the selected files:

Paste the contents of the Clipboard into the current document or app. This also works for files in the Finder:

Undo the previous command:

Reverse the undo command:

Save the current document:

Find items in a document or open a Find window:

Show the Get Info window for a selected file:

Move the selected item to the Trash:

Empty the Trash:

Empty the Trash without confirmation dialog:

Print the current document:

Show the Character Viewer, from which you can choose emoji and other symbols:

Use Quick Look to preview the selected item:

Create a new folder in the Finder:

Move the dragged item to the other volume, instead of copying it:

Copy the dragged item. The pointer changes while you drag the item:

Make an alias of the dragged item. The pointer changes while you drag the item:


Hopefully, after reading this post, you’ve been familiar with the document (file)-level keyboard shortcuts on macOS! If you’ve any suggestions or questions on this topic, please let me a comment below. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

Categories
macOS

The App-Level macOS Keyboard Shortcuts You Should Know

In my previous post, I talked about the system-level macOS keyboard shortcuts:

In this post, I will focus on the app-level macOS keyboard shortcuts. After you read this post, you’ll be familiar with those app-level keyboard shortcuts.

App-level keyboard shortcuts

Force Quit Applications:

Mac keyboard: Option-Command-Esc
Windows keyboard: Alt-Windows logo key-Esc

Close the front window:

Mac keyboard: Command-W
Windows keyboard: Windows logo key-W

Close all windows of the app:

Mac keyboard: Command-Option-W
Windows keyboard: Windows logo key-Alt-W

Hide the windows of the front app:

Mac keyboard: Command-H
Windows keyboard: Windows logo key-H

View the front app but hide all other apps:

Mac keyboard: Option-Command-H
Windows keyboard: Alt-Windows logo key-H

Minimize the front window of the Dock:

Mac keyboard: Command-M
Windows keyboard: Windows logo key-M

Minimize all windows of the front app:

Mac keyboard: Option-Command-M
Windows keyboard: Alt-Windows logo key-M

Use the app in full screen:

Mac keyboard: Control-Command-F
Windows keyboard: Ctrl-Windows logo key-F

Switch to the next most recently used app among your open apps:

Mac keyboard: Command-Tab
Windows keyboard: Windows logo key-Tab

Open preferences for the front app:

Mac keyboard: Command-Comma (,)
Windows keyboard: Windows logo key-Comma (,)

That’s it! If you master the keyboard shortcuts in the post, I believe you can boost productivity when working with your Mac. Just as always, if you’d like to share your thoughts or ideas, or if you have any questions on this topic, you’re more than welcome to leave me a comment below!