Mac 101: System Preferences

".. control panel has become a complete and utter mess".

I think you mean to say:

"..Windows has become a complete and utter mess".

Vista finally allows you to search the control panel, which is good because otherwise the control panel has become a complete and utter mess.

you can't turn off the start up sound, but there is a free application called 'psst' which is easy and excellent.

Thx a lot for the tip. I switched a year ago and has never looked back. But with such a miserable search-funktion as in Windows, I was used to not having that option.

Spotlight has been my good friend in the switching and learning-process. Now with this tip it is even more useful. Thanks also for the 101's altogether.

I actually made the switch to Mac only yesterday evening (well, my desktop which I'm on at the moment is a PC, so it's not exactly a switch per se), and I have to say the system preferences interface is just about the only part of the OSX interface that DOESN'T completely befuddle me. It's /very/ similar to windows as far as I'm concerned.

One thing I haven't been able to locate though, how do I turn off the startup sound on my mac?

@Jon - I agree with you completely! As I work with Windows most of the time at work, I still am very much in Windows mode even at home! So this tip is very much appreciated, as I still struggle occasionally with System Preferences!

okay, first you write "different than" instead of "different from" ... then you mispell "than" as "that" ... i hate to be anal like this, but, as my father would say, "if you can't spell, don't try doing so in public"

isn't it ironic that when you type in "volume", it offers the isub sound as an option, when Apple has pretty much abandoned the isub since the intel transition. It makes for a great boat anchor now!

The search function is a great tool but most switchers wouldn't think of using it because they wouldn't expect it to operate that way. When I switched to the Mac 2-3 years ago I struggled for the first week as I was trying to do things "the Windows way" and of course they didn't work. Once I realized that the Mac needed a whole different thought process, everything became a lot easier.

I guess I took it for granted when i first started using my mac
after using spotlight for like a week i intuitively used the bar
great tip for when teaching others though!

I usually tell new or potential switchers to forget everything they learned on Windows and look for stuff in the spot where you'd find it logical to be, not in the spot where Windows puts it.