- Spotlight is an option. Search for Utilities in Spotlight (Command-Space) and click to open it.
- You can make use of the Finder application (located in your Dock). Click Finder, then Applications in the left sidebar, then Utilities in the right sidebar.
- If you use this folder frequently or expect to use it frequently, you might wish to add it to your Dock for quick access. Open Finder once more, then go to Applications and look for the Utilities folder. Now, right-click the folder and drag it to the Mac Dock’s right side.
On a Mac 2020, where is the Utilities folder?
Many buyers bought Macs during the recent holiday season, according to early sales estimates. That’s hardly surprising: Mac sales have been increasing for years as customers choose to extend the Apple user experience they’ve grown accustomed to from the iPhone to their desktop computers “Personal Computer.” In today’s article, we’ll show you five utility apps in macOS 10.13 High Sierra that will come in handy when troubleshooting various issues.
What are utilities, exactly? They are apps that provide a glimpse into the functionality of your computer and are usually included as part of the operating system. They’re located in the Utilities folder within the Applications folder on the Mac.
The Utilities folder is easy to find: pick Go > Utilities from the Finder to see all of the Utilities currently included with macOS (see screenshot below).
The first tool to learn about is Activity Monitor, which tracks every application or background process running on your Mac’s CPU, memory, energy, disk, and network utilization. The background processes are apps that the operating system launches at system startup to conduct a range of tasks.
When you first start Activity Monitor, it shows you a list of all the processes that are currently operating on your Mac (see screenshot below). When you click on the various tabs at the top, you’ll get information about CPU usage (percentage of CPU used, CPU time, number of threads, and more), memory (RAM) usage, energy usage, disk usage, and network usage (sent and received bytes and packets).
What is the purpose of Activity Monitor? If your Mac becomes sluggish for no apparent reason, open Activity Monitor and look at which processes are utilizing more processor power than others.
The Network tab in Activity Monitor shows you what’s using the most network capacity in a similar way. As I write this essay on my MacBook Pro, I notice that mDNSresponder is using the majority of the network bandwidth “Domain Name Service is a “daemon” (background process) that allows your Mac to communicate with web services all over the world. Are you getting a slow response from the Internet? If an unknown, oddly-named daemon is utilizing the majority of your network bandwidth, it’s possible that malware has been installed on your Mac and is transferring your data to a hacker somewhere…
Users of laptops might find it fascinating to check which programs consume the most energy. When you select the Energy tab, a list of the average energy consumption of each app running on your Mac appears. Safari and Mail are the most energy-intensive apps on my MacBook Pro, so I know that if I’m not using one or both of them, it’s a good idea to turn it off to save battery.
There’s one more thing you can do using Activity Monitor: see whether there’s anything really wrong with your Mac. A selection for “Run System Diagnostics” can be found under the “gear” menu (so termed because of the gear-shaped icon) (see screenshot above). This will take some time, and once completed, a gzipped folder will be saved on your Desktop, displaying the status of all of your Mac’s subsystems. The information acquired is extensive, and it will most likely only be useful to Apple engineers. You’ll know how to run System Diagnostics if an Apple Genius or other support technician asks you to.
We don’t know if Apple plans to continue developing and marketing AirPort Wi-Fi products as of the beginning of 2018, but AirPort Utility is one of the more useful utilities in the meanwhile. The AirPort Extreme, AirPort Express, and AirPort Time Capsule routers are all compatible with this tool.
When you first open the program, you’ll see a simple diagram depicting “The Web” and “Your Router” Green lights next to each signal that everything is working properly; a yellow light on the Internet usually indicates that your ISP is having problems, while a yellow light next to your AirPort router indicates that it is rebooting or experiencing problems.
The Utility also alerts Mac users when a firmware update for their router is ready; because many of these updates are security-related, it’s a good idea to pay attention to the warnings and upgrade your AirPort equipment as soon as possible.
The external IP address of your router, the DNS servers it uses, and the router’s domain name may all be found by clicking on the Internet icon (in this case, service is provided by Comcast.net).
You’ll see a list of devices connected to the router if you click on the picture of your AirPort. Depending on how many wireless devices you have, that list might get rather large; not only Macs, iPhones, and iPads, but also home automation systems and accessories. Using the pointer to hover over any of the “The entry “wireless clients” in the list displays detailed information on the connection’s name, internal IP address, MAC address (also known as hardware address), signal quality, data rate, received signal strength indication, and PHY (ISO physical layer) mode. This is commonly something like 802.11b/g/n for Wi-Fi connections.
AirPort Utility can also be used to change your AirPort and SSID passwords, which is something that every computer user should do on a regular basis. The gadget contains a password to prevent unauthorized users from modifying the settings, as well as a Wi-Fi password to protect your wireless connection. This is done by selecting the little Edit button in the device list’s lower right corner (highlighted in red in the screenshot above). The Base Station password is updated under the Base Station page, as shown in the screenshot below. Under the Wireless tab, you can alter the network’s SSID (wireless network name) and password.
Safari may have asked you if you wanted to save a user ID and password for a website at some point. If you authorized Safari to do so, the information was stored in the iCloud Keychain as encrypted data. You may need to seek up a forgotten password at some point, and Keychain Utility makes this simple.
The person in the image above has 835 items in their iCloud Keychain. Double-clicking one of the entries opens a window presenting the features of that item, which can help you recover a password that you may have forgotten especially if you haven’t used it in a while. Check the box to see the password “In the screenshot below, the “Show password” checkbox is highlighted. To see the password, enter your Mac administrator password.
The System Information application is ideal for learning more about your Mac’s hardware. When you click on any of the hardware items, you’ll get a thorough description. Click on the Audio item in the list, for example, to see what audio devices are connected to or built into your Mac. By clicking on Bluetooth, you can see what Bluetooth devices are connected to your Mac and what their configurations are. The top-level menu can be accessed by clicking the top-level menu “The “Hardware” section displays the CPU type.
System information can also be utilized to troubleshoot hardware problems. If a specific Mac component, such as Wi-Fi, stops working for no apparent reason on an older Mac, open System Information and select that component from the hardware list. It could indicate that the component does not exist, in which case the hardware has failed or a cable or connector has become loose.
The System Information utility may provide an incredible quantity of information. Want to learn more about Wi-Fi beyond what the AirPort Utility can provide? Make a click on “It’s possible to learn the available Wi-Fi modes and channels for your Mac, whether it supports AirDrop, and even the details about any Wi-Fi network within range of your Mac by going to “Wi-Fi” in the Network section of System Information. System Information is entertaining and useful, and it’s well worth poking about in because you won’t break anything.
Disk Software is a utility that CAN break things if used incorrectly, so make sure you either know what you’re doing or have written instructions in front of you to follow before you start. Disk Utility is a program that allows you to execute many tasks on your hard drive “Disks that are acting up can be “First Aided” by partitioning physical drives into logical volumes, erasing and reformatting drives, unmounting devices, and restoring disk images.
Disk Utility’s most basic view shows the drive’s total capacity (in the screenshot below, it’s a 2.11TB Fusion Drive), used and empty space, and some other details. Running First Aid, which can solve common problems, is a significant application of Disk Utility. It’s a good idea to open Disk Utility, highlight your disk drive, and then select First Aid if your disk is acting strangely and files aren’t being saved or can’t be opened. It runs a scan of the disk’s directory first, then resolves any issues it discovers. It’s worth noting that the First Aid feature prevents access to apps while it’s operating, so be sure to give it plenty of time to complete its task.
Are you thinking about selling or giving a Mac away? Restart your Mac while holding down Option-R on the keyboard to wipe all of your data and install a fresh copy of the operating system. Disk Utility is one of the apps available when the Mac launches into its Recovery Partition. Erase the Mac’s boot drive with Disk Utility, then install macOS to get a fresh copy of the operating system. It’s like getting a completely new Mac with no apps or data on it for a first-time user.
On a Mac, where do you look for the program folder?
Stock apps and third-party programs are usually kept in a folder called Applications on your Mac.
How to Locate and Open the Applications Folder on a Mac
On a Mac, how do you get to the Utilities screen?
To start Mac, press and hold the Command + R keys while pressing the Power button. 3. Hold the Power button down until the macOS Utilities screen appears.
Why can’t I find my Mac’s Applications folder?
Simply go to Finder->Preferences->Sidebar and select Applications from the drop-down menu. Alternatively, you can drag the folder to the Sidebar directly.
What is the purpose of macOS Utilities?
Because OS X was unable to boot for some reason, it was forced to enter Recovery Mode (either Recovery HD partition or Internet Recovery if you saw a globe thingy)
So you use Disk Utility to repair the Macintosh HD partition’s permissions. If you use it to erase the Macintosh HD partition, your files will be erased.
Hold the option key on a connected or built-in keyboard while launching the machine to verify if the Macintosh HD partition can be booted with OS X, then change Startup Disk in System Preferences to remind the firmware which correct disk it’s supposed to boot from.
Apple does not provide data recovery; instead, they will erase your drive and blame you for not backing up your contents; however, a local PC/Mac repair shop can perform data recovery before wiping, installing, or fixing your system.
On a Mac, what is the option key?
There are numerous distinctions between Windows and Mac. Many of our clients had previously used a PC and now wish to move to a Mac for better performance, a more attractive appearance, or increased security. They were concerned, though, that they might struggle to adjust to the macOS keyboard. “How do I close a window?” is a common query. The Alt + F4 shortcut isn’t available on the Mac keyboard.” We always provide them with two options:
1. You can use the same keyboard shortcuts as you would on your PC using Parallels Desktop virtual machine for Mac.
2. If you want to utilize the Mac keyboard, you’ll notice that the alt key functions differently, as explained in this blog post.
The Option key is the PC keyboard equivalent of Alt on a Mac, and it’s two keys to the left of the spacebar on your Mac. The option key on a Mac keyboard, on the other hand, is used differently than the alt key on a Windows PC. The alt key in Windows is frequently more similar to the Command key than the Option key on a Mac in terms of usefulness. The Ctrl and Alt keys on your computer may also be recognizable to you. Command ( cmd), Control (ctrl), and Option (alt) are the keys on your Mac keyboard.
Take a look at some Mac versions of popular Windows alt shortcuts, which may be especially useful for novice Mac users:
Is it feasible to use Windows shortcuts on a Mac when using Parallels Desktop to run Windows on a Mac?
Do you miss your Start Menu and the appearance and feel of Windows? On your new Mac, you may utilize Parallels Desktop to run Windows 10 alongside your favorite Windows apps.
How do I get OSX Utilities to work again?
While your Mac is restarting, press Command + R on your keyboard. From the macOS Utilities menu, choose Disk Utility. Once Disk Utility is open, select the disk you want to repair – the default name for your system partition is usually “Macintosh HD” – and click ‘Repair Disk.’