Setup Your Mac

00. When “Not” to buy your Mac.

Wed, 3 Mar 2010 13:11:20 -0500

Or when the model you are interested in will likely be updated.
User’s of any computer will complain harshly if they just laid out loads of dough for a machine that is upgraded the very next week. This is where MacRumors comes in. They have ammased a good deal of information about when Apple tends to announce/release/deliver product. As such, their recommendations are as good as any and better than most.
Go to the guide

00. Use Apple's Mac Cheat Sheet

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:43:35 -0500

From Apple’s page on the topic.
“...there may come a time when you need to have access to your serial number, hardware configuration, passwords, email server or internet access information. And then you discover that you've either forgotten or misplaced this information.”
To make your life a little easier, Apple created this handy cheat sheet to organize often-asked and useful information. The PDF document link below, print it out, fill out the fields with your information, and store it in a safe and secure place to avoid others from finding out your important passwords.
I’m thinking, “this could make a great simple database, so it might be built. contact me if you are interested in my closed test of it.
my_mac_cheat_sheet.pdf
WARNING: I was never a fan of written passwords, open to physical theft, and I will deviate from Apple standards where appropriate to protect the interests of those I support, and recommend password storage that is not open to theft and compromise. Use that piece of advice at your own risk.

00. Visit Apple's Mac 101

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:21:15 -0500

Apple provides excellent beginner materials.
And I will be borrowing from them extensively to make this reference.
Apple’s Mac 101 & Switch 101
Quoting Apple again, “If you're new to computers or simply need a refresher course on how to get the most out of your Mac, you've come to the right place. Welcome to Mac 101: Your guide to using a Mac effectively and efficiently. If you've switched to Mac from Windows, Switch 101 is just for you.”
“Whether you want to learn how to get around your Mac desktop (or find out what a desktop is, for that matter); figure out how to connect your printer, iPod, digital camera, or other device; discover email and the Internet; learn how to do various tasks; learn how to use the software that came with your Mac; or even find out what to do when things don't go as planned; we have the answers.”
These are the subjects covered (and direct links):
Give me the grand tour of the Mac interface. Find out what's what, what's where, and what things do what. These starter courses show you where things are located and how to get around your Mac.
Get me working and playing  Ready to email, surf Safari, groove to some tunes, or get an iLife? These courses introduce you to some of your computer's applications and how to use them. Plus, learn some basic Mac tasks, including installing and updating software, ejecting media, and creating accounts.
Show me how to set up my Mac for me  Make your Mac work the way you want. This section focuses on the more personal side of your Mac. Learn how to customize your interface's look and feel, set preferences, change sound volume, and more.
Connect your peripherals or get on the Internet Got a treasure trove of digital devices? Want to print, download photos, or connect to the web? Learn how to connect your printer, modem, scanner, digital camera, DV camera, iPod, external drive, and other devices to your Mac, and find out how to use them with it.
My Mac needs help For those times when things don't go as planned, this section will help you troubleshoot common issues and show you some maintenance tips to keep your Mac happy.
My Mac Cheat Sheet Who wants to remember Internet settings, account information, computer specs, and other bits of important data when there's so much to explore on your Mac? With this helpful sheet, you won't need to. Jot down the information once, and you're good to go.

00. Do what?

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:33:20 -0500

Secure your mac. “What’s that? I thought my mac was secure?”
Sure, Sure, mostly. But Adobe’s Flash has weaknesses. Silverlight has been hit too. You say “I don’t have anything anyone would want, and don’t use credit cards online?” You could be helping the bad guys. You are using a computer and if you use the internet it can be used to attack others through your use of a calendar, through a phonebook or email. If you install the wrong thing you can be a part of a bot network targeting other systems. Be careful. Your very effort to secure the system can be foiled. You could download antivirus that is worse than a virus itself. Wanna know what to do?

01. Understand Physical Security

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:48:04 -0500

Do you leave the doors unlocked at night? Do you allow Shoulder Surfing? Do you lend your Mac to others while you are away? Does everybody help themselves to your technology? Are you sure that DVD that neighbor burned for you doesn’t carry a trojan? In many ways these are obvious questions about common weaknesses. A firewall cannot protect you if you allow untrusted parties to have physical access. If you cannot say who was allowed to do what, no amount of magic or forensics can help you retrace how and if a compromise occurred. All someone has to do is stick a CD in, start your Mac in Target Disk Mode or take your hard drive away. They could just copy the drive and leave it all untouched, taking with them all your preciousness and you’d never know. Now you understand physical security. So even BEFORE you invest in a firewall and other “Recommended Software” or downloads, or scanners or whatever the nearest expert recommends, Secure the premises, and be aware of the activity in the perimeter of the system.

02. Understand Logical Security

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:31:50 -0500

This one is more difficult, but lets try anyway. If you had a password, and you only ever shared it with one other person, it makes no sense to think that only 2 people know it, since you can never know for sure that the other person has not shared it. You cannot logically say, “Only 2 people know the password” you can only presume this is the case. Try not to get tangled into believing something is true or not without being absolutely certain. If you don’t really know, its more helpful to know it than to assume you’ve figured out some aspect of a situation or problem when you really have not been critical enough to draw such a conclusion. Examples of this will be apparent as you move through your digital life.

03. Don’t Run as Root/Admin

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 19:37:48 -0500

It’s difficult to convince users that having all the privileges on their system is a bad thing. It’s much easier to be a victim of an attack if you are the user empowered to do all things with your password. When your password is broken the keys to the entire kingdom are available to the attacker. If, however, you are a standard user, the compromise of the system is isolated to one user, and the admin account may be the easiest way to solve the issue. So How to fix this?

04. Use Strong Passwords

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 14:51:49 -0500

It gets a lot of lip service, but it’s true. Weak passwords are known as one of the easiest ways to get yourself hacked. A lot has been said about this, and more needs to be said. One should change passwords regularly, one should make passwords that are hard to guess. One should not share passwords. One should not develop elaborate tricks and methods to change passwords back to the easier to remember password the system administrator just worked so hard to get you to change in the first place. One should not keep passwords taped to the computer or under the keyboard. One should never use the same password, regardless how strong, for every service one sign’s on to. I mean, how easy do we want it to be to break into one’s system? Explanation of the Keychain and how it can help pending in Tutorial form. Will link it here!!

05. Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Setup

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:38:59 -0500

The following images describe the progression for dealing with the initial setup of new Intel Snow Leopard hardware. When you first boot a new Mac you are presented with a series of setup choices, options and dialogs. We’d like to make sure you do it the same way every time and this guide will help. It is advisable to read through the entire guide before doing the steps. It’s shorter than you think and will save you missing steps and bad order of execution, which can be harder to undo.

Boot the new computer. You should soon see the image on the left Showing The Apple Logo and a progress gear below it. You may be prompted to make a selections appropriate to your equipment.

Apple Wireless keyboard and mice users will get prompting to turn them on. No prompting of this kind for standard Apple wired keyboards so if you don’t have these wireless products, you can skip past this section. The image on the right means the mac is looking for your mouse. The image below also shows where the switch for the mouse is located. It may even speak to you if you wait long enough.

Some of the setup steps you see on screen do use the speech capabilities of the Mac for the visually impaired. Turn the mouse over, and you will the illustrated switch on the back. Also look for the power switch on wireless keyboards on their right edge. Please allow 3 to 6 seconds for Mac to recognize these and any peripherals. When switching any peripheral on it can take a moment to be recognized. Be patient while this is sorted out. Mac will tell you if it has trouble.

A similar image may appear for your keyboard. If you have difficulty getting your wireless products to connect, attach a wired mouse and keyboard to bypass the issue for the remainder of this guide. Wireless devices can be connected and configured at any time so you shouldn’t worry about it. Of course there is no way for the Apple OS to recognize third party wireless devices while setting up, but it can understand wired keyboards.

If so, you get a setup screen like the one pictured to the right telling you that your keyboard cannot be identified. This message appears when you attach a Windows PC keyboard or other third party keyboard that Mac doesn’t recognize by default.

This sequence of screens sorts that out by asking that you strike the button to the right of the left shift key (left image), after which it will ask you to strike the button to the left of the right shift key (right image). Read carefully or the keyboard may not be usable or may behave unexpectedly and you’ll have to reconnect it to try again.

This last setup screen can be confusing. It usually comes up with a correct default and in the USA should be set to ANSI. Click “Done”.

You have completed the setup of the keyboard.

Now you are asked to choose your Language.

I recommend English.

This starts the “Welcome” animation, so turn the volume down, Its designed to show off the loudspeaker and sound capability of the Mac, but it can be obnoxious.

Of course there is no reason not to enjoy it if your office environment is conducive to it, but I thought you should be warned in advance.

When the welcome animation competes (no you cannot bypass it) you will get a “Welcome” screen. This is where regional and country settings are chosen to accompany the earlier language choice. They should not conflict. I have to recommend United States. Make a selection and click “Continue.”

Next you will be asked to “Select your keyboard” which tells the system more about your hardware. English perhaps?

This will be followed by a screen asking “Do you already own a Mac? It will offer to move your information to this Mac from the old one. Even if this is your intention, its best to wait until after you have established and created an administrator’s account, which is not only recommended but required for our procedure to be correct and secure.

Choose “Do not transfer my information now” which is the last choice. The option to move your information from an older Mac is available at any time using the Migration Assistant. If there is no account to migrate this would not be required.

Click “Continue” to move to the next screen.

Your new Mac no doubt has WiFi capabilities which would produce the option to join networks found in range. For our purposes, network connectivity will not be needed until later. Choose the button on the bottom that states, “Different Network Setup.”

Again note that this does not prevent joining Wireless network at any later time, so skipping it in this guide will allow us to quickly get our Mac up and running.

You will be asked, “How do you connect?” Again for the sake of speed and knowing this can be done easily later, choose “My computer does not connect to the internet.” and click “Continue.”

Next a “Registration Information” screen begs you to reveal all manner of personal information.

We don’t have to do that. Save time, and skip it. To do that, depress and hold the “Command” key while striking the letter “Q” to quite out of the Registration screen. (The command key is the key with the Apple icon).

Macintosh will protest, warning you that you have not finished setting up! No need to worry. The warning sounds worse than it is. By clicking the “Skip” button, you can proceed to set up the Administrator’s Account.

Now you are asked to “Create your account,” and this is where most users make the mistake of setting up their only account as an “Administrator”. An Administrator has the ability to manipulate everything on the system. This can be good and bad. This is your chance to make it right!

By making an Administrator account first, and your account as a less privileged “Standard” account later, you separate perfectly the difference between what is safe for you to do every day as a user, and the more advanced or even risky steps of making deeper changes to the system as an “Administrator.”

Most users feel uncomfortable if their user name and password does not allow them to do anything they wish on their computer. After all, it is their computer, isn’t it?

This sense of comfort is a false one. Having to enter a different user name and password for advanced functions is inconvenient, but the alternative means that the account they use every day for every thing is capable of deep manipulation of system parameters. It is best to separate them because you will be asked for an “Administrator” password differently than your Account password. This means you will easily be able to tell when you are about to do something that is significantly deeper or more technical.

You can use the administrator’s power and credentials from your “Standard” account and you might not need to visit the administrator account very often, but by simply having a stronger, more difficult password for that user over your own simpler one, you make it more difficult for accidents and hacking to happen without you noticing it.

The “Crete your account” screen will need only two pieces of information: First, a user name known also as “Full Name.” Then a short version of it known as “Account Name”

Pictured here is the common use of “Administrator” for the full name, and “admin” as the short name. Then click “Continue.”

A warning dialog appears notifying you that “You haven’t entered a password for your user account.” You can click “OK” in this dialog to proceed without a password. A password can be assigned to the Administrator account at any later time. Right now we are focusing on setting up quickly. When we have finished building our Administrator account we will put in a password. Right now it would just slow us down.

Now you are prompted to “Select a Timezone.”

Disable the checkbox for “Set timezone automatically using current location” and choose a city below the map. You may have to start typing a major metropolitan area near you, such as “New York” or “Los Angeles” or “Atlanta” for example.

When your selection is complete, click “Continue.”

The next screen asks that you “Set the date and time” Often it is already correct. If it is not please feel free to set it now. Automatic setting of the date and time can be done at a later time, using the “Date and Time” System Preference Pane.

The next screen reminds you, “Don’t forget to Register” which is true, but you don’t have to use the setup process to do that, so you see we could put off those decisions until a later time. You are done getting the system fudamentally constructed, and can now click the satisfying “Done” button.

This presents you the administrator’s desktop.

In the steps that follow we will be going over essential tools and utilities to set up for Administrator use.

Install Essential Applications and Utilities for the Admin on the next page

06. Mac OS X 10.6 Admin Setup

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:53:45 -0500

At this point, assuming you’ve just completed 05. Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Setup then this is the next stop for you! At this point you will be on the Administrator's desktop. There are a number of operations we will have to perform in order to make this new system operate in the manner to which you have become accustomed. There are many settings and options that you may have come to know, and as we step through each of these you will see how that part or setting contributes to your system and puts it an edge closer to your performance needs than the average Mac. This is where the recipe really begins.

How windows are presented can be a matter of taste. Depress "Command-N" or choose “New Finder Window” from the “File” menu on the menubar at the top of the screen. This will spawn a new Finder window. With this window forward select "Show Path Bar" from the view menu, which will enable the display of the path to the open folder at the bottom of this folder window. This path display will make it easy to know where we are on our hard drive but only for this one window. You can see that the Administrator’s home folder which is within the “Users” folder, located on the hard drive named “Macintosh HD.”

Now we want to set this for every finder window.
Depress "Command-J" or choose “View Options” from the “View menu to display the view options for our open window. You can tell that it’s correct because the “View Options” window that appears shares the name of the window.  
To make this happen for every window we need to be able to use the “Set as Default” button at the bottom of the view options window. You will need to change a setting to get the “Use as Defaults” button to become enabled. Change the view to List. I recommend using the “Always open in list view” at the top. Now depress the “Calculate all sizes” and use the “Use as Defaults” now. You can then disable the “Calculate all sizes” and hit the “Use as Defaults” one last time.

Depress "Command-W" to close the window.

The View Options, now shows the desktop’s view settings. Enable “Show item info” and change the “Arrange By:’ to “Date Modified.” Set the “Icon Size to 36x36“ and the “Grid spacing” to the widest possible setting to show as much drive info as possible.

Depress Command-J to close the View Options

In the menubar at the top of the screen, choose “Finder” and select "Preferences"
Enable the display of “Hard disks” and "Connected Servers"

Enable the checkbox for "Always open folders in a new window".

Click the "Sidebar" icon at the top of this "Finder Preferences" window and enable the display of the computer on the sidebar by enabling its checkbox under "Devices" and disable the iDisk icon, and Bonjour, and "Back To My Mac.

Click the "Advanced" icon, again at the top of this "Finder Preferences" window and enable the checkbox for "Show all file extensions" then close the Finder Preferences window.

Copy this warningtile.jpg file to the users/administrator/pictures folder. With the "Pictures" folder selected in this window, press "Command-T" to add the "Pictures" folder to the "Sidebar" Do the same with Downloads.

Open System Preferences and click the "Desktop & Screensaver" icon.

Click the "Pictures" folder in the picture list, and select the warningtile.jpg file added in the earlier step.

Change the tiling from "Fill Screen" to "Tile. On Macs with Snow Leopard you will be able to access the “Translucent menu bar to disable the feature. Do so now. If not, you will have to wait until after the software update. This guide will repeat mention of it.

Switch from the "Desktop" tab to the "Screensaver" tab near the top of the "Desktop & Screensaver" window.

Change the "Start screen saver:" time from the default of 20 minutes to "Never" (sleep and screensaver can be manually invoked and are not the same as the end user's settings for this operation). Also choose the “Computer Name” Screensaver and enable the “Show with Clock” choice.

Click the "Show All" button at the top-left of this "Desktop & Screensaver" window. This returns you to the "System Preferences" window with its initial icon view.

Click the "Energy Saver" icon (third icon in second row) and set both Computer and Display sleep times to Never. (If needed, click the “Show Details” button to reveal these options).

Dragging the Display Sleep slider moves them both. Click ok to dismiss the Warning about energy use if it appears. You do not have to use default settings Dismiss the Warning. We will allow economy of energy on the user accounts, but not on the Admin.

Disable the "Put hard disk to sleep when possible" checkbox. Disable the "Allow power button to sleep the computer" checkbox it it is offered. If its not in this window switch from the "Sleep" tab to the "Options" tab near the top of this "Energy Saver" window, then click the "Other Options" section of this window. Even if not worded that way, you should be able to switch to a view that allows you to turn off the "Allow power button to sleep the computer" checkbox. Very important that the user not think he’s powering off, and is just putting system to sleep. They view may also offer other options such as waking for administrators, which can be desirable on a server or a system that requires remote accessibility.

Click the "Show All" button at the top-left of this "Energy Saver" window. This returns you to the "System Preferences" window with its initial icon view.

Click the "Network" icon (3rd row) and establish that an Ethernet DHCP connection is possible.

Click the button labelled "Advanced" and change the Menu labelled "Configure IPv6: from "Automatically" to "Off" and click the "OK" button to dismiss the "Advanced" settings dialog.

Switch to the airport connector and do the same.

Duplicate the “Automatic location to create a Wired (Etherenet or DSL) and a WLAN (Wireless or WiFi) connection. Delete unnecessary adapters and consider creating an “Offline” with no adapters.

Click the "Apply" button on the bottom-right if you made changes to apply them. The button will be greyed-out (disabled) if you did not make changes to the "Advanced" settings. (IPv6 should be disabled in any Airport/WiFi enabled adapter as well).

Aside from the Automatic locations, the other location should contain only what is described in their name. Delete and apply accordingly

Click the "Show All" button at the top-left of this "Network" window. This returns you to the "System Preferences" icon view.

Click the "Accounts" icon (4th Row). Select the "Administrator" account by clicking its icon in the account list on the left. Click the account icon that appears to the right, and from the menu that appears, select "Edit Picture, click the "Choose…" button, and navigate to the Pictures folder, and open the warningtile.jpg stored there in an earlier step. Click "Set"

Click the “Login Options” on the bottom of the accounts list, and click the “Join...” button to the right of the text that reads “Network Account Server”. In the resulting dialog, click the “Open Directory Utility...” button.

Under Leopard you may have to uncover the Directory Utility on you own from the Utilities folder in the Applications folder, in the Hard Drive.

Once inside, unlock the padlock in the new “Directory Utility” window and go to the "Edit" menu and select "Enable Root User" and assign established local Administrator Password.

Quit "Directory Utility”

Quit System Preferences if you have not already done so.

Install all protections here

Install Little Snitch

Connect to an ISP and...

Run software update to determine if any components need updating, decide carefully. Combo updaters should be downloaded in their entirety and not be updated over the net, Do that one first, and follow that up with the software update mechanism to catch any components issued since the Combo Update was itself issued. Many updates require an intermediate reboot that occurs without user intervention. The system is not hung, crashed or failed. On some tower Mac Pro's as many as 3 of these can be required.

Repeat this process of running software update until no further updates appear and you are informed that no updates are available.

Once the update is complete you will be able to remove the annoying "Translucent Menu Bar" that shows through to the desktop image, if desired. System Preferences/Desktop & Screensaver, click the checkbox to disable "Translucent Menu Bar"

Launch Safari and change it's behavior by setting new window and tabs to open with blank page. Also disable any check-box for "Open Safe Files..." and redirect downloads of all browsers added to "Downloads" folder.

Remove Time Machine from Menu Bar by holding the "Command" (Apple) key while dragging it off the bar.

Depress Control - F7 to be able to tab all controls in windows and dialogs, instead of only text boxes and lists.

Press "Command-Shift-U" to open the Utilities folder, then "Command-Shift_N" to create a new "untitled folder" which should be named "Silence Extras."

While the "Silence Extras" is selected, press "Command-T" to add it to the "Sidebar"

Install Disk Warrior into Applications/Utilities/Silence Extras, by dragging the app icon to the Folder created above

Launch Disk Warrior, Agree to the license, enter 4 "Opt-Spaces" for the name to force it empty and skip to the serial number and enter one and hit return when complete.

When Disk Warrior is open, click the icon for Hardware (rightmost on the top row), switch to the "Automatic Diagnostics" and enable the checkbox for "Automatically check all drives for hardware malfunction. Skip down to the "Notification Method" section and choose the radio button for "Alert" so the user is notified in case of impending drive failure.

Quit the application

Install "Developer Tools" (XcodeTools.mpkg from "Xcode Tools folder in the "Optional Installs" folder) from the "Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard" DVD. (None of this could be discerned: Only here for Admins? Base Only, no additional components. Main dev tools only, do not include documentation, compatibility, just compiler. Watch for Command Line option because it is wanted)

Create a shortcut to Terminal in the Dock. Open the "Utilities" folder (Cmd-Shift-U) and launch "Terminal". Control-Click on the dock icon and choose "Keep in Dock." Paste "sudo /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit /etc/hosts" into terminal and hit "return." Type the admin password when prompted.

A new "TextEdit" window opens behind the Terminal window. "Command+Tab" to bring it forward or Click the window to make it active. Place the cursor at the end of the text, type or leave one vertical space. Copy and paste this text into the:

# Block Little Snitch
127.0.0.1 obdev.at

Save the document ("Command-S") and quit the TextEdit application instance.

Command+Tab to Terminal and paste:

"sudo dscacheutil -flushcache"

Hit "return" and quit Terminal.

Install LittleSnitch 2.2 and restart.

LittleSnitch 2.2 rules window opens. Menubar choose "Preferences" from the "Little Snitch Configuration" menu. Click "Register…" and enter four "Option-Spaces" in the "Owner" field and tab to the License Key. Enter the key, and click "OK."

Switch from the "General" tab (1st of 5 tabs at top of "Preferences" window) to the 3rd tab named "Monitor." Disable the Checkbox for "Show automatically on network activity" and disable the Checkbox for "Show automatically when mouse enters menu bar icon."

In the 5th tab for "Security" unlock the padlock, enter the Admin password, and enable the checkbox to Allow Global Rule Editing (This enables system-level rules).

Close the "Preferences" leaving the "Rules" window open.

Select the text for this rule, from the word "action" through to the word at the end of the rule "any" and copy…

action: deny
process: /Library/Little Snitch/Little Snitch UIAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/Little Snitch UIAgent
destination: any
port: any
protocol: any

then bring the "Rules" window forward and paste. The rule will be created automatically. Open the new rule by double-clicking it or by clicking the "Edit" and enable the checkbox for "Globally for all users".

Choose "New Rule" from the "Rules" menu ("Command-N"). In the dialog that appears above the rules list change the first menu that reads "Allow Connections" and choose "Deny connections" instead. Enable the checkbox "Globally for all users"

Click "OK" on this rule window to dismiss it.

Repeat this rule creation ("Command-N") and add the next two rules below, adding only one rule at a time, copy and paste the rule as above, and remember to enable the checkbox labelled "Globally for all users"

action: allow
process: any
destination: any
port: any
protocol: any

action: deny
process: /Applications/Squeeze/Squeeze.app/Contents/MacOS/Squeeze
destination: any
port: any
protocol: any

Close the "Little Snitch" rules list window. A dialog appears informing you that this does not quit LittleSnitch itself but just the configuration application. Enable the Checkbox for "Don't show this message again" and click "Quit"

Install Essential Applications
Install Adobe CS4 (Easy Install minus Version Cue & Adobe Drive)
Install All Adobe Software Updates (12/07/09)

Install Easyfind 4.5 - An app that searches where spotlight doesn't
Install Toast Titanium 10
Install Flip4Mac
Install VLC 1.02
Install Mac The Ripper 3

Install Tinkertool in Applications/Utilities/System Utilities

Install Fetch 5.5.2 or Install Filezilla 3.3.2

Install all printers

Install Free Ruler 1.7b5

Install TransType Pro 3.0.2 - MAC <-> PC font converter

Install TextWrangler 3.1

Install Firefox 3.6

Install MS Office 2008 and all available updates.

Install Stuffit Expander 2011

Install Name Mangler 2.0

Install Growl 1.2

Install FileMaker 8.5v1

Install Flip4Mac WMV Studio Pro HD

Install Perian 1.2 (includes DivX, FLV & more)

Install Flash player 10

UTILITIES (/Applications/Utilities/Silence Extras)
Install AppleJack 1.5.1 - A command line system diagnostic/repair utility that runs from single user mode (CMD-S at startup, type "applejack"), useful if you can't even boot to GUI

Install DiskWarrior 4.2, Enable Automatic SMART monitoring, hourly

Install Pseudo 1.2.3 (launch finder as root) Launch a copy of Finder as root.pseudo - Psuedo script to launch finder as root, Show/hide hidden files - custom scripts. Use Launch a copy of Finder as Root scripts and follow instructions in Help.txt.

Titanium Utils (http://www.titanium.free.fr/)
Install Tinkertool 3.96 Don't Create .DS_Store files in Finder icon, Don't ask for backup disk when connecting new drives in Leopard icon, & more non-essential tweaks

Install OnyX Parameters > Login > Show info in the login window: Directory Services Status

Install Maintenance (a good fixer, clears out & rebuilds temp files system-wide) Leave defaults checked, add Execute maintenance scripts, Display of folders content (deletes .DS_Store files)

Install HexEdit 2.2.0

Install Lingon 2.1.1

Install Carbon Copy Cloner 3.3

QUICKLOOK PLUGINS (/Library/QuickLook)

Install BetterZip QuickLook plugin 1.1 Not the full application

Install FLV QuickLook plugin 0.1

Install QLColorCode 1.1 (Source code quicklook plugin)

Fonts & Font Management

Install Adobe Products

Install Firefox

Install VLC

Register Pro QuickTime

Install Filezilla

Install PathConverter 1.4

Install RealPlayer 11

Install Flip4Mac (Windows Media for Mac)

Install EasyFind

Install WinShortcutter

Install Perian for all users?

Install Open XML File Format Converter to enable opening?

Install TinkerTool and use to disable Time Machine notification on newly connected volumes

Add Printers

Install soundflower 1.5.1

vmware 3.01

Install pacifist 2.6.3

Screenflow 1.5.4

Bootxchanger - replace apple boot logo

Install Paintbrush http://paintbrush.sourceforge.net/

Install RipIT from PC Soft

ProApps update

Set up Serialize Little Snitch global rules turn off the little snitch network monitor on each account (menu bar icon > preferences > network monitor

Serialize FCP

Activate Flip4Mac

Set external drives to "Ignore ownership on this volume" in their get info window.