New Mac setup: settings to get you started

数码荔枝编辑部

发布于 2026-10-21

This article was first published on August 24, 2018, on the LIZHI.SHOP blog (lizhi.io, now offline), and is now republished with appropriate adjustments.

With the popularity of iPhone in China, more and more people have come to like Apple products, including the Mac computer, which has a history of more than 30 years.

Although macOS has always been known for being simple and easy to use, because most people were previously used to Windows, switching to Mac can still feel unfamiliar and not easy to use.

Here are some very useful settings and tips for when you first start using a Mac, which should make it more comfortable to use. For users who have just migrated from Windows, these also serve as a practical new Mac setup checklist.

1. System Preferences

In any app, click the  button in the top-left corner of the screen to choose and open “System Preferences.” The settings to configure are covered in order below.

1.1 General

If you have a Mac with a Retina display, you can uncheck “Use LCD font smoothing.”

LCD rendering makes fonts look heavier and adds color fringing at the edges, seriously ruining the beauty of the type. Although it can make text clearer on low-resolution screens, there is no need for it on a Retina display.

1.2 Dock

The Dock is similar to the Windows taskbar. You can place apps in it according to personal preference for easy access at any time. It is usually recommended to keep only the most frequently used ones and remove Launchpad, Siri, and others that can be opened in other ways, saving space and reducing visual clutter.

In “Dock,” you can check “Automatically hide and show the Dock.” Hiding the Dock increases the usable screen area; when the pointer moves to the bottom of the screen, it appears automatically, so it does not affect use.

When the Dock is not hidden, even if space is left on the left and right, it cannot be used.

When the Dock is hidden, windows can stretch to the very bottom of the screen, with the Dock (when shown) overlaying them.

1.3 Mission Control

Turn off Dashboard. It has nothing to do with the new generation of macOS and is about to become history.

1.4 Language & Region

For List sort order, it is recommended to change it to “Universal,” so that names in Finder and other apps are sorted more accurately. There will be more about Finder settings below.

1.5 Spotlight

Spotlight is not only convenient for searching files and opening apps; it can also be used to look up dictionary definitions, check exchange rates, and serve as a calculator...

If you think Spotlight presents too many results, you can uncheck the sections you do not want to show here.

Also, if you feel Spotlight is not powerful enough, try the very famous LaunchBar. You can learn more about genuine license information and trial options at LIZHI.SHOP.

1.6 Notifications

For highly time-sensitive notifications, you can uncheck “Show in Notification Center.” For example, for a compression tool, I only need a banner notification telling me the compression is complete; I do not need that message to remain in Notification Center.

This keeps Notification Center cleaner and more organized, retaining only more important notifications such as email for easy viewing.

Similarly, for apps you do not want to make sounds, you can uncheck Play sound, such as QQ.

1.7 Displays

For Macs with Retina displays, the default is 1/4 resolution, combining four pixels into one to display images and fonts clearly. But the downside is that the low resolution makes app windows too large, and the screen can show very little content.

If you do not mind making text a little smaller, you can choose “Scaled” and increase the resolution by one step to gain more screen space.

The further left, the larger the text; the further right, the more screen space. Adjust as needed based on your eyesight and display.

1.8 Keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are in “System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts.” First, see Apple’s official website shortcut documentation to familiarize yourself with key symbols such as ⌥.

First, change Full Keyboard Access at the bottom to “All Controls.”

After the change, you can control dialog boxes directly with the keyboard. For buttons with a dark blue background, you can press Return to click them by default; after enabling Full Keyboard Access, you can also switch with the Tab key and use the Space bar to click buttons with a light blue outline.

Next is “Input Sources.” There are two ways to switch input sources: “Select the previous input source” and “Select the next source in Input menu.”

If you use more than 2 input sources, it is recommended to turn off the first, then check the second and set a keyboard shortcut.

Finally, find Spotlight.

On macOS without a Chinese input source, Spotlight’s default shortcut is ⌘ + Space. Chinese users are advised to follow the shortcut setup used in English systems: change the Spotlight shortcut to ⌘ + Space, then change the input source switching shortcut above to Option + Space.

1.9 Trackpad

The Mac trackpad is very useful. It is recommended to carefully review each gesture description in “System Preferences > Trackpad” to get familiar with it. Here you can check “Tap to click” to make clicking easier.

Apple has hidden the previously enabled by default “Three Finger Drag” in “System Preferences > Accessibility > Mouse & Trackpad > Trackpad Options,” where you can check “Enable dragging” again.

2. Finder settings

Finder is macOS’s native file manager, equivalent to File Explorer in Windows. It occupies an extremely important position in the system and is forced to run and cannot be quit (it can be relaunched).

The following settings can make Finder easier to use and are especially helpful for Mac beginners.

2.1 Show file extensions

In Finder preferences, choose the “Advanced” pane and check “Show all filename extensions,” so you can directly see the extensions of all files.

You can also check “Keep folders on top when sorting by name,” so folders and files are sorted separately, and folders always stay at the top instead of being mixed in with files.

2.2 Customize the toolbar

Right-click a blank area of the toolbar at the top of a Finder window and choose “Customize Toolbar” to customize the toolbar and place the most frequently used buttons where they are most convenient.

2.3 Show the full path

Finder’s title bar shows only the name of the current directory by default. You can open Terminal (Terminal.app), copy and paste the following command

then press Return to make Finder show the full path of the file directory at the top.

2.4 Copy, move, paste

In macOS, the shortcut for Copy is ⌘ + C, and for Paste is ⌘ + V, no different from Windows. But “Cut” is different.

First, cutting text in macOS is similar to Windows, with the shortcut ⌘ + X; but files theoretically cannot be cut, so they can only be “moved.”

In fact, Windows also treats “moving files” like cutting and pasting text, using the same shortcuts and saving you the trouble of remembering another set of shortcuts. macOS and other UNIX-like systems do not do this.

This is why “Cut” in the Finder menu is always grayed out and unavailable.

In Finder, “Cut” is grayed out by default and cannot be used.

This is because “Cut” here is for text. For example, after clicking a file name, you can use “Cut” on the text.

“Cut” becomes available only after you select text, because only text has the concept of cutting.

Therefore, if you want to cut and then paste files the Windows way, ignore this “Cut” and use “Move” instead. The specific steps are: first copy, then move.

The shortcut for moving is Option + ⌘ + V, which is Paste plus the Option key. For a detailed comparison, see the table below.

After copying a file, besides using the shortcut, you can also right-click a blank area in the folder, then hold ⌥; the original “Paste Item” becomes “Move Item Here.”

Of course, the simplest way to move files is to drag them directly, but it is not convenient in every situation, so it is best to become proficient with the shortcuts above.

2.5 Default app

Select a file and right-click, click “Get Info,” then change “Open with” to the app you want to use and click “Change All” to set the default app for this type of file.

By extension, files with other extensions can be changed in the same way.

3. Common apps for a new Mac

CleanMyMac: A popular system cleanup tool on Mac. You can use it to regularly clean up useless files on your Mac and save valuable disk space.

CotEditor: A free text editor. It is simple and easy to use, and already powerful enough for non-programmer users; it can be used to edit various configuration files.

IINA: A useful free video player that supports smooth playback of multiple formats, based on the open-source mpv with a clean and attractive graphical interface.

Keka: An open-source and free decompression app that supports 7z and many other archive formats, and can also remove macOS system files such as .DS. If you need a decompression tool with a file manager, try BetterZip.

Snipaste: A useful free screenshot tool, more powerful than the built-in screenshot feature and easier to use.

Macs Fan Control: The default fan policy on Mac computers is too conservative. With this app, you can set your own fan speed policy, so the fan ramps up sooner to control temperature and prevent performance loss.

¥59.00

Typora: A Markdown editor that unusually uses a WYSIWYG interface, simple and intuitive, with multiple built-in styles and support for customization.

¥89.00

If you care more about genuine licenses, transparent sources, and after-sales service, you can also learn about purchase and verification options for this type of tool at LIZHI.SHOP.