Question: I use an Apple iMac Intel Core2Duo 2.16 Ghz with 512 GB RAM at work with Mac OS X. I would like to figure out at any given time what processes are running, similar to the task manager under Windows. Is there a utility that allows this under Mac OS X?

Answer: To find the list of running processes under Mac OS X, you need to launch a terminal window. To do this, click on your hard drive icon on the Desktop, then double click on 'Terminal'. Once the Terminal window is open, type "top -u" followed by [enter]. A List of running processes will be shown in the terminal window. You can repeat this operation as necessary.

Question: I have an Apple PowerMac G5 DUAL with a 2.3 GHz processor, 4GB RAM, and two 1000GB Hard Disk. One of hard drives no longer appears on my desktop and seems to be corrupt. How can I fix this?

Answer: To remedy this issue, you need to try to repair the hard drive with the disk repair utility provided with Mac OS X. Click on your Mac OS Hard Drive to open it, then select 'Disk Utility'. Should your problem persist, you may need to reset your hard disk. You will lose all information on the hard disk so use this as a last resort only. Before initializing your hard drive, you should use a recovery utility to attempt to recover the files on your hard drive. An example is Disk Warrior (available for download from http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html). You can also try Data Rescue ( http://www.prosoftengineering.com/products/data_rescue.php ) and Virtual Lab ( http://www.binarybiz.com/vlab/mac.html ), both of which offer you an option to try the Utilities before purchasing them.

Question: I have a PowerBook laptop with 1 Ghz Processor and 512 MB RAM. with Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X Installed. Recently, my laptop starts Mac OS 9 instead of Mac OS X following a manipulation I cannot remember. How can I change my configuration to boot Mac OS X again?

Answer: To configure your system to boot Mac OS X, Go to System Preferences ( Using the Dock, or Using the Apple Icon on the top left corner of your Desktop ). Under the 'System' Section, double click or click once on 'Startup Disk'. You will be provided with a list of hard disks / partitions to select. Choose the icon representing your Mac OS X installation by clicking on it, then click on Restart. Your system should now start Mac OS X.

Answer: To deactivate the Dock auto-hide feature, Go to 'System Preferences' using the Apple Icon on the top left corner of your screen, then under the 'Personal' section, click on the 'Dock' Icon. In the new view before you, uncheck the case 'Automatically hide and show the dock'. Close the System Preferences. Now your Dock should always be visible.

Question: I own an Apple Computer running at 2 GHz, with 1 GB RAM, and 1000 GB Hard Disk. Can I install Linux and Mac OS X on the same partition with using dual boot? How can I do this?

Answer: To answer your question, yes, this is possible. You need to use the Intel EFI sample implementation:
First of all, you need to download the EFI sample implementation from the Intel website (available at http://www.intel.com/technology/efi/main_sample.htm ). Once this is done, Unzip the downloaded file to the "/efi" folder. In a terminal window, type the following command: 'sudo bless --folder /efi --file /efi/Binary/BIOS32/Bin/GraphicsConsole.efi --setBoot'. Then, download the following files: e.efi, elilo.conf, vmlinuz, initrd from Bootfiles/Kernel/Initrd. Also, note that if you have a 20" iMac, you need to change values in your elilo.conf for the line "video=imacfb:i17" to "video=imacfb:i20". Once you are done, you need to copy the files to a FAT formatted USB memory stick / hard disk, in the root directory. Once this is done, start your computer, booting it from the USB memory stick, or the hard disk you copied the files to. You will obtain the familiar chime followed by a grey screen. Allow ten seconds to elapse, then press on the space bar on your keyboard ( [space] button ). In the window that appears, select 'Maintenance Manager', then 'Boot From File'. Now, select your USB memory stick or the hard disk with the Linux files. When prompted, select e.efi. Bingo! You are using Linux on your iMac. To switch back to your Mac OS X, simply restart your computer. Once The Grey screen appears, allow ten seconds then Press on your Space Bar ([space] key on your keyboard). Select 'Maintenance Manager' again, then 'Boot From File' again. This time, select 'NO FILE SYSTEM INFO', which stands for your OSX Hard Disk. Use '/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi' to boot Mac OS X. You need to repeat this manipulation each time you switch operating systems.

Question: I have a G4 867 MHz processor with 512 MB RAM, 120 GB Hard Disk, using Mac OS X. I Installed Yellow Dog on my computer and everything worked fine until I launched Mozilla Firefox, at which point all the colors on the display became unstable and abnormal. How can I fix this?

Answer: To repair this issue, launch the Display configuration tool and modify the screen resolution. Also, go to "System Settings" -> "Display" and "choose Hardware" -> "Monitor Type" and select "Apple Aluminum PowerBook G4". Now restart your X11 server. Your Color settings on Yellow Dog should return to normal.

Question: I am using an Apple computer with 700 GHz processor, 512 MB RAM, and 10 GB hard disk. I would like to Change the resolution of my screen as I find the icons on my desktop are too big. How can I do this under Mac OS?

Answer: To change your resolution settings under Mac OS X, launch 'System Preferences', then select the 'Display' section. You will be presented with a choice of resolutions to choose from. Make sure the box 'Show modes recommended by Display' is checked, and select the resolution of your choice. You can also modify color settings, Contrast, and Brightness from this window. Close the Window after you are finished. Your new resolution has been applied.

Question: I use an iBook G3 and recently, all icons in the apple menu are doubled (appear twice). How can I fix this?

Answer: Voice over is an option that can replicate icons on your apple menu, an action that has a keyboard shortcut which you may have used by mistake. To remedy this issue, you need to deactivate voice over (by pressing Command + F5, or, in your case, for an iBook, FN + Command + F5). Once VoiceOver is deactivated, the icon doubles will disappear. Note: VoiceOver is a utility that allows users to use Mac OS X using keyboard shortcuts, and Voice Guidance for handicapped persons.

Question: I have an iMac DV SE G3 Processor, 384 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard disk, running Mac OS 9.2.2. I would like to run Linux on my computer without installing it as I have very little disk space to spare. I only have a CDROM drive and all USB ports are used by peripherals. What do you recommend?

Answer: In your case, using a LiveCD Would be the best solution. If you have a CDRW drive, then you can download a Linux LiveCD iso, burn it, and boot directly from the CD into Linux without any modifications to your file system. To do so, you need to have a broadband internet connexion. Many LiveCD distributions are available for free download over the internet, the most popular of which is Ubuntu, which you can download from [ http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download ]. You can also try Slax which is only 41 to 202 MB in size ( depending on the ISO version and packages you need ) available for download from [ http://slax.linux-live.org/ ]. A more comprehensive list of LiveCDs is available at [http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php].

Question: I have an apple computer with 900 Ghz processor and 512 MB RAM, using a 20 GB hard disk. I also have a Windows PC connected to my apple through a network. Lately, I noticed that on my windows shared folders, .DS_Store files are created whenever I access the folders using my Apple ( Finder ). How can I prevent this?

Answer: To prevent Mac OS X from creating .DS_Store files on remote computers when the shares are used, you need to type a command in a terminal window for each user that accesses the shared folders. First, open a terminal window from the Apple menu or from your hard disk, then type: "defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true" followed by the [enter] key. You need to restart the computer for the changes to take effect. Please note that it is necessary to perform this operation for each user on the Apple Computer. .DS files will still be created for local volumes (hard disks). Also, note that you may lose comments for remote server locations after performing this operation.

Question: I use a 2.0 GHz iMac with 1 GB RAM and a 60 GB Hard Disk. I am thinking about increasing to the maximum 128GB (I do not really need a bigger one I just love messing around with my iMac). Is it a good idea to have a couple of partitions? I only have about 15 GBs of files in total on my hard drive and doubt I will ever get it anywhere near full.

Answer: The only benefit you would gain from having a second partition would be for using it as a scratch disk for storing files such as downloads and scratch files for video or graphics programs, or as for a second bootable partition enabling you to run utilities and backup applications without having to boot from a CD. Otherwise, using a single partition is less limiting and recommended.

Question: I have a i386 Mac Mini using 1.25 GHz G4 processor, with 256 MB of RAM, and a 400 GB Hard Disk. I would like to Windows XP and Mac OS X at the same time?

Answer: For an advanced user, setup for Windows XP and Mac OS X is possible on a Macintosh Hardware. First of all, you need to be connected to the internet, and to download Boot Camp ( www.apple.com/bootcamp ). Using this software, Resize your partition to allow enough free disk space for another partition on your hard disk. Once you are done, you will be prompted for your Windows XP CD. Insert the CD and follow the steps to install Windows XP. Please remember to choose when installing windows to create a new partition on the unallocated hard disk space (using the allocated disk space will erase your Mac OS X Installation). In addition, it is preferred to use FAT32 as your file system if you need to access the files in the windows partition from Mac OS. You can do this by using the 'mount' command from a terminal window under Mac OS X.

Question: I have an Apple Computer with a dual core 2.3 MHz Processor, 4 GB of RAM, and 1000 GB Hard Disk Space. I am using the latest Mac OS X and I was wondering if there is a keyboard shortcut to "Suspend Activity" as in the Apple Menu, seeing that I need to use this function quite frequently?

Answer: To "Suspend Activity" on your Mac OS X, you can use the keyboard shortcut 'Option + Command + Eject' (you need to use this key combination simultaneously). You can also use the combination 'Alt + command + Eject', or you can use 'Control + Eject', followed by 'S' to suspend your Machine. Tip: You can restart your machine using the key combination 'Control' + 'Eject', followed by 'R'. N.B.: Using 'Control' + 'Eject' launches a window which provides you with an option to suspend or reboot your machine.

Question: I have an Apple G5 computer with a 2.3 GHz processor, 4 GB RAM, and 1000 GB Hard Disk. Two hours ago, when booting up my system, a small globe icon followed by the finder logo on top of a folder was flashing intermittently. A question mark icon also appeared on top of the folder icon. Two minutes later the computer booted up normally. Why did this happen, and how can I prevent this from happening again?

Answer: This issue is known to affect Apple products that use ROM-in-RAM architecture. A Network boot up is selected when no NetBook server is available. To fix the issue, simply go to the 'System Preference' panel from the Apple Menu, and then select 'Startup Disk'. Select your Regular Hard Disk (Normally 'Mac OS X') and then click on 'Restart'. After the computer restarts, the issue is resolved. You can find more information on this issue at the Apple Knowledge base (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=31355).