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setup macbook for college

C

curleylarry

macrumors newbie
Original poster
hello all....

i have a client whose daughter has a macbook and wishes for me to look it over to see if anything needs to be optimized for when she goes off to college.

can anyone tell me what is needed to get this laptop ready? i am assuming that no anti-virus is needed but anything for updating OSX, configuring any application, etc.

thanks for the help....i am getting this laptop on saturday and if anyone has any input, i would appreciate your help .....

joe
 
Wow. I can really say, "Nope" to this and not be lying. It's ready to go out of the box. If you want to run Windows, you'll need a copy of that and need to run it through Boot Camp, but other than that, you're ready.

Get iWork instead of Office. iWork can open Office documents and can export to Office formats.

I think Software Update runs weekly by default. If not, just hop up to the Apple Menu once in a while and open Software Update to see if there's anything new.
 
Yes, you should enable the firewall, and a good thing would probably be to install something like "little snitch", a program which controls which programs are allowed to connect to the internet and send information from the computer. Many colleges have open WLANs, so making sure encryption is enabled wherever it's possible is a very good idea.

As mentioned above, install some office-suite and check if she needs any specific programs for her major and minor. Ie, economics majors will probably like MS-office for proper excel, computer majors will want development studiuos (although, were she a computer major, she'd probably fix the computer herself).
 
thank you slaeggan....can you let me know how to turn the firewall on? i am a newbie to the mac, having dealt mostly with windows computers.

one last question, i have downloaded little snitch.....how do you install these type of programs?

thanks again for all the tips!

joe
 
make sure the memory is maxxed out, system update gets run routinely and , and that is about it (unlessy ou want to get an enclosure and drive for an external... might save her butt if the HD fails mid semester!. I've been lucky and mine failed both times while on break, but if I had lost all my semester's notes I would have been screwed.

A nice backpack, and a 2-4gb usb jump drive, and that's about all you need these days.

She will get far better prices for software on campus than thru the apple store education discount ($30 for office 2008, <300 for photoshop cs3 etc)

In any case, that is something probably best left to her to do.

Good luck, i did nothing other than install office 2004 lst year and it's been no worries.
 
GfulDedFan said:
Accessories needed might be a bag/backpack and a cable lock.
Click to expand...

Hear, hear on the cable lock. It's a simple, inexpensive, and relatively effective theft deterrent. Also, you may want to consider an external hard drive for backups, as well as AppleCare. Oh, and a surge protector. Those would more or less cover the basics. She may want an external keyboard and/or mouse as well for when she uses the computer at her desk.

And because nobody else mentioned it, a printer. 😉 If all she needs is one to print text, black-and-white laser printers are fairly affordable these days. Note that there are usually computer labs with printing stations, though.

I used to work at a computer store, so I could go on and on about stuff to consider. 😛

As a side-note on antivirus, some colleges--UC Berkeley, for example--require every computer on the network to have some form of antivirus software installed (even though viruses aren't really an issue on the Mac, it's still possible to pass along infected files; e.g. PC A -> Mac -> PC B). The school, however, may offer antivirus to students for free (UC Berkeley does), so she may want to check into that.
 
Make sure to check with her school about iWork or Office. When I got my computer from Mizzou they insisted that everyone have Office instead of iWork (though I don't really understand the big issue).
 
Make sure all the software she needs is installed.

  • Office '08 (it's better than iWork at many things)
  • SMC Fan Control for keeping it cool
  • Onyx for keeping it running smooth
  • BootCamp with XP installed
  • Kensington Lock (I doubt Universitys are safe from theft)
  • Set up Mail for her
  • Set up iChat
  • Show her how to calibrate the battery

All those things can be searched for on the forums for more info. I bolded the keywords so you know what to search (it's an unclear, thrown together list, sorry...)
 
curleylarry said:
thank you slaeggan....can you let me know how to turn the firewall on? i am a newbie to the mac, having dealt mostly with windows computers.

one last question, i have downloaded little snitch.....how do you install these type of programs?

thanks again for all the tips!

joe
Click to expand...

I googled "how to install OS X applications" and this came up:

http://guides.macrumors.com/Installing_Applications_in_Mac_OS_X

Seriously, tell her that Google will often help her find what she needs when she has a problem, and make her a Mac Rumors account. We will always help you out...
 
Do you know what school she is going to? If so, visit that school IT page as it should have plenty of info on what she need and what requirements, if any, are there to connect to their network.
 
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