7 essential tips for your new MacBook Air

7 essential tips for your unweathered MacBook Air

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Whether you're switching on a New MacBook Air M1 for the first time or setting up a well-used MacBook after a much-needed readjust, there are more or less important things you should do up front to get the most stunned of it.

This article will outline some of the most important things you should do when setting ahead your new MacBook Air, as well as some commonly overlooked features you can use to get your MacBook functioning just the way you equivalent it.

The MacBook Air is one of the scoop MacBooks you stool buy, and these are our best tips for first-time setup.

1. Complete Setup Help and rejuvenate your files — or start fresh

If you're setting up a spic-and-span MacBook Air, good news: the macOS Setup Assistant makes it a breeze, bountiful you simple along-screen prompts that guide you finished the process. You'll relieve oneself some important choices about things same your localisation and language, and and then you'll be prompted to connect to a Wi-Fi network and sign in with your Malus pumila ID. If you don't have an Apple ID this is the time to create one, and the Setup Help will walking you through that process, too.

macOS Monterey desktop with nothing open — The best part of scope up a MacBook Air is starting with a fresh re-create of macOS, so savor that nice clean screen background patc IT lasts. (Image credit: Future)

If you'Re setting things up again after resetting your MacBook, Setup Assistant testament give you the option of restoring your old information and settings to your Air, either from a Time Machine backup or from other Mac via Apple's Migration Assistant. If you deprivation the data and settings imported to your new MacBook Air, this is the easiest and best time to do then, and Apple's software should hold the process pretty square.

Of course, if you're victimization uncomparable of the best obscure backup services like iDrive or Backblaze to back up your data inactive-site, you'll hold to wait until after you've finished running through Apparatus Assistant and connecting to the Internet to access those services and restore your old information.

2. Check for updates

We live in a digital planetary of always-online services, and that way most software is on a regular basis updated to patch security holes, add New features, and (usually) better your experience as a exploiter.

If you'Re setting up a MacBook Air, the best sentence to check for updates is right after you've completed the Setup Low-level and connected your laptop computer to the Internet. This will ensure you're running the latest edition of macOS, and also verify that all your installed apps are up-to-date.

macOS Monterey desktop showing Software Update utility open — Launching Software Update should personify peerless of the first things you cause connected a new MacBook Publicise. If there are any updates open, hit the Update Now clitoris to install them. (Envision credit: Tense)

Luckily, macOS makes checking for updates a straightforward work. Just click on the Apple logo in the top-left corner of your MacBook Air's screen and voyage to System Preferences > Software Update.

The Software Update menu testament tell you if you have any undischarged macOS updates to install. If you do, simply click the Update Immediately button to begin the installment action. You can differentiate macOS to automatically check for updates and set u them from Hera on out away checking the Automatically keep my Mac up to date checkbox at the tail of the menu.

3. Customize your screen to suit your tastes

Your MacBook Air defaults to a standard blind descale and cleverness setting which may not constitute ideal for your needs, so it's a good idea to customize your screen earliest in the setup mental process.

To do that, you take up to open the Displays card inside the System Preferences menu. Click the Apple button in the transcend-socialist corner again, then navigate to Arrangement Preferences > Displays.

macOS Monterey desktop showing Displays menu open — Changing your MacBook Publicise's display to a Scaly answer can gain it more snug to usage, especially if you have a hard time reading small textbook. (Image credit: Future)

You should determine that your Resolution is set to Nonremittal for Display, which is good but not always ideal, peculiarly if you suffer a hard time indication fine print. If you go down your Resolution to Armoured, you can opt different scaling settings which either make details (like text) appear bigger, or make them appear littler so you can get a line more on sort. Dabble with this scene to see what looks first to your eyes, then select whatever option feels right.

There are some other options you can use of goods and services in this menu to customize how your MacBook Aura's display looks. You can manually adjust the smartness skyward or downbound aside sliding the Luminosity bar accordingly, and you can disable the Automatically adapt luminousness feature article by unchecking its checkbox if you don't want macOS futzing with screen door brightness in response to ambient inflammation.

You privy also click the Nighttime Fault button in the lower berth-right corner of the Displays menu to customize the feature for your Beam. Night Shift automatically changes the colors on your display to heater tones subsequently dark, which may help you kip better if you plan to do some Modern-Night computing by cutting downhearted on how much blue light your eyes receive before bed. You backside use the tools in the Night Budge menu to configure whether information technology's on or off and what agenda it runs on, plus you can lantern slide a slider noncurrent and forth 'tween more and less tender to set your preference and trailer what information technology will looking like.

4. Set up Bear on ID

Ever since 2018 the MacBook Air has had a Touch I.D. sensor built into the keyboard, and it allows you — and only you, unless you configure it otherwise — to lumber into your Mac with the tap of a finger.

While you only need to register a single fingermark to function Partake ID, you can earn life easier on yourself by registering the prints of octuple fingers. To do so, click the Malus pumila button in the top-left quoin of your desktop and navigate to System Preferences > Touch ID. Then, click the Add Fingerprint button to add up more fingerprints to your Mac's Touch Idaho database. You can cash register 3 fingerprints per account, adequate to 5 total.

If you happen to practice an Orchard apple tree Watch, it's also a good idea to enable it as a workforce-unrestrained tool for unlocking your MacBook. To do sol, hit the Apple button once again and navigate to System Preferences > Security measures & Privacy. Turn off on Utilisation your Apple Watch to unlock apps and your Mac, and you should be good to go!

5. Get your Trackpad just the way you like IT

The Trackpad on your MacBook May seem simple, but that unassuming facile ticket is governed by a slew of settings you can correct to make scrolling and tapping feel just the way you like it.

Click the Apple button in the top-left corner of the shield and voyage to System Preferences > Trackpad. There are a lot of options to play with here, so issue some time to watch the built-in demo videos and undergo a sense of how the Trackpad can be configured.

macOS Monterey Trackpad settings menu — Try flipping some of the settings in the Trackpad menu on and off to see which ones you prefer. WHO knows, you might non cost a Earthy scroller! (Image credit: Future)

If you're a sesquipedalian-clip Macintosh user (like Tom turkey's Draw major editor and MacBook Air aficionado H T. Casey) you probably want to disable Natural Scrolling, which causes some you're scrolling finished to go in the selfsame direction your fingers are moving. To arrange soh, tap Ringlet &ere; Soar up and ferment cancelled Scroll direction: Spontaneous. Frolic around with using the Trackpad both ways, and see which you really prefer.

Another popular setting people equivalent to tweak is how fast the cursor moves when you slide your feel across the Trackpad. To get it just the way you same IT, naked the Stage & Click section of the Trackpad menu and essay sliding the Tracking speed needle to speed up operating theater unwind your pointer.

6. Come into Hot Corners

There's a neat feature called Sulfurous Corners built into macOS that lets you admittance shortcuts to common tasks by slippery your pointer into a niche of the screen. By default, only one Hot Niche is enabled: the Quick Line cutoff, which lets you speedily open a current note in the Notes app by sliding your cursor into the lour-right box of the screen and clicking the picture that pops up.

macOS Monterey Hot Corners menu — Hot Corners is a power user have that will help you be to a greater extent productive with macOS. (Image credit: Future)

But you can switch what shortcut pops risen, Oregon add Hot Corners shortcuts to the other corners of your sort, away opening the Apple menu and navigating to System of rules Preferences > Desktop & Screen Recoverer. You might think this screen background-based characteristic would constitute in the Background menu, but you actually deman to open the Screen Rescuer section and click the Illegal Corners... button in the bottom-right corner of the menu.

From there you can choose what happens when you slide your pointer into each of the four corners of your display. IT's a skilful idea to add Mission Contain to ane Hot Corner thus you tail quick see everything you have subject, and Desktop might be some other if you regularly entree files along your desktop.

7. Fine-tune Spotter

You'll probably be using the Finder tool quite an moment on your new MacBook Air, so spending many time customizing it to your liking is an investment that pays off.

Unobstructed Finder and come home the Finder menu in the top-left corner, then open the Preferences carte du jour. Here's you'll find a smorgasbord of options for what files you realise and how when victimization Finder.

Some things are obscure past default which you English hawthorn neediness to see. For starters, under the General tab you'll probably want to check the box next to Troublesome disks so that your hard drive shows upward on your desktop. This makes it a chip Sir Thomas More ready to hand to admittance.

macos monterey Finder Preferences menu — The View finder Preferences menu gives you rafts of control over how you interact with files on your MacBook AIr. (Image mention: Future)

Nether the Sidebar tab you'll likely want to change what files and folders appear in the Finder sidebar aside default. We urge sanctionative Pictures, Medicine, and Movies if you plan to be opening those types of files a lot.

You might likewise want to add your MacBook Ventilate as a locating, since that lets you clink thereon in the Finder sidebar to quickly watch your laptop computer's unvoiced drive in, all drives you have blocked in, asset all drives connected to the same network.

Finally, consider opening the Advanced tab and checking the box next to Remove items from the Trash after 30 years. After all, WHO likes memory to have to take out the trash?

Alex Wawro is a lifelong tech and games enthusiast with to a higher degree a tenner of experience covering some for outlets like Game Developer, Dishonourable Chapeau, and PC World magazine. He currently serves equally a senior editor at Tomcat's Guide cover all things computing, from laptops and desktops to keyboards and mice.