Did you buy a new brand MacBook or your old one? This tutorial post will guide you on how to tweak the best out of its settings before using the System. Most people get a new PC without knowing how to start using it for better performance for whichever purpose they bought it for. Today, you will be guided on how to check some necessary settings that requires one or two things to be done before they can suit you need for operation.
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So if you just bought a new MacBook, below is how to start checking and changing the settings when you must have turned it ON and pass some processes of the screen usually guided by the Mac Setup Assistant. Normally, you are to enter your Apple ID to login and then connect to available network and others etc. Haven done that, below is
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16 Settings to Setup while Configuring a New MacBook System
>>1. Check Latest Updates For MacOS
First of all, check whether Apple has rolled out any update to MacOS High Sierra for your MackBook system. To check that out, click Apple button located at the top left corner of your device screen and next, click on About This Mac. It should take you to the General tab of the About This Mac Window. Now click on the software Update button to launch the App Store where you will then check for latest updates.
>>2. Display Battery Percentage Power
Like you Show battery percentage on your iPhone or iPad even on Android smartphones, MacBook also display such functionality. Displaying Battery percentage icon on your new MacBook, will enable you know how many battery power is remaining, it also let you know when your battery is fully charged if plugged on power source. Now, to show your system battery bar or percentage, simply click the battery icon presently on the Menu bar and then click Show Percentage. (in case you don’t get to see the battery icon on the menu bar, just navigate to System Preferences > Energy Saver and ensure to check the small box for showing the battery status in menu bar for your Mac PC.) That’s all for displaying your battery percentage on your new MacBook system.
>>3. Set up Siri Settings
Siri is always enabled by default, but should in case you wish not to use Siri on your MacBook but prefer it to be used on iPhone, then read on to disable the settings. Disable Siri by going to System Preferences > Siri and then uncheck the Siri default enabled for Enable Ask Siri. In case you wish to use Siri often, then use this Siri window to select Siri’s voice speech, keyboard shortcut and language.
>>4. Customize MacBook Touch Bar
To Customize the touch bar of your new MacBook Pro model, just go to System Preferences > Keyboard and then click on Customize Control Strip button and ensure to drag the buttons you wish to display on the default view of the touch bar to the Touch Bar which is presently below the display. You need not to worry about anything because they will make the leap from the display across the hinge and then to Touch Bar. (Apple calls this function Control Strip in most places and also call it Touch Bar in other places, the reason is best known to them.)
>>5. Sync Folders Through iCloud Storage
If you ask me, it is wise and useful to sync Desktop and Documents folders that involves files like pdfs, images, apps, games, text messages etc. between two Macs and iOS devices. So I will as well ask you to do same to get your files backed up in iCloud storage. To syncs your MacBook folders, open System Preferences >> iCloud and then ensure to click the Options button for the iCloud Drive. Now check the box for the top item which are Desktop and Documents folders.
>>6. Select Default Browser
I prefer setting chrome browser as my default browser even though it uses more system resources than that of safari. Also the favicons help me keep track of every opened tabs while browsing the internet. So to setup default browser for your new MacBook just go to System Preferences > General and choose Google chrome or any other browser that is not Safari as your Default browser.
>>7. Set up scrolling direction
To most people, default follow come MacBook Natural scrolling direction isn’t their type or taste that suit them while operating on the system, so most of them prefer the two-finger swipe gesture that scroll vertically in the opposite way. In case you are one, this is how to set up such function on your new Mac system. Just navigate to System Preferences > Trackpad and then ensure to click on the Scroll & Zoom tab. Next to do, just uncheck the box for Scroll direction: Natural.
>>8. Set up Dashboard
The MacOS Sierra enables users juggle multiple desktops through Mission Control, which you can be able to swipe through utilizing the three or four finger swipe gesture. In case you don’t know, the Dashboard embedded for MacBook is a special desktop that enables users pin different kinds of apps to it in order to grant quick access to Calendar, calculator, current weather conditions and many other information that may be useful for the user. Now to enable this Dashboard in order to have your PC set up to standard for use, just go to System Preferences > Mission Control and here change the Dashboard setting from Off to any of the these; as Space or as Overlay. Now the former sets up the Dashboard as the leftmost desktop while the latter overlays it on the current desktop with the click of the F12 key.
>>9. Adding and removing items from Dock
Usually, Apple adds more number of stock app into Dock which is located at the bottom of the device’s screen. You can remove and add apps you make use all the time, thereby deleting or removing other apps you don’t use from the Dock. So to remove any app from Dock, all you need do is to click on any of the app icon and then drag it to desktop until you get to see Remove prompt show above the icon, after then let go of the dragging. Also, to add an application/software into Dock, just open it and right-click on its icon present in the Dock and mouse over the Option line in the system menu and then click keep in Dock to save there.
>>10. Change or Move the Dock Position
The Dock is always found by default located at the bottom of MacBook screen, and whenever MacBook device is on widescreen display, the position gets to position you wouldn’t like. Now to move the Dock to a better position, probably by the side, go to System Preferences > Dock > select either right or left for positioning Dock the main side of the screen that suit your need of operation. Even while you are still there, you can as well drag a slider to get the size of the Dock adjusted. You can make it to disappear from viewing when you are not using it, do that by checking the box for Automatically hide and show the Dock.
>>11. Set up Safari Browser
Setting up your Safari Autoplay videos and that of ad trackers that disturb someone’s peace while surfing the internet, is a must do if you don’t want a bigger internet problem or annoyance. Normally, ad tracking is stopped by default and there is a global setting for disabling autoplay videos, so you need to enable the function in order to stop such from disturbing your peace. To setup that, open your mac Safari and go to Preferences and click on the website tab. From here, select Auto-Play just from the left panel and also, for visiting other websites at the bottom of the window, just choose Never Auto-Play or Stop Media with sound (that is if you are fine with muted videos while playing), then relax and enjoy the silence.
>>12. Enable Night Shift on the New MacBook
Operating your system at night requires an appropriate screen light. So staring at a blue screen can get you not to have a good night’s sleep. And that brought about Apple’s Night Shift Feature, which get the color of your system display shifted to warmer end of the spectrum during night hours. To get your new MacBook adjust to such functionality, navigate to System Preferences > Displays > Click on Night Shift Tab. From there, set the Night shift to come on from sunset to sunrise, or you choose to set up the custom time period to the time that suit you in order to ensure your eyes is protected. You can use the slider to make an adjustment on the color temperature of the effect which is between less warm and more.
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>>13. Set Time for Do Not Disturb
As you can Set up notification for do not disturb on iOS, so is to MacOS devices. So you can disable notification at night or anytime you are busy and doesn’t need disturbance. To do that, go to system preferences > Notifications > here check the box to turn On the Do Not Disturb. Normally, Apple default do not disturb time is 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. but you can make changes of the time to your own preferred time. Also, there are basic options to enable the feature when the new MacBook system display is sleeping or may be when you are mirroring the display to a TV or projector (watching videos or movie or show). Depending on the settings, you can as well allow calls to enter (in case you use MacBook to answer calls) or may be repeated calls, which might indicate that there is an important or emergency which requires an urgent respond. Explore more features of Do Not disturb in that section if you want.
>>14. Guide to Set App Download Tolerance level for New MacOS PC
Do you wish to download applications from web globally if not only from Mac APP Store, then you will need to set up the MacOS to loosen up on the reins a bit. To set up that, navigate to System Preferences > security and Privacy > Now click on lock present in the bottom left corner and then type your password to enable changes. To Allow apps downloaded from, select App Store and identified developers.
>>15. Set how fast your MacBook locks
Still on the Security and Privacy section, you can set up the length of time for which you want your MacBook to stay idle before the home screen get locked. Setting up the time to be longer is convenient but mind you, its’s less secure. You should know that setting up the time period here does not start ticking until the device’s screen saver begins, so in other words, as the user you need to set the length of the time before your screen saver starts. To do that, go to System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver, then choose the style of your screen saver and as well as the time by simply using the drop-down menu located in the lower-left corner of the device’s screen.
>>16. Monitor System Stats
Track your MacOS system stats by using a third party app called iStat Pro. The app enables user to monitor activities thereby keeping track of different software installed on the system. It also keeps tracks and deliver full details of all gathered information for network activity and that of the CPU usage and other things like hardware temperature and fan-speed etc. You can try it out by downloading it to your new MacBook from Mac App Store.
For now, the above are the most 16 important things to tweak when setting up a new MacBook Pro Computer system. Now share the post using below social share buttons and drop your comments. Thank you.
