Cursor issue when playing full-screen games on Windows 7 via Boot Camp-MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)

When using Windows 7 with Boot Camp on your MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), mouse or trackpad clicks may not seem to respond correctly when you play full-screen games. Disable display scaling on HiDPI settings to correct this issue. *Right click the game application's icon. This brings up a Properties dialog box. *Click on the Compatibility tab. *Place a checkmark in the checkbox for "Disable display scaling on high DPI." *Click OK.

Calibrate the battery of Apple Macbookpro/MacBook Air

For any MacBook Pro/MacBook Air user, especially those who travel, a long battery life and top notch battery health are vital. The tips below will help ensure you get the most out of your MacBook Pro/MacBook Air’s battery over its lifetime.

1) Calibrate the battery once ever 1-3 months
Finally, if your battery is showing signs of shorter run times, you may want to calibrate the battery (once every 1-3 months). To calibrate the battery, follow these instructions:

a) Fully charge your MacBook Pro/MacBook Air.
b) Once fully charged, leave it plugged in for at least another 2 hours.
c) Remove the MagSafe power adapter, and use your computer until you get the battery level warning message.
d) Ignore that message and keep running your notebook.
e) Eventually the machine will go to sleep.
f) Do NOT plug it in. Instead, let it sleep for at least 5 hours.
g) After the time has passed, plug it back in, and let it fully charge.
h) Once fully charged, your battery has been properly calibrated.

2) Turn off AirPort Wireless
If you do not require the Internet and if there are no WiFi networks within range, turning off AirPort will considerably save your computer’s battery life. It is also wiser to use an Ethernet cable over wireless if the option exists.

3) Turn off Bluetooth
Once again, if there is no need for a Bluetooth device, the best thing to do is to turn off the Bluetooth feature of your MacBook Pro/MacBook Air.
 
4) Minimize use of iSight Camera
The iSight camera uses plenty of battery power. Keeps its use down to a minimum if trying to extend battery life.
 
5) Remember to eject discs from the DVD drive 
The motor in the optical drive required to spin DVDs and CDs can use a lot of power. Thus, eject your discs to maximize battery life. If you insist on watching DVDs, say on a long journey, rip them to your hard drive first instead.
 
6) Reduce screen brightness
Turn down the brightness of the screen to as low as you can comfortably work, and your battery life will significantly rise. The brighter the screen, the shorter your battery life.
 
7) Turn down/off the backlit keyboard
Similar to the brightness of the screen, keeping your backlit keyboard (if you have one) at its lowest or off will save plenty of battery juice.
 
8) Turn down volume or use headphones
Loud volume on your MacBook Pro/MacBook Air requires more energy. It is more energy efficient to plug in headphones instead if you fancy listening to loud audio/music.

9) Run fewer applications at once/turn off unneeded applications
By running less applications simultaneously, or installing more RAM, you reduce your risks of having unused parts of your memory being called for tasks, thus saving battery life.
 
10) Do NOT disable a CPU core
For all MacBook Pro/MacBook Airs with more than one CPU core, disabling a core is NOT wise. Your MacBook Pro/MacBook Airs chips were designed to run most efficiently with multiple cores active. Disabling one not only requires more power, but also generates more heat. Some users have reported losing up to 40 minutes of battery life by turning off a core!

Inside OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion: Screen Sharing adds drag and drop file transfers

Remote Screen Sharing is enhanced in this summer's release of OS X Mountain Lion, adding support for drag and drop file transfers between the viewer and the remote desktop and enhancing support for virtual displays.

Screen Sharing, a remote access feature Apple first added to OS X 10.5 Leopard to enable viewing or controlling another Mac's desktop, is gaining a feature from Apple Remote Desktop: the ability to drag files from the local desktop into a remote session.

After connecting to a remote host, the local user can now drag files to the desktop, or target a specific app, invoking Exposé to, for example, drag an image file to a Pages document, select the window of the desired document, and place the graphic in the document.

To Read more visit:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/02/23/inside_os_x_108_mountain_lion_screen_sharing_adds_drag_and_drop_file_transfers.html

Enable AirDrop Over Ethernet & AirDrop On Unsupported Macs Running OS X 10.7

AirDrop is the extremely easy local peer-to-peer file transfer tool that is built into Mac OS X 10.7, it allows you to easily send and receive files wirelessly over a network just by dragging and dropping. It’s a great addition in Lion, but it’s not supported on all Macs.

You can enable AirDrop support on unsupported Macs running OS X 10.7+ by using the following defaults write command in the Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser BrowseAllInterfaces 1


Paste that in and hit enter. You’ll need to then kill the Finder with ‘killall Finder’ or reboot the Mac for changes to take effect.

What’s really interesting is that this enables AirDrop over both Wi-Fi and wired Ethernet connections, which basically means any machine running Lion can use it whether or not it has a wireless card. As long as it’s connected to the same network you will be able to see the Mac in the AirDrop list of another Mac running 10.7.

If you ever want to disable this for some reason, you can just use this code.

defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser BrowseAllInterfaces 0

Enjoy........

OS X Lion: About Windows Migration Assistant

Summary
With OS X Lion, you can migrate all of the information from your old Windows PC to your new Mac. Lion automatically transfers your contacts, calendars, and email accounts and puts them in the appropriate applications.

Products Affected
OS X Lion
Windows Migration brings the following information from your Windows PC (Windows XP SP3 or greater) to your Mac:

Email: IMAP and POP accounts from Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail and Windows Live email accounts are transferred to Mail. Email metadata such as read, replied, and flagged are transferred from Outlook, Outlook Express and Windows Mail to Mail in OS X.
Contacts: Outlook and Outlook Express contacts, and Windows Contacts from the Contact home directory are transferred to Address Book.
Calendars: Outlook calendars are transferred to iCal
iTunes library, including music, photos, videos and apps and games for iOS devices, except rentals
Home directory folders and content, including Music, Pictures, Desktop, Documents, and Downloads
Browser bookmarks and homepage from Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari are transferred to Safari
User settings including localization, locale, and any customized desktop picture

What you need to do first

First, make sure that both the Windows PC and the Mac are on the same network, such as your home network.
Second, to avoid interrupting the migration process, disable automatic installation of updates in Windows.
Make sure know the name and password of an administrator account. The first account created on the Mac is an administrator account.
Note: This process will create a new user account on your Mac to contain the Windows PC information that is migrated over. It will not merge the information with an existing user account on the Mac.


To migrate information from a PC to your Mac

Download to the Windows PC the Windows Migration Assistant installer from here.

Install Windows Migration Assistant, then open it.

Click "Continue" to proceed.


The Windows Migration Assistant will wait for you to open Migration Assistant or use Mac OS X Setup Assistant.

If the Mac is starting up for the first time and Mac OS X Setup Assistant appears

Select the "From a Windows PC" transfer option.
Select the Source Windows PC then click "Continue" to proceed.
The Mac will display a Passcode that should appear on the Windows PC.
The Windows PC will display the Passcode from the Mac then click "Continue" to proceed.
On the Mac select the information to transfer from the Windows PC then click "Transfer" once it is dark to begin the migration process.


On both the Windows PC and Mac you will see a progress bar, messaging about what is being migrated, and estimated time remaining until the migration process is completed.

Next you will complete the "Mac OS X Setup Assistant" process.

Once completed, you can log into the new user account.

Note: At your first login, you will promoted to enter a new password for the user account. See this article about how to choose a good password.

If you are going to use the Migration Assistant from the Utilities folder on the Mac


On the Mac, open the Migration Assistant located in the Utilities folder. To do this: In Finder, select Go > Utilities or press Shift–Command–U (⇧⌘U), then double-click Migration Assistant.

Select the "From another Mac, PC, Time Machine backup, or other disk" option then click "Continue".

When prompted, enter an administrator name and password.

Select the "From another Mac or PC" migration method then click "Continue" to proceed.

When prompted, click Continue to quit other applications. Other applications can't be open on the Mac during the migration process.

Select the PC, then wait for the PC to show the passcode displayed on the Mac.

On the PC, once you see the passcode displayed on the Mac, click "Continue" to proceed.

The Mac will then begin to inspect your computer and build a list of information to migrate.

Select the information you would like to migrate to the Mac, then click Continue to proceed.

On both the Windows PC and Mac you will see a progress bar, messaging of what is being migrated and estimated time remaining. Once completed, you can log into the user account created.

Note: At your first login, you will promoted to enter a new password for the user account. See this article about how to choose a good password.

How to avoid or remove Mac Defender malware

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4650

Summary

A recent phishing scam has targeted Mac users by redirecting them from legitimate websites to fake websites which tell them that their computer is infected with a virus. The user is then offered Mac Defender "anti-virus" software to solve the issue. 

This "anti-virus" software is malware (i.e. malicious software).  Its ultimate goal is to get the user's credit card information which may be used for fraudulent purposes. 

The most common names for this malware are MacDefender, MacProtector and MacSecurity.  

In the coming days, Apple will deliver a Mac OS X software update that will automatically find and remove Mac Defender malware and its known variants.  The update will also help protect users by providing an explicit warning if they download this malware.  

In the meantime, the Resolution section below provides step-by-step instructions on how to avoid or manually remove this malware.

Products Affected

Mac OS X 10.4, Mac OS X 10.6, Mac OS X 10.5

Resolution

How to avoid installing this malware

If any notifications about viruses or security software appear, quit Safari or any other browser that you are using. If a normal attempt at quitting the browser doesn't work, then Force Quit the browser.

In some cases, your browser may automatically download and launch the installer for this malicious software.  If this happens, cancel the installation process; do not enter your administrator password.  Delete the installer immediately using the steps below.

1. Go into the Downloads folder or your preferred download location.
2. Drag the installer to the Trash. 
3. Empty the Trash.

How to remove this malware

If the malware has been installed, we recommend the following actions:

• Do not provide your credit card information under any circumstances.
• Use the Removal Steps below.

Removal steps

• Move or close the Scan Window
• Go to the Utilities folder in the Applications folder and launch Activity Monitor  
• Choose All Processes from the pop up menu in the upper right corner of the window
• Under the Process Name column, look for the name of the app and click to select it; common app names include: MacDefender, MacSecurity or MacProtector
• Click the Quit Process button in the upper left corner of the window and select Quit
• Quit Activity Monitor application
• Open the Applications folder
• Locate the app ex. MacDefender, MacSecurity, MacProtector or other name
• Drag to Trash, and empty Trash

Malware also installs a login item in your account in System Preferences. Removal of the login item is not necessary, but you can remove it by following the steps below.

• Open System Preferences, select Accounts, then Login Items
• Select the name of the app you removed in the steps above ex. MacDefender, MacSecurity, MacProtector
• Click the minus button

Use the steps in the "How to avoid installing this malware" section above to remove the installer from the download location.

Note: Apple provides security updates for the Mac exclusively through Software Update and the Apple Support Downloads site. User should exercise caution any time they are asked to enter sensitive personal information online.
 

Windows 7 Keyboard shortcuts

The navigation keys allow you to move the cursor, move around in documents and
webpages, and edit text. The following is the list stating some common functions of
these keys.



Left Arrow, Right Arrow, Up Arrow, or Down Arrow : Move the cursor or selection one space or line in the direction of the arrow, or scroll a webpage in the direction of the arrow

Home : Move the cursor to the beginning of a line or move to the
top of a webpage

End : Move the cursor to the end of a line or move to the bottom
of a webpage

Ctrl+Home: Move to the top of a document

Ctrl+End : Move to the bottom of a document

Page Up : Move the cursor or page up one screen

Page Down : Move the cursor or page down one screen

Delete : Delete the character after the cursor, or the selected text; in
Windows, delete the selected item and move it to the
Recycle Bin

Insert : Turn Insert mode off or on. When Insert mode is on, text
that you type is inserted at the cursor. When Insert mode is
off, text that you type replaces existing characters.

Press Alt+PrtScn: To capture an image of just the active window, instead of the
entire screen.

F1: Display Help

Ctrl+C: Copy the selected item

Ctrl+X: Cut the selected item

Ctrl+V : Paste the selected item

Ctrl+Z :Undo an action

Ctrl+Y: Redo an action

Delete: Delete the selected item and move it to the Recycle Bin

Shift+Delete: Delete the selected item without moving it to the Recycle
Bin first

F2:Rename the selected item

Ctrl+Right Arrow: Move the cursor to the beginning of the next word

Ctrl+Left Arrow: Move the cursor to the beginning of the previous word

Ctrl+Down Arrow: Move the cursor to the beginning of the next paragraph

Ctrl+Up Arrow Move: the cursor to the beginning of the previous
paragraph

Ctrl+Shift with an arrow key: Select a block of text

Shift with any arrow key: Select more than one item in a window or on the desktop,
or select text within a document

Ctrl with any arrow key+Spacebar: Select multiple individual items in a window or on the
desktop

Ctrl+A : Select all items in a document or window

F3: Search for a file or folder

Alt+Enter: Display properties for the selected item

Alt+F4: Close the active item, or exit the active program

Alt+Spacebar Open the shortcut menu for the active window

Ctrl+F4: Close the active document (in programs that allow you to
have multiple documents open simultaneously)

Alt+Tab: Switch between open items

Ctrl+Alt+Tab: Use the arrow keys to switch between open items

Ctrl+Mouse scroll: wheel Change the size of icons on the desktop
Windows logo key +Tab: Cycle through programs on the taskbar by using Aero Flip
3-D
Ctrl+Windows logo key+Tab:Use the arrow keys to cycle through programs on the
taskbar by using Aero Flip 3-D

Alt+Esc: Cycle through items in the order in which they were opened

F6: Cycle through screen elements in a window or on the desktop

F4: Display the address bar list in Windows Explorer

Shift+F10:Display the shortcut menu for the selected item

Ctrl+Esc: Open the Start menu

Alt+underlined letter: Display the corresponding menu

Alt+underlined letter :Perform the menu command (or other underlined
command)

F10: Activate the menu bar in the active program

Right Arrow: Open the next menu to the right, or open a submenu

Left Arrow :Open the next menu to the left, or close a submenu

F5 : Refresh the active window

Alt+Up Arrow: View the folder one level up in Windows Explorer

Esc: Cancel the current task

Ctrl+Shift+Esc: Open Task Manager

Shift when you insert a CD: Prevent the CD from automatically playing

Windows logo key : Open or close the Start menu.

Windows logo key +Pause : Display the System Properties dialog box.

Windows logo key +D : Display the desktop.

Windows logo key +M :Minimize all windows.

Windows logo key+Shift+M: Restore minimized windows to the desktop.

Windows logo key +E: Open Computer.

Windows logo key +F: Search for a file or folder.

Ctrl+Windows logo key +F:Search for computers (if you're on a network).

Windows logo key +L :Lock your computer or switch users.

Windows logo key +R :Open the Run dialog box.

Windows logo key +T :Cycle through programs on the taskbar.