We've all seen the common mistakes made by people new to Mac OS X:1) they close an application's windows thinking the program has quit.
2) they'll download Firefox and then run the browser from the disk image and then not be able to throw away the disk image because the program is still running. See number 1.
3) .exe files lie scattered around the desktop from aborted downloads of Flash Player or some screensaver-cursor-spyware doodad.
4) untitled folder. untitled folder 2. untitled folder 3. untitled folder 4...
5) Using Safari's Google search field to get to hotmail.com.
6) Desktop Picture or Wallpaper is not a synonym for Screensaver.
I could go on, but you get the idea. What have you seen that are common mistakes made by people using Macs?
Note: Discussing common mistakes that people make doesn't have to be an exercise in meanness or criticism. In fact, I firmly believe that a problem can't be solved unless it's first discussed or pointed out.. Also, remember that comments are owned by the people who leave them, not by the author of this post. For more info, see comment #31.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
1-25-2006 @ 4:08PM
narco said...
I particularly like the untitled folder one. Why on earth do they feel so compelled to create new folders? It's a strange phenomenon.
Fishes,
narco.
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1-25-2006 @ 4:09PM
Jesse Hogue said...
People trying to install Windows software and wondering why it doesnt work
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1-25-2006 @ 4:09PM
William said...
How about double clicking a window, thinking it will maximize the mother, only to have it genie down to the dock?
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1-25-2006 @ 4:20PM
Joshua said...
Laughing at #3. Seen that one more than once.
- Not understanding the usefullness of column view, and leaving the Finder in icon view.
- Not understanding the usefullness of keyboard shortcuts - not using them.
- Thinking that their Mac will never have *any* problems because thier cousin/uncle/friend has built the Mac up to infallible.
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1-25-2006 @ 4:23PM
David C. said...
ha, that's a great list. we must teach.
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1-25-2006 @ 4:24PM
Tom said...
Renaming various desktop items to random characters, especially and worst, the hard drive. Hitting enter when an icon is hilighted will do that. Every time I visit my parents, my dad asks why his hard drive was mysteriously renamed. Every time I explain what happened to no avail.
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1-25-2006 @ 4:27PM
Loki Capret said...
Using Norton Anti-Virus!!
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1-25-2006 @ 4:27PM
mayo said...
I don't get #6 and never seen/heard of it happen ... in both worlds, you can set the desktop image and screen saver from tabs in the same window.
In OSX it's right click on desktop > change desktop background > desktop/screen saver tab (and because i changed my screen saver last, the screen saver tab is up - must be a bug, cause i clicked to change desktop background)
In Win it's right click on desktop > preferences > screen saver/desktop (settings? or whatever it's called) tabs. looks identical to me...
one to add to the list is people trying to find the window menus (file, edit, etc) and they don't notice that it's way on top of the screen.
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1-25-2006 @ 4:30PM
Richard said...
Trying to resize a window from an edge rather than the lower right hand corner.
Using he ctrl key rather than command key for shortcuts.
Thinking it might be easy to remove a stuck CD ;-)
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1-25-2006 @ 4:34PM
Justin said...
Another one is people downloading installers and installing the program every time they want to run the program, so they have like 10 copies of AIM installed, the most I have seen on a system is 13 copies of AIM installed. I have also seen 6 copies of Adobe Reader installed they thought the installer was the program, not sure if this happens on PC also.
I have seen #2 so often it's crazy. I have even seen many aliases to the DMG's.
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1-25-2006 @ 4:35PM
Philipe said...
Asking, where is the Internet Explorer.
Thinking that wmv is the only video format existing.
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1-25-2006 @ 4:35PM
Radu Dutzan said...
people repeatedly pushing the apple key thinking it will open the apple menu.
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1-25-2006 @ 4:37PM
codeman38 said...
I've seen #1 and #3 *far* too frequently on Macs serving as public terminals.
The funniest thing is when the Windows apps they download are things that are *built in* to Mac OS; for instance, I've seen several instances of people trying unsuccessfully to download and run a Windows SSH client to access their university shell accounts...
And #6 is just as widespread among Windows users. Sigh.
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1-25-2006 @ 4:38PM
davetron5000 said...
Thinking that the green maximize button actually maximizes a window. Why in the HECK can't it just do maximize?!?!? I never hit it because I never know what it's gonna do.
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1-25-2006 @ 4:43PM
Nate said...
My girlfriend has kept all her photos in iPhoto rotated.
I'm like WTF! I showed her the rotate icon about 100 pixels away from her mouse to no avail. I think she got so used to looking at sideways photos on her windows machine she's too afraid to try something new.
Also, my friends were trying to uninstall something and they looked EVERYWHERE for an App Uninstaller. They spent hours trying to uninstall some shareware app when I told them all you have to do is drag the app into the trash. LOL
I also don't understand why my girlfriend hasn't entered names in her iChat buddy list. She's too used to the screen names, only new contacts have actual names.
She likes icon view. W.T.F... It makes me want to go on a mission to save windows users, like how christian people go on missions when they want to convert and help people in third world countries.
Other than that, she's doing great, WAY better than I thought someone from windows would. The rest of the stuff is personal preference, like Hide vs. Minamize, auto-hide dock & magnification... stuff like that.
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1-25-2006 @ 4:46PM
Rolf Nordahl said...
Extraneous mouse clicks– clicking multiple times and getting unexpected results.
Inadvertant click-drags– moving an item or folder inside another folder or dragging an alias off the dock.
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1-25-2006 @ 4:48PM
Scott said...
Where's the start menu?
How do I right click?
Whats the smiley face for in the corner?
Why does an app quit when you close the main window?
Where is my "internet" is i.e. internet explorer?
Why's the recycle bin not on the desktop?
Where is the minimize/maximize button?
or saving all their documents in their home folder not in their 'documents' folder or getting angry because they dont have permissions.
You should see me using a PC.
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1-25-2006 @ 4:50PM
Andy Skogrand said...
I think a huge noob problem is when they even download AIM. The fact that they can't understand that iChat is so much better seems beyond me.
Also, a huge noob problem is even having Hotmail. I mean, honestly.
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1-25-2006 @ 4:52PM
Dan Bedford said...
1. Double Clicking icons in the Dock!!!
2. Saving EVERYTHING to the Desktop and/or the root of the Hard Drive.
I'm an IT Admin that's all Macs except 1 Windoze computer, and a lot of the people here are first time Macs users, and almost everyone was opening apps from disk images before I had the chance to manage everyones computer (we're a startup and everyone basically just took their computer and ran with it before I could get my hands on them and set them up correctly). Funny thing is, almost all of those instances were for Firefox!
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1-25-2006 @ 4:53PM
Daniele Nicolucci said...
Click the green button on a window and complaining it doesn't fill the screen.
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