Tucked inside the Applications folder is a folder called Utilities, which stores a treasure trove of helpful applications. Some of those “utilities” are employed by your system to carry out common tasks, whereas others are tools that you can use for specific purposes. In this chapter, we’ll talk about each of these applications and, where appropriate, refer back to previous chapters where they were mentioned.
By the Way
Unlike the categorization structure used by the System Preferences, the items in the Utilities folder aren’t in any particular order. However, for organizational purposes, we’ve grouped the applications in the Utilities folder into four categories: System Tools; Network Tools; Imaging, Font, and Audio Tools; and System Helpers.
You Mac is a complex machine that runs many processes and has many components, some of which you may not even know about! System Tools are useful for taking a in-depth look at your Mac, which you may want to do in case of system difficulties or merely as an interesting window into the workings of your Mac.
As discussed in Chapter 36, “Maintaining Your System,” Activity Monitor reveals what processes are running on your system and how much CPU time they consume. This can be helpful for finding out which applications are monopolizing system resources if your computer seems bogged down.
Console is a specialized window for reading system logs, which record events related to applications or even network activity. Refer to Chapter 34, “Creating and Hosting Your Own Website.”
Disk Utility is OS X’s built-in hard drive repair tool—with the extra function of creating disk images of drives and allowing you to burn them to CD or DVD. We discussed the repair aspects in Chapter 37, “Recovering from Crashes and Other Problems,” and the disk copy element in Chapter 36.
System Profiler is a great utility to use if you ever need to call for technical support and are asked the exact system configuration of your computer. The System Profiler’s sole purpose is to collect data on your computer, peripherals, and software and prepare a report of the results.
The information in the System Profiler is divided into four categories: Hardware, Software, Network, and Logs. (The Hardware and Software can be expanded by clicking their disclosure triangles.)
The Hardware section, shown in Figure 40.1, displays general information such as the machine model, the amount of built-in memory, and your computer’s serial number.
The additional items under Hardware give summaries of the devices connected to your computer (including internal disks and storage devices, video and sound cards, and modems). Here is a list of the information displayed in the Hardware section:
Memory—. Provides details about the location, type, and amount of memory installed in your computer.
PCI/AGP—. The Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus is a standard for connecting internal video cards, sound cards, and so on; AGP is another standard for video cards. This section of the Hardware information provides details about your video card and display.
IDE/ATA—. Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) and Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) refer to a standard for internal CD-ROM and disk storage; view details about your hard drive, such as model, capacity, and serial number.
SCSI—. The Small Computer System Interface is an older bus developed and used by Apple to connect storage devices and printers. (Most newer Macintoshes don’t have SCSI buses, but there are SCSI adapters for people with SCSI devices they want to continue using.) If available, view any connected devices.
USB—. Universal Serial Bus is used for connecting external peripherals, such as scanners, printers, cameras, keyboards, and mice—as well as lower speed storage devices. View details about any USB devices connected to your computer, as shown in Figure 40.2.
By the Way
Use of USB and FireWire peripheral devices are discussed briefly in Chapter 19, “Adding Peripheral Devices.”
FireWire—. An Apple-developed bus technology that supports speeds of 400Mbps, which is often used with high-speed storage and digital video cameras. (FireWire is also known as IEEE 1394 and, in Sony devices, as iLink.) If you have any FireWire devices connected, you can see details about them here.
AirPort Card—. In Chapter 11, “Connecting to the Internet,” you learned that one of the options for networking computers uses a wireless technology called AirPort. Most recent Apple computers come with a built-in card for connecting to existing wireless networks. View details about it, as well as about any wireless network currently accessed, in this section.
Modems—. Modems are a device used to connect to networks via phone lines—most modern computers come with them built-in. You can see information about your system’s modem in this section. (For information about connecting to a network using your built-in modem, see Chapter 11.)
The Software section displays general information about the version of the operating system, the computer name, and the user currently logged in. There are also two subsections—Applications and Extensions.
Applications—. The Applications section displays all the installed applications on your drive in alphabetical order, regardless of where they are installed. You can use the list to see what versions are installed and where an item is located.
Extensions—. Extensions help the operating system interact with hardware, such as network cards and peripheral devices. In this section, you can learn information such as the version, location, and developer about each extension.
The Network category lists details about the hardware available to your computer for connecting to networks. (Configuration of these devices for network access is discussed in Chapter 11.)
Earlier in this chapter, we talked about the Console utility, which is used to view system logs. The Logs section of the System Profile also gives access to this information, which may include failed attempts by your system to access files or hardware that can give you clues about the source of problems with your system.
Watch Out!
It’s not unusual for errors and failure to be recorded in the console.log file and for you to have no idea that they occurred. If you haven’t noticed anything strange with your system, don’t worry about entries about elements not found or exceptions raised.
The two types of logs available are console and system logs. The console.log item records errors having to do with the applications run on your computer. The system.log item reports events related to the operating system and networking, which are largely outside a user’s control.
Terminal is an application that provides a window, or shell prompt, into which you can type commands directly to the system. Chapter 38, “Using Basic Unix Commands,” discusses some basic uses of Terminal.
Networking relates to how your computer interacts with other computers. The items in this section include setup assistants for various network-able devices as well as utilities for storing and looking up network information. The use of these applications is more advanced than those in the previous sections, and we’ll describe their use only briefly here. However, if you are interested in learning more, you may want to pick up a copy of Mac OS X Unleashed, which discusses them thoroughly.
In Chapter 11 you learned that one option was a wireless connection called AirPort. Although at that time we talked about connecting to an existing AirPort network, the AirPort Admin Utility and the AirPort Setup Assistant are used to set up the wireless base station that conveys a wireless signal to computers.
Three Bluetooth-related applications are located in the Utilities folder—Bluetooth File Exchange, Bluetooth Serial Utility, and Bluetooth Setup Assistant. Bluetooth refers to a wireless technology standard that allows compatible devices to interact with each other with little setup by the users—quite simply, Bluetooth devices send out signals that can be received by other Bluetooth devices.
The Bluetooth Setup Assistant allows you to configure a Bluetooth-enabled Mac to communicate with a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone. (This would allow you to use a mobile phone that is not tethered to your computer to dial-in to your ISP.)
The Bluetooth Serial Utility is used to set up additional ports for your computer to use with Bluetooth devices.
Bluetooth File Exchange allows you to browse files on other Bluetooth computers, both Mac and Windows-based.
Directory Access is used to access directory servers, such as Window’s Active Directory Server. It is used to configure where Mac OS X gets its account information. For example, in a computer lab, a server would contain a listing of all the accounts, and each user computer would be set up using Directory Access to get account settings from the server.
The NetInfo Manager is a window into a database of information on your system about your computer’s setup and files, its users, and its network.
For example, you can select the users folder (or directory) from the list and then choose your account. Among other things, you’ll see your username, password hint, and the path to the user picture you chose as your login icon—which you can also access from the Accounts pane of the System Preferences.
In the other categories are more advanced settings related to the Unix underpinnings of OS X, many of which you don’t have the option to change from the graphical interface.
Watch Out!
For an average user, it’s not wise to make system changes with NetInfo Manager. The information it accesses is vital to the operation of your computer, and mistakes made may be difficult to fix. (Even experienced system administrators are advised to make duplicates of the original information before changing settings here.)
Also in the Utilities folder is something called Network Utility. This collection of functions, shown in Figure 40.3, is commonly used by people who manage or work with networks. Most of these functions display information or are used to test network connections.
Following is a brief description of the options available:
Info—. Lets you see information about the installed network cards, including whether they are connected and to which IP address. It also lists any errors in transmission that have occurred.
Netstat—. Shows all the connections to and from your computer. It is of most use to server operators who need to see who is connected to the computer at a particular instant.
AppleTalk—. Shows AppleTalk zone details as well as statistics and errors.
Ping—. A function that enables you to test whether a remote machine is responding and how fast the connection is. (Essentially, this is a low-level contact between machines that is used to see whether a machine is online.)
Lookup—. Translates between IP addresses and hostnames.
Traceroute—. Shows the path required to connect to a given IP address or hostname.
Whois—. Enables you to look up who owns and administers a domain name. Note that when using the default whois server options, you may be directed to another host for more detailed information.
Finger—. Lets you look up information on a specific user on systems that have this service enabled. Finger was traditionally a feature of Unix-based systems that, when supplied with a username, returned information about a user, such as a real name and whether the user was currently logged in. (Large institutions, such as universities, often offer this service.)
Portscan—. Used to test which services (such as FTP and file sharing) are running on a computer, but should not be used on any but your own computers. This feature was discussed in Chapter 35, “Sharing Files to Windows and Unix Computers.”
Watch Out!
Portscan is nothing to play with. Scanning other people’s networks can be interpreted as suspicious behavior—it’s one of the ways malicious hackers find vulnerable systems to hack into—and if portscans are being performed by your computer, your ISP may receive letters of complaint.
For the most part, typical users won’t need to use Network Utility. It is a powerful tool for network administrators to diagnose network problems.
The applications discussed here are related to imaging, character-based language fonts, and MIDI composition. For imaging, Mac OS X includes applications to measure onscreen color and to calibrate your display as well as to create screen captures. It also includes a digital music composition tool. For those who write in character-based Asian Languages, there is also a special set of tools in the Asia Text Extras folder.
The Asia Text Extras item is a folder of utilities for people who use character-based Asian languages. It includes Chinese Text Converter, which performs encoding conversions between Traditional and Simplified Chinese as well as other conversions.
The Audio MIDI Setup utility allows you to view and customize settings for audio and MIDI devices.
In the Audio Devices section, you can view which peripheral devices and built-in hardware are available—and, with selected devices—change their configuration.
MIDI, an acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, is a protocol for creating music with electronic devices. If you connect MIDI hardware to your Mac and launch the Audio MIDI Setup, you can check for device drivers or customize your MIDI setup in the MIDI Devices section.
ColorSync Utility helps you calibrate your display. You learn about monitor calibration in Chapter 18, “Working with Monitors and ColorSync.”
The next application, DigitalColor Meter, measures and reports the color of an onscreen pixel, or the average color of a group of pixels. It comes in handy when trying to find an exact match for any color appearing on your display.
When launched, DigitalColor Meter opens the window shown in Figure 40.4.
The section at the left of the window displays an enlarged view of whatever is currently under the mouse cursor. Immediately to the right of the enlarged view is a color well that contains the sampled color. Adjusting the aperture slider controls the number of pixels sampled from 1×1 to 16×16. (For apertures greater than 1×1, the displayed color is the average of several pixels of image surrounding the mouse cursor.)
To the right of the color well is a numeric representation of the currently selected color. The pop-up menu at the top of the window determines the color model being used.
Mac OS X offers the ability to make a screen capture, or an exact snapshot of your screen at the current moment, by pressing Shift-Command-3 for full-screen captures or Shift-Command-4 for partial screens. The Grab application can do things that are not possible with the built-in screenshot function. Grab can capture screen information in four different ways:
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Screen captures created with Shift-Command-3, or partial screen captures created with Shift-Command-4, are in PDF format. They appear on the desktop as “Picture #.” Although this method works for quick screen captures, Grab offers a few more features.
Selection (Shift-Command-A)—. Captures a portion of the screen, determined by the user drawing a rectangle.
Window (Shift-Command-W)—. Captures a selected window, determined by which window is clicked after the Grab capture is initiated.
Screen (Command-Z)—. Captures the entire screen.
Time Screen (Shift-Command-Z)—. Captures the screen with a 10-second delay. That gives you time to position your windows, pull down (or pop up) menus, and so on. You can take screenshots with menus in the down position in Mac OS X!
No matter what method you use, Grab displays a window with short instructions on how to proceed. This window is not included in the final screenshot, despite appearing onscreen as the shot is taken.
For example, to capture a timed screenshot:
Choose Capture, Timed Screen from Grab’s menu. Grab displays the window shown in Figure 40.5.
Click the Start Timer Button.
As the clock counts down, change your screen into the arrangement you want. At the end of 10 seconds, Grab captures the screen and opens the image in a new window.
Choose File, Save from the menu to save the image in Tiff format.
Did you Know?
Grab saves images in Tiff format. If another image format would be more appropriate, you can open the image in the Preview application, discussed in Chapter 6, “Using Calculator, Stickies, Preview, and TextEdit,” and select File, Export from the menu. You can then choose from a number of common image formats.
When taking a screenshot, you can choose to superimpose a cursor of your choice over the screen; by default, no cursor is shown at all. Choose Preferences under the Grab application menu to change the cursor that will be used. Figure 40.6 shows the preferences.
In the Pointer Type section, click the button for the cursor your want to use.
The preferences can also toggle the camera shutter noise that is played when an image is captured. Select or deselect the Enable Sound check box as you see fit.
At the start of this chapter, you learned that the Utilities folder is home to several applications that help your computer perform necessary tasks. Let’s take a quick look at them.
The Installer utility is used by many applications when they are installed. It essentially provides the wizardlike interface that appears with many of Apple’s applications.
Java is programming language specifically written to create programs that can be run on any operating system, or even from Web pages, easily. Inside the Utilities folder is a Java folder containing several applications for installing and running with Java-based applications, or applets.
Keychain Access is the utility that maintains all your application passwords. It was discussed in Chapter 8, “Working with Address Book, Keychain Access, iSync, and Ink.”
As covered in Chapter 20, “Printing, Faxing, and Working with Fonts,” the Printer Setup Utility allows you to configure available printers and choose your default.
To reduce their size, files are often compressed, especially those distributed via email or Web site. StuffIt Expander uncompresses these files so that you can read them. We talked about StuffIt Expander in Chapter 9, “Installing Additional Software,” as used when installing downloaded software.
In this chapter, we’ve examined the contents of the Utilities folder located inside the Applications folder. Several utilities can be used to monitor system functions. Others relate to networking options. A few are useful, targeted applications, such as Grab and DigitalColor Meter. There are also several applications used by your system for specific purposes.