HELP! I'm giving my old iMac to my mom. What all do I need to do

[Lorien]

to both keep the applications that are on it (like Photoshop and Illustrator) but allow her to have her own password? The iMac was my first computer (one of the ones with the half dome base-can't remember the model number) so this is the first time that I've passed one of my macs on to someone else. What else do I need to know/ do before I ship it home with her?


Thanks all!

:hi: :loveya:

[Elwood P Dowd]

1. If you don't want a fresh reinstall of the OS for her ( archive and install),

then just go into system preferences > accounts and add her name and password. However, you cannot change the short name without deleting your account. For more details just go to help in the menu up top and when the help window opens, type in create new account. You will see several answers to various questions about adding and deleting accounts.

Example:

Adding a new user account to your computer
You can create individual user accounts for each person who uses your computer. Each new user has a separate home folder and can adjust his or her own preferences without affecting other users.

Choose Apple menu > System Preferences and click Accounts.
If some settings are dimmed, click the lock icon and type an administrator name and password.
Click Add (+) and type the user's name.
If you don't want to use the short name generated automatically, type a new short name. (Once the account is created, you won't be able to change the short name.)
Type the user's password in the Password and Verify boxes.
Type a hint to help the user remember the password if they have trouble remembering it at login.
Click Parental Controls and select options to determine what the user can do with the computer.

[Lorien]

2. Thanks Elwood! One more question through;

what's the "short name"?

[Elwood P Dowd]

3. It's the name for your Home directory.

Go to System Preferences > Accounts > Passwords, and you will see your name and below it the short name. I think it's limited to 8 characters - something like lorienab or elwoodab. Since it's your mother and you might want to use the computer when you visit, just create an admin account, name, and password for her. You can both use it without any problems. If you or her were to sell it, then you would probably want to do an erase and install. That takes it back to the day you bought it with none of your stuff on it. There is also the archive and install that will save all your software, upgrades, and other stuff added after the original purchase.

[Lorien]

4. Thanks again! Now should I do the archive and install

(I'm dense; I don't know about either) before I give it to her, or should that only be done if she gives it away to someone else someday?

Also, I bought Photoshop CS3 online for use on my new Mac. I'd like to upgrade both the iMac I'm giving her and my newer intel based iMac to Leopard, but I know Photoshop 7 won't work on Leopard and that's what's on the old Mac. Can I just burn the downloaded application to a DVD then install it on the old iMac so that I can use Photoshop when I visit her?

Thanks again, this info is a big help!

:hi:

[moggie]

5. How to totally clean a Mac before giving it away or selling it

This doesn't apply in your case, since you're giving your Mac (it's an iMac G4, by the way) to someone trustworthy, and don't want to wipe it. But if someone were selling their old Mac on eBay, they'd want to totally clean it off, and set it up to duplicate that "new Mac" experience for the buyer. Here's how to do it with Leopard. Pre-Leopard it's a bit different: if anyone is interested, I'll provide Tiger notes.

Warning: don't do any of this unless you want to lose all your files!

Firstly, you should reformat the disk to ensure that a nasty buyer couldn't snoop around and retrieve some of your data (just deleting files isn't good enough). So, insert the Leopard install media, double-click on 'install Mac OS X', and let the system restart. When it comes to the 'select destination' page, select the system disk, click 'options', and select 'erase and install'. This will ensure the disk is cleaned. Continue the installation as normal.

Eventually, you come to the final setup, where you enter your details and create an account. Go through this as normal - but, for safety, don't enter any personal details you don't want the buyer seeing (you'll be deleting these details again in a moment, but the buyer could still conceivably ferret them out of the disk). For the same reason, use a throwaway password.

Now you want to take the system back to the point before the Setup Assistant runs (that the program which you've just interacted with to enter your details, bring up the network etc):

Restart the system.
Hold down command-S until the text screen appears. The system is now in 'single-user' mode, and you have a command line.
Assuming the short name of the user you created is 'fred', type the following:

fsck -fy
mount -uw /
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist &
dscl . -delete /Users/fred
dscl . -delete /Groups/admin GroupMembership fred
rm -fr /Library/Preferences
rm -fr /Users/fred
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
halt

The system should shut down and power off, and you're done! Pack it up and ship it off. When the buyer powers on, they'll be taken through the Setup Assistant, just like if they had bought the Mac new.

As for passing on applications to your mother, check that the licence conditions allow it. For example, as far as I remember, Adobe's Photoshop licence allows you to install two copies (one desktop and one laptop), but only for your own use and only if they're never used simultaneously. So if you want Photoshop on the old Mac for your own use, you're at least sticking to the spirit of the licence - but not if she uses Photoshop too.

[mopinko]

6. licenses-

as long as lorien is no longer using that version, she is free to pass it along to her mom. i just upgraded from a copy that my sister gave me. i had to give them enough info to identify my sister, but they let me upgrade it. i'm sure her current version was registered.