Get the "out of the box" experience with an older Mac

Thanks Dave for linking to my post.. and DF for correcting me and pointing me to the asr man page! Cheers, Dave

JP, Your "virus" requires and admin password to run properly. Would you enter yours when prompted? Thought so.

Dang, some of you guys are really harsh on these TUAW bloggers. It's a blog. Pleople write thoughts on a blog, not just instructions. If it were an instructions site then I'd understand, but it's a story site, so let them tell the story for crying out loud. I don't hear anyone complaining about the length of magazine articles. Or do you not read those 'cause they're too long and wordy too? As for this particular tip, I think it's kind of cool, but the whole account removing and changing and adding thing on OS X, especially after 3rd party software is installed, makes me nervous. I suppose that's why I don't get asked to setup new-old computers for other people.

installing applications , then erasing a user is just going to cause problems. not worth the hassle. just have them next to u when u set it up . .

It's a wonder why Arlo isn't a TUAW blogger. =)

This is how you cut to the chase without scaring away the terminal-shy: "Here is a tip that I will definitely make use of myself. How do I set up a "new" Mac with all current updates and the user's third party software, yet still allow them to enjoy the new Mac experience? Dave at The Consultant has the answer." Followed by the code. If more meanderings are necessary, those follow. See, it pays to learn how to write editorial properly.

WOAH -- that didn't come out right. Let's try again: nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb delete /users/ADMINACCOUNTNAME rm -r /Users/ADMINACCOUNTNAME rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone

Dave: The only issue here is that the computer will still have the original account used to set it up. According to Apple (see man asr), here are the instructions for getting rid of that account and then enabling Setup Assistant: Start up in single-user mode (Command+S) and mount the volume as a readable volume (using the instructions at the prompt). Then type the following commands: nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb delete /users/ rm -r /Users/ rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone

Keep the meandering thoughts first... good lead in. I never read a posts with heavy Terminal commands, but I've always wondered how to get that intro video back. Now I know! btw- why can't I find the video and play it at my leasure? I did all kinds of Spotlight searches, but come up with nothing! The video file has to be somewhere! Where?

Here's a tip: It's annoying putting the tip at the end of the post. Cut right to it, and save the meandering observations for AFTER.