Customize Icons in Mac OS X [SwitchTip of the Day]

     

Sick of those stock icons in Mac OS X?  Here's a quick tip to re-badge and customize any drive or folder in OS X.  I have a few familiar custom icons that I use, and have gotten very used to.  My OS X experience just isn't complete without em! 

1. Highlight the icon or folder you want to use for your custom icon.
2. Type command-C or right-click and choose Copy.
3. Right-click on any hard drive or folder, and choose Get Info.
4. Navigate to the upper left corner, and highlight the icon.
5. Type command-V or choose Paste from the file menu. 

That's it!  There are a ton of great free open-source icons available at InterfaceLIFT.  Check them out!  Here's a snapshot of my finder's sidebar- easier on the eyes in my opinion than a lot of blue folders. 

XLD: Multi-Codec Audio Conversion [Top 10 Mac Apps for Windows Switchers]

XLD (X Lossless Decoder) is one of my favorite apps for Mac. As we know, iTunes/iPod only supports Apple Lossless. I have a large collection of FLAC files and this allows me to quickly convert them.  This app allows me to rip my FLAC files directly to Apple Lossless or LAME V0 mp3 with one click.  And best of all, it transfers all of the ID3 tags and artwork.

Download XLD Here

Additional features include accurate CD ripping with cue and log sheet, WAVE, AIFF, Raw PCM, Ogg Vorbis (aoTuV), MPEG-4 AAC (QuickTime/CoreAudio), MP3 (LAME), Apple Lossless, FLAC, HE-AAC (aacPlus v1/v2), Wave64 and WavPack.  In addition, you can expand XLD with any codecs not included from Libsndfile.

A well rounded and easy to use interface that only improves with constant updates, XLD is a real winner- and FREE.

More: Top 10 Mac Apps for Windows Switchers

Maintenance: System Maintenance and Cleaning Utility [Top 10 Mac Apps for Windows Switchers]

So you got your OS X machine built and it's been running for a while. You start wondering is there anything I should be doing to make it run better.

OS X has scripts that need to run on a periodic schedule. If you don't have your machine on all the time, you need to run them, but how? That's where Maintenance from Titanium's Software comes in.

Download Maintenance Here

 

Maintenance allows you to run; miscellaneous tasks of system maintenance, repair permissions, periodic scripts, reset Spotlight's Index, rebuild the LaunchServices database, delete Application, Font and System cache and more. What would you pay for a tool that does this? Well you don't have to as it's available for free.  

They also offer an enhanced version called Onyx that does everything Maintenance does plus allows you to configure parameters in the Finder, Dock and some of Apple's applications. And it's also free.

Check it out and If like it as much as I do, make a donation to support continued development.

More: Top 10 Mac Apps for Windows Switchers

Perian: The Swiss-Army Knife For QuickTime [Top 10 Mac Apps for Windows Switchers]

Ok, so you just loaded up your hack, double click an .avi file, and lo and behold QuickTime doesn't support the codec.  What to do?  Well, you could search Apple.com for add-ons, and individually download each one for QuickTime.  But smart users just get Perian.

Perian is an open-source FREE multi-codec component add-on for Mac OS X's built in multimedia player QuickTime which enables playback of multiple unsupported audio and video formats.

Download Perian Here

This application really broadens the scope of QuickTime, enabling video playback of MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivx, H.264, Sorenson H.263, FLV/Sorenson Spark, FSV1, VP6, H263i, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Snow, NuppelVideo, Techsmith Screen Capture, DosBox Capture.  In addition, it opens up audio playback to Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), and MPEG Layer I & II Audio, True Audio, DTS Coherent Acoustics, Nellymoser ASA.

Download and install, then forget that QuickTime doesn't naturally include all of this by default.

More: Top 10 Mac Apps for Windows Switchers

TextWrangler: More Than Just a Text Editor [Top 10 Mac Apps for Windows Switchers]

TextWrangler is a free general-purpose text editor from Bare Bones Software. You may ask why do you need this, since OS X includes TextEdit? Well, TextEdit is a nice tool but I find it limited with a few annoying "features". The first being that it always opens in a small window. The other is that it's default is to save everything as rich text. Yes, I know that you can change this, but why should I have to. I guess you could say that TextEdit is Apple's answer to WordPad on Windows. 

What make TextWrangler unique is that besides being a general-purpose text editor it's a programmers friend supporting syntax coloring and function navigation. It's also fully integrated into OS X and supports FTP/SFTP for opening and saving files on servers.  The full feature list is too long to list here, so click here for more details. 

Download TextWrangler Here

I would also like to mention two great low cost alternatives, TextMate and TextWrangler's big brother BBEdit . Check them out if you are looking for more in an editor. 

More: Top 10 Mac Apps for Windows Switchers

VLC: Multimedia Player, Server and Framework [Top 10 Mac Apps for Windows Switchers]

VLC, (Video Lan Client) is an open source audio/video client for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.  It's probably the most handy piece of software that you can get, as it has built-in support for pretty much any file you throw at it.  Here's a list of supported codecs.

Download VLC Here

Advanced features of this app include playback of damaged files, DVD, and  TV card,.  It will also encode audio/video, and act as a streaming server. 

For such an outstanding piece of software, you'd expect a hefty price, but this app is 100% Open Source, and FREE.  This project is in need of Mac OS X developers to continue supporting OS X.  If you are a dev, and would like to improve VLC, check out their site for sources and information.

More: Top 10 Mac Apps for Windows Switchers

Top 10 Mac Apps for Windows Switchers

So you've just transitioned from Windows to Mac. Thought it would be a good idea to review a few of our favorite apps for Mac so that you can still get the functionality you enjoy on Windows. From audio editing and converting to video playback for all codecs, these 10 apps will hopefully get you on the road to increased productivity on the Mac side.

1. VLC: Multimedia Player, Server and Framework
2. TextWrangler: More Than Just a Text Editor
3. Perian: The Swiss-Army Knife For QuickTime
4. Maintenance: System Maintenance and Cleaning Utility
5. XLD: Multi-Codec Audio Conversion

The rest of the list will be posted soon!   Enjoy!

Swap Control and Command Keys On a Non-Mac Keyboard

Here's a quick tip for new Hackintosh users migrating from Windows to Mac.  If you're used to hitting Ctrl-X for cut, Ctrl-C for copy and Ctrl-V for paste, and your Hack now has you flustered, here's what to do.

1. Go into System Preferences/Keyboard.

2. Choose Modifier Keys... in the lower right corner.
 

3, Then just swap Control Key and Command Key.


That's all folks!

-tonymacx86

How to Dual Boot Windows 7 and Mac OS X on Your PC

Using Chameleon as your bootloader, you can boot an infinite amount of operating systems on your PC. It's simple to use a separate hard drive for each operating system.

1. Install multiple operating systems on separate hard drives.
2. Go to CMOS Setup Utility and choose Advanced BIOS Features.
3. Select Hard Disk Boot Priority.
4. Move your Chameleon OS X hard drive to top of list.
5. Boot into Chameleon and choose your Operating System.

The following guide will show you how to put OS X Snow Leopard and Windows 7 on the same hard drive. You can then use Chameleon to select either Snow Leopard or Windows 7 at boot time. It's a bit trickier, as the Windows installer will set itself as the active partition automatically. You have to manually set the OS X partition active at the end of the process.

STEP 1: PREPARING THE DRIVE
First thing to do is format and partition the hard drive. When you choose 2 partitions with a GUID Partition Table, OS X will format the drive with 3 partitions. Partition 1 is EFI, Partition 2 will be Snow Leopard and Partition 3 will be Windows 7. The EFI partition is a very small (200mb) hidden partition that holds the OS X bootloader and BIOS information on a real Mac. In a separate guide, I'll show you how to install Chameleon to the EFI partition to leave an OS X install untouched. For now, just know it's installed by default and labeled Partition 1.

1. Boot into your existing OS X installation.
2. Open Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility
3. Select your hard drive in the left column.
4. Click the Partition tab
5. Under Volume Scheme: separate your hard drive into 2 Partitions. You can make them any size you want.
6. Click Options... choose GUID Partition Table, then click OK.
7. Click Untitled 1. Under Name: type Snow Leopard. Under Format: choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
8. Click Untitled 2. Under Name: type Windows 7. Under Format: choose MSDOS (FAT).
9. Click Apply and close Disk Utility.
10. Insert Windows 7 DVD in tray.
11. Unplug all hard drives except this one and reboot.

STEP 2: INSTALL WINDOWS 7
Now you will install Windows 7 to Partition 3. You'll have to reformat it to NTFS in the Windows 7 installer before Windows will let you install. We labeled it Windows 7 in the previous step.

1. Wait for Windows to begin installation process.
2. Accept license agreement.
3. At Which type of installation do you want, choose Custom (Advanced)
4. At Where do you want to install Windows, choose Partition 3: Windows 7.
5. Click Drive options (advanced).
6. Click format.
7. Click OK.
8. Click Next.
   

At this point, Windows 7 will install to Partition 3. The installer will reboot the computer a few times- just leave it until you complete the installation process and see the Windows desktop.

STEP 3: INSTALL SNOW LEOPARD
The next step is to install Snow Leopard to Partition 2.

iBoot + MultiBeast - Install OS X on any Intel-based PC

STEP 4: BOOT FROM USB CHAMELEON DRIVE OR OS X INSTALLER DRIVE
If you have installed OS X using a USB Installer Drive, now you must boot from it, and select your newly installed OS X partition. Or you can create a Chameleon-only USB drive by following this guide: Create a Chameleon Boot USB Drive

1. Go to CMOS Setup Utility and choose Advanced BIOS Features.
2. Select Hard Disk Boot Priority.
3. Move your Chameleon USB drive to top of list.
4. Boot into USB drive.
5. Stop the Chameleon countdown by pressing any key besides Enter, then choose Snow Leopard.
6. Complete the OS X setup routine.
   

STEP 5: INSTALL CHAMELEON TO SNOW LEOPARD PARTITION
If you haven't already installed Chameleon to your Snow Leopard drive, do so now. If you followed any of my guides, this step will be unnecessary.

STEP 6: SET THE OS X PARTITION AS ACTIVE
You now have to set the Snow Leopard partition so that your computer boots from it first. Therefore, Chameleon loads and you can select either Snow Leopard or Windows 7. You will have to issue a few commands to Terminal in order to accomplish this task.

1. Open Applications/Utilities/Terminal.
2. Type diskutil list
3. Write down the IDENTIFIER of your Apple_HFS Snow Leopard drive. For this example: disk0s2.
4. Type sudo -s
5. Enter your password.
6. Type fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0
7. Type p
8. Type f 2
9. Type w
10. Type y
11. Close Terminal and reboot.

Unplug all drives except the dual boot drive and restart. You should now be able to boot directly into Chameleon, stop the boot countdown and select either Snow Leopard or Windows NTFS as shown in the picture below.

Thanks for reading and I hope it worked for you! Special thanks goes out to the entire OSx86 Hackintosh community! This guide was cobbled together from various sources- I did not invent this method, and do not wish to take any credit beyond putting it into plain English. ;) As always, if you have any issues, post a comment and I'll try my best to help you out any way I can.

-tonymacx86

For discussions on this and other topics, register today at tonymacx86.com!

Welcome to win2Hack!

 Welcome to the brand new win2Hack!

This site is dedicated to Windows users, who may be a bit unfamiliar with Mac's and want to make the move, or at least check it out.  It's now possible to do this through legitimate means, even without access to a real Mac!

Our goal here is to make it easy for you to install and run OS X on standard PC hardware. We're planning screen casts, tutorials,and more from a Windows-user's perspective.  I've already written a bunch of guides and tutorials over at tonymacx86.blogspot.com that you can check out.