10.7

As with prior versions of OS X, the recovery option in Lion is a fairly stripped-down version of the OS that has a few tools for managing your system. This allows the recovery tools to load quickly and be available, but in its simplicity Apple's recovery system has been a bit cumbersome in that it will by default only run one recovery tool at a time.

For instance, if you boot to the Lion Recovery HD partition and then launch Disk Utility, the installer will quit and only Disk Utility will run. Additionally, Lion's recovery partition now contains … Read more

Apple is promoting the new Launchpad program launcher and organizing interface in OS X Lion, a means of managing applications that should be familiar to iOS users. I personally find Launchpad to be one of the more useless of the new features in OS X Lion, but regardless of whether or not you like the interface, it may take a bit of organization and customization to suit your needs.

By default Launchpad will show all of your installed applications, and if you click and hold one application they will all go into the familiar iOS "wiggle" mode in … Read more

One of the more than 250 new features in Lion is an enhancement to the Finder that supposedly allows you to combine the contents of folders. In Snow Leopard and prior versions of the Mac OS X, if you placed a folder into a directory alongside another folder of the same name, then the system required you to either cancel the operation and change the folder name or replace the existing folder. Now Lion should offer an option to combine the contents of similarly named folders; however, depending on the way you perform this task the process may not always … Read more

One of the new features in OS X Lion is the application resume option, where the system will remember the documents, windows, and positioning of applications when they are quit, so when you open them again you will be right where you left off. This option is convenient for many purposes; however, there may be some situations where it may not be desired. For instance, if an opened document causes a program to crash, then having it reopen immediately when the application is launched might result in the program continuing to crash. Additionally, there might be some security or privacy … Read more

Unlike previous versions of the Mac OS, when you install OS X 10.7 Lion your system will be set up with a restore partition. This is a hidden 650MB partition that, like the previous installation DVDs for OS X, can be used to boot the system and provide tools to resintall OS X, format hard drives, and perform other maintenance and troubleshooting tasks on the system.

You can boot to the recovery drive in a couple of ways, including pressing the Option key at startup and selecting it from the boot menu or by holding Command-R at start-up; however, … Read more

The ability to digitally sign a document is sure to save you some time. Apple has rolled out a new feature in OS X Lion's Preview app that allows you to create a digital signature using your FaceTime camera, and then sign a document with relative ease.

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While some of the new features in OS X Lion such as Autosave, Fullscreen, and Versions may be enticing to people who regularly run Office, for those who rely on some features of the suite you may want to consider the known compatibility issues between the various Office versions and Lion before upgrading your OS. As with any software package there are going to be some bugs that will need to be ironed out by the developers, and while most bugs are likely minor, a few of them may be enough cause a disruption in your work flow.

Over the … Read more

The Screen Saver options in OS X Lion are no different from those offered in Snow Leopard, and like Snow Leopard are available to configure in the Desktop & Screen Saver system preferences. As a result, you should expect the screensavers to behave as they did in Snow Leopard; however, a few people are noticing after upgrading to Lion that their screensavers seem to be randomly activating.

If this problem is happening to you, first try adjusting some of your Screen Saver settings by either changing the screensaver, adjusting its activation time, or setting various hot corners that you may … Read more

In OS X, user accounts are structured so that most user settings and resources that applications need are located in the Library folder. As a result, when troubleshooting various problems with settings and applications you may be able to fix the problem by changing something in this folder. In versions of OS X prior to OS X 10.7 the Library folder was readily accessible in the user's Home directory, but upon upgrading to Lion people are finding the Library folder appears to be missing.

The Library folder is in fact just hidden from view by default in Lion, … Read more