Category Archives: Howtos

Installing Mac OS X Lion – Hackintosh

Posted on by
Reply

Firstly – what is a Hackintosh?  

It is a standard PC running Mac OS

Why do it?

Well it will save you a heap of money amongst other things (fancy a £2500 Mac Pro for £500?) – and you get to try something new…

What will I need?

Really you need an Intel based recent PC (such as Core 2 Duo/Quad or i3/i5/i7 CPU)

What else is important?

You should have a good idea of how computers work – this will require you to change some settings on your PC’s BIOS (system board software) and also risks losing your Windows installation if you haven’t got the knowledge to place the install in the right place.

Still interested? Read on… Continue reading →

Mapping Windows Shares in Mac OS X Lion (10.7)

Posted on by
Reply

Well having upgraded my MacBook/MacPro to OS X 10.7 I did notice one thing immediately. I was unable to access my Windows shares on my NAS box (a ReadyNAS Duo by Netgear)

Annoyed, been as all my install apps I needed were on the NAS and my main laptop and desktop both run MacOS now….

I kept getting the error below…

I didn’t really know what was causing it – so I decided that I would do some digging – turns out Apple disabled a certain type of access to Windows shares – namely used on NAS boxes people use a home – due to a security issue (however this does not stop you connecting using this work around)…

You can begin to get round the issue by opening up the Connect to Server box in Finder (Apple + K) or as shown below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next your should be presented with a connection options screen – this will allow you to connect to the server you used to be able to before you installed OS X Lion.

Simply use the format of:

smb://SERVERNAME/SHARENAME

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can also add the connection to your favourites using the + button to the right of the text field…

Stopping Safari Opening Up Last Site

Posted on by
Reply

Well having installed OS X Lion on my MacBook and also my Hackintosh MacPro – I have to admit the one thing that has annoyed me more than anything is the persistence that Apple have decided I need in Safari and other Apple apps.

What does this mean – well lets say for example I visit Flickr/BBC News/NY Times in 3 separate tabs – then I close Safari with Apple-Q and log off/shutdown my Mac.

Next time I open up the Mac you’d expect a fresh session in my Safari browser or even the TextEdit apps right? Wrong… it will reopen all the windows again….

Now firstly I see 2 problems with this approach which is why I disabled it – firstly you might be searching for a present for a loved one, etc – shutdown the Mac – then they reopen your browser and ta-daa – surprise ruined. Secondly – resources and time – it does take slightly longer for the apps to appear with the persistence enabled.

So how do I disable it – the answer is simple…

Simply go SYSTEM PREFERENCES -> GENERAL then de-select the option shown below: