Chapter 4: Installations, Inc.

Overview

(Or: Mastering Mac OS and third-party installations.)

When you first took your Mac out of the box, it came with most of the things you needed to be a fairly functional member of the computer-using public: e-mail client, web browser, word processor—maybe even the AppleWorks or Microsoft Office suite of applications. However, at some point you had to (or will have to) install other software, whether it's commercial software, games, or even shareware or freeware you've downloaded from the Internet. In addition, you may want to (or, unfortunately, need to) reinstall software that came with your computer. Finally, there are sure to be times when you have to undertake the (sometimes daunting) task of uninstalling software.

Since you're already using Mac OS X, I'm going to talk first about installing applications and third-party software, including system add-ons. Then I'll talk about Mac OS X and Apple software installations and updates, and uninstalling software. Finally, I'll show you how to transfer your files from one computer or hard drive to another and support some "unsupported" computers and peripherals.