Wanem Online Guide: Mac

Results for Mac

Deleted Mac system files, how to fix?

Wanem Club July 08, 2019

Accidentally deleted files and folders from Mac system, how to restore?

Most regular users appreciate that system files and folders are important and should not be accessed or modified. Despite this, various searches on the internet lead to websites suggesting that they must replace or remove data within these folders when experiencing certain problems. Therefore, occasionally, system files or folders are deleted accidentally, thus causing basic features to malfunction or stop. This situation might seem irrecoverable, however, modern Macs include a hidden recovery partition, which is usually created automatically when installing the operating system and stores system installation files. The hidden partition is effectively equivalent to a Mac OS X installation CD/DVD.

A big advantage of using this method is that it will not impact on your private data. When reinstalling the operating system from the recovery partition, the hard disk is not erased and the user's home folder will remain untouched. Although, the hidden partition is not corrupted (as might be the case with other system files), there can sometimes be issues relating to the recovery partition. Therefore, a feature called 'internet recovery partition' is also available. This is an alternative way to restore system files using a recovery partition stored on Apple servers. In this article, we describe the above methods plus a number of other options to restore deleted/corrupted system files and folders.

Restore deleted system files and folders via Recovery Partition

The most efficient way to restore deleted files is using the Recovery Partition. This method replaces missing system files and leaves your personal data untouched. First, completely shut down the Mac (no lights are displayed and you cannot hear fans spinning). Turn on the Mac and hold down the Command and R keys at the same time. Keep holding the combination until the macOS Utilities window appears.

From the menu, select the Reinstall macOS option. Do not worry about your personal files - this method will not erase your hard drive.

You will be prompted to confirm your actions. Click Continue. You will need to agree to Apple's terms and conditions.

The next window will ask you to select the storage location. Choose the internal hard drive and click Install. This process may take some time, depending on the internal hard drive speed.

If you are unable to use the recovery partition, another option is Internet Recovery.

Alternative methods to restore deleted system files

If you are unable to reinstall the entire operating system (or do not wish to), there are a number of alternative methods. In some rare cases, these might fail, however, you will not lose any data, do not be concerned.

To restore missing or corrupted files using Time Machine backup

Copy missing or corrupted files from another trusted device. Note, however, that you must be sure that the operating system versions of both systems match, otherwise this method might cause additional issues.

Shut down the computer, and then boot it to recovery mode in a similar way (by holding down Command and R while launching the Mac).

When the macOS Utilities window appears, click on Utilities in the menu bar at top of the screen and then select Terminal.

When the Terminal app launches, determine the actual volume name by typing df and pressing Return to execute.
Make a copy of the /bin folder associated with the hard disk by executing the following command: cp -a /bin /Volumes/disk name (replace 'disk name' with the name of the Mac disk).

When Terminal has finished the task, close it and restart the Mac by clicking the Apple logo in the menu bar at the top of the screen. Note that after performing this method, you must update your system again.

Deleted Mac system files, how to fix?

Reviewed by Wanem Club on July 08, 2019 Rating: 5

How to install MacOS on PC

Wanem Club October 13, 2017

Apple isn't a big fan of people installing OS X and Mac OS on devices that aren't manufactured by the company. Actually, as far as I know, the operating system's license explicitly states that you should only be installing it on a Mac, but if you really want to, setting up MacOS on a regular PC is actually not that difficult. If this is something you're interested in, here's a short guide to show how you can do it. First, let me tell you what you're going to need in order to pull this off:

A partition or hard disk that never had Windows installed on it.
A 64-bit Intel processor (the newer the better).
At least 50 GB of free storage space; around 100 GB if you also want to install various tools.
Access to a Mac so that you can download the MacOS Sierra installer.
An 8 GB or larger USB stick, preferably USB 3.0 so that the installation process doesn't take too long.
A Mac application called Unibeast that will help you copy the MacOS installer on the USB dongle. The application is free, but you'll need to register on its website to get it.

Once you've got everything you need, use the Mac to open the Apple Store and download Sierra from it. Once the download is finished, press Command + Q on your keyboard to quit the installer which will be automatically launched. Next, connect the USB stick to the Mac, open the Disk Utility tool and make sure that the stick has a single partition that occupies all the available space. Additionally, in the Partition tab, make sure that the drive is set as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), then go to Options, set GUID Partition Table as the partition scheme and format the drive by clicking Apply.

Now, launch Unibeast; in the first window that you see, select the USB drive that you've just set up, then press the Continue button and follow the steps indicated by the tool. When you're asked what OS you want to install, select Sierra and when you have to choose between UEFI and Legacy boot modes, choose the first one unless you have a really old PC. Lastly, select the option that best suits your graphics card and the application will start preparing the USB installer, a process that could take up to an hour.

On your PC, unplug all USB drives and all the internal drives except that one that you want to install MacOS on. In case you have a dedicated and an integrated graphics board, you will need to also unplug the dedicated one. If you can, connect your monitor using a DVI slot instead of HDMI or VGA. Lastly, go to BIOS or UEFI and set your PC to boot from the USB, choose Other OS in the OS Type category (in case you have the option) and disable VT-d, CFG-Lock as well as the Secure Boot Mode.

Lastly, plug in the USB with the installer, boot your PC from it, choose an External drive as the installation location, select the desired drive and follow the wizard's steps. Once it's done, restart your PC with the stick still in it, then from the Unibeast boot menu select Sierra boot and you're done.

Now that you've learned to install MacOS Sierra on a PC

How to install MacOS on PC

Reviewed by Wanem Club on October 13, 2017 Rating: 5

How to get Google Assistant on your Windows, Mac, or Linux Machine

Wanem Club October 11, 2017

Google Assistant is Google’s answer to Amazon’s Alexa smart home assistant. Initially only available with limited functionality in the Google Allo application, Google Assistant later rolled out with the Google Home and Pixel smartphones to bring the full power of Google’s assistant to consumers.

After a few months of waiting, smartphones running Android 6.0+ also received Google Assistant, and just a few days ago Google launched the Google Assistant SDK which allows Assistant to be run on basically any platform. Today, we will show you how to install Google Assistant onto your Windows, Mac, or Linux machine using Python.

Note: at this point in time, this is purely for educational purposes. There’s no fancy GUI for you to play with, and installing Assistant requires you to use the command line.

Get Google Assistant on Windows/Mac/Linux Machines

Requirements:

Python 3

You’ll need to have Python installed no matter whether or not you are using Windows, macOS, or a GNU/Linux distribution. Installation is fairly simple and already well-documented by the Python wiki, so we won’t go into many details about getting Python up and running on your machine.

Once you’ve got Python working on your machine (you can confirm it is working by opening up a terminal/command prompt and then simply typing python.) If you see the terminal/command prompt return the current Python version on your computer, then you’re golden.

Next, before we can install the necessary files to get Google Assistant working, we need to enable access to the Google Assistant API in the Google Cloud Platform Console.

Configure the Google Assistant API

What follows are step-by-step instructions walking you through the process to enable the Google Assistant API in the Cloud Platform Console so you can access Google Assistant through the Python program. All of these steps are platform independent, meaning that the steps are the same for Windows, macOS, and GNU/Linux users.

Go to the Projects page in the Google Cloud Platform Console.
Click on “Create Project” up top.
Name the Project “My Google Assistant” and click “Create.”
Wait a few seconds for the Console to create your new Project. You should see a spinning progress icon in the top right. After it is done creating your Project, you will be brought to your Project’s configuration page.
Click this link to go straight to the Google Assistant API page. Up top, click “Enable.”
Google will warn you that you need to create credentials to use this API. Click “Create credentials” in the top right. This will take you to a setup wizard page where Google helps you figure out what kind of credentials you need to use this API.
Under “where will you be calling the API from”, select “Other UI (e.g. Windows, CLI tool)“. For “what data will you be accessing” select the “User data” circle. Now tap “what credentials do I need?”
Google should recommend that you create an OAuth 2.0 client ID. Name the Client ID anything you want, for example, your name + Desktop. Once done picking a name, click “create client ID.”
Under “product name shown to users” enter “My Google Assistant.” Click continue.
Click “done.” There’s no need to click download here as we only need the client secret, which we will download next.
Now under the list of OAuth 2.0 client IDs, you should see the client ID you just made. All the way to the right, click on the download icon to download the client_secret_XXX.json file, where ‘XXX’ is your client ID. Save this file anywhere on your computer, ideally in a new folder called “googleassistant.”
Go to the Activity controls page for your Google account and make sure that “Web & App Activity”, “Location History”, “Device Information”, and “Voice & Audio Activity” are enabled. This is so Google Assistant can actually read you personalized information.

We have now created a mechanism for a client, in this case our Windows/Mac/Linux machine, to access the Google Assistant API under our Google account. Next we need to set up the client that will access the Google Assistant API.

Install the Google Assistant Sample Python Project

Although Google recommends that you set up Python virtual environments to isolate the Google Assistant SDK and its dependencies from other Python system packages, we’re going to skip this step as it’s unlikely that you’ll play around with this for more than a few minutes. You can easily go back to the Cloud Platform Console and disable the API if you’re worried about the potential for other programs to access your Google account.

Open up a terminal/command prompt window and go through the following steps. First, enter this command:

py -m pip install google-assistant-sdk[samples]


You should see a whole bunch of dependencies being downloaded and installed when you enter this command. These are needed for the sample Python project to work. Wait for it to finish.

Once it’s done, next enter the following command (make sure to adjust the path):
py -m googlesamples.assistant.auth_helpers --client-secrets path\to\your\client_secret_XXX.apps.googleusercontent.com.json
In the command prompt, you will see a response telling you to visit a URL in order to authorize the application.
Copy and paste this URL into your browser. Select the same Google account that you used to configure the Google Assistant API. On the next page, you will see a text box that contains your client’s Access Token.
Copy that Access token and paste it into the command prompt where it asks you for the authorization code. If done correctly, you will see a response that your credentials have been saved.

Test the Google Assistant

The first thing you’ll want to test is whether or not Google Assistant is able to record audio from your microphone. Enter the following command into a command prompt, which will record 5 seconds of audio and play it back to you:
python -m googlesamples.assistant.audio_helpers

If you hear your audio played back to you, then enter this command to begin talking to Google Assistant:
python -m googlesamples.assistant

Wait for the command prompt to say “press Enter to send a new request”, then press Enter to begin talking to Google Assistant. After you’re done speaking, the command prompt will display a transcript of what you just stated and then play back the response. If you see a warning afterwards, just ignore it.

Have fun playing with Google Assistant on your Windows, macOS, or GNU/Linux machine! I played with it for only a few minutes before getting bored with it. It’s not particularly useful in this format, but it is a very quick demonstration of the possibilities that the new Google Assistant SDK represents. Perhaps we may see desktop apps or browser extensions taking advantage of this functionality in the near future.

How to get Google Assistant on your Windows, Mac, or Linux Machine

Reviewed by Wanem Club on October 11, 2017 Rating: 5

Optimize your slow Mac

Wanem Club October 11, 2017

There's nothing more frustrating than a Mac that takes a long while to execute your commands. Especially when you're in a hurry, not being able to do what you want to because the computer simply won't accept your input, can be downright aggravating. Fortunately, there are ways for you to solve this problem other than throwing your Mac away and buying a new one. Here are several applications that are specifically designed to optimize a slow Mac.

CCleaner

Most of the time, Macs are being slowed down by an excessive amount of junk, leftover files and installed applications that you no longer use. CCleaner is a tool that can really help you out with that. This tool will remove any junk data on your device, delete unneeded language files, clean your entire browsing history and completely uninstall the applications that you no longer need.

CleanMyMac

Serving pretty much the same purpose, CleanMyMac will clear the junk files from iTunes and iPhoto, the system junk and email attachments. Furthermore, it identifies the largest and oldest files on your Mac and offers to delete them, uninstalls applications and completely shreds the sensitive files that you don't want to be recovered.

SpeedUp Mac

.Made by Stellar, SpeedUp Mac includes some decent junk cleaning options as it removes leftover files, the cache, and cookies that resulted from your web browsing sessions, etc. and also uninstalls the application and defragments your disk. However, what I really like about it is that it can find duplicate files and remove them, as well as identify the larger files on your Mac in case you need more free space in a hurry.