Guide To Lion

Mac OS X Lion, is the amazing new operating system from Apple. There are over 250 new features. The main enhancements include Launchpad, Mission Control, Full Screen Apps, Multi-Touch Gestures, and AirDrop.

Inevitably, even with such a great OS there will still be issues. Here are some solutions to problems you may encounter with 10.7.

Apple has made a bold step moving away from DVD installations of software by making Lion only available by download through the App Store. This makes sense because the physical medium is unnecessary if you have a good internet connection and the last OS, 10.6, Snow Leopard. But for those who have a shaky internet connection or are still on OS 10.5 (or earlier!?), an alternative to the App Store download is needed.

Upgrading to Lion Without Snow Leopard. One way to upgrade is with the USB Flash Drive version of Lion 10.7 that Apple sells for $70 (The price accounts for the cost of the drive itself, and that of two $30 upgrades, one to Snow Leopard, and one to Lion). But what if you already have a flash drive or black DVD? There is another option: you can buy Lion through the App Store on a friends computer, load it on the flash drive/DVD, and instal it on you Mac from there. Very easy to do. Here are a few more detailed steps to make your own flash drive or DVD of Lion.

A new way to access apps from the Dock is through Launchpad.

Here are some of the problems can occur in Launchpad when upgrading to Lion, and their solutions.

Duplicate Apps. These can't be deleted in the usual way, as no 'X' appears when they are selected. They can be older versions retrained from OS 10.6, and in some cases there can be triplicates after upgrading to iTunes 10.5. There are two easy solutions. The first is to clear away all the apps with the simple-to-use "Clear Launchpad" command, then manually drag only the ones you want back in. The second is to just hide the unwanted apps with Launchpad-Control, a free tool that instals into System Preferences (under Other).

Cluttered Apps. The "Clear Launchpad" command is the best fix if you are looking to just start adding in apps from scratch rather than try and organize from within a messy Launchpad.

Empty folders. If you end up with empty folders after upgrading to Lion (or for whatever reason), and all you want to do is remove them, there is a simple fix. Just drag an app into the folder in question. Then move it back out and the folder will disappear.

These are just a few bits about Lion that may be helpful. I'll update with more as I encounter additional issues.

For other Lion specific issues you can visit Apple's Lion Support, or if you want to pour over a physical manual, than Mac OS X Lion: Peachpit Learning Series is the book for you.

For other issues not specific to Lion, here are two solutions from Apple:

PRAM Reset. A reset of PRAM may resolve issues with information stored on it such as:

• Display and video settings such as refresh rate, screen resolution, number of colors
• Startup volume choice
• Speaker volume
• Recent kernel panic information, if any
• DVD region setting (although resetting this will not allow you to change the DVD region)

SMC Reset. A reset of SMC may resolve issues that remain after all other troubleshooting options have been attempted. **Apple advises that this should only be used as a last resort.** Issues resolved by SMC Reset may include those to do with:

• Fans
• Lights
• Power
• System Preference
• Video