Ralph's Tech Tips for Mac OS X

By Ralph Tolbert, Educational Technology Consultant ()

Forgot your administrator's password and can't log on to your Mac running OS X?

Insert your OS X startup CD and hold down the "c" key to start from the CD.
At the splash screen, do not install.
Under the File menu will be the "Reset Password" option. Select which passwords to change.
Reboot without the CD and log in using the new password. Remember not to use the obvious choices for a password such as your name or class; create a password using a combination of numbers and letters — perhaps a combination of your street address and nickname mixed together. Uppercase letters do make a difference.

Have files and folders that just won't go away when you drag them to the Trash?

This is probably a permissions problem. Go to http://homepage.mac.com/howardoakley and download Obliter8 for a neat little program where you simply drag anything on it and it is gone. Be careful — don't drag your hard drive on to the program because…

What happens if I change the name of my Mac's hard drive?

The hard drive police won't show up if you change the name of your hard drive. Remember, this is not equivalent to changing your network identity as done under System Preferences: Sharing. However, what does confuse OS X's thought process is renaming folders at the root level such as the Applications, Library, System and User's folders. Want to lose your printers? Rename the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder. Best advice is to name to your heart's content any file that you create in Word or PhotoShop, but leave the directory folders alone.