Category: Mac OS

How to format a USB on macOS

The below are steps on how to format a USB on a macOS. Most USB will not not work out of the box with your mac device when it is not formatted using macOS’ preferred file system (either Mac OS Extended or APFS, and this depends on which version of macOS you’re running).

The basic reason for this is because most devices (PCs’) run the Windows Operating System and this uses a different file system. 

Insert the USB into your device, this will appear on your device depending on your settings.
For me, I want external drives to appear on the screen as shown below.

Now you can see the inserted USB displayed on the desktop. Note: If the USB does not have the write file format, you cannot read and write into it.

Note: The process we wish to embark on will wipe any data currently on the USB. You can choose to have the data copied to a different location before proceeding to format it.

Next, launch the “Application folder” from Finder or from the “LaunchPad“. I decided to use the LaunchPad,
– My Utilities are categorized under the “Other” as shown below,
– Select “Disk Utility” as shown below

Double click on the “Disk Utility” to open it up.
– Click on the USB drive in the sidebar and
– Select “Erase” from the toolbar at the top of the window as shown below

This will prompt the Erase format
– Enter a name for the formatted drive in the box shown below

– Choose a format from the dropdown menu
Here are the various file system supported as shown below

Note: You can optionally click on the “Security Option as shown below” This will ensure that sensitive data on the drive cannot be recovered with a disk recovery tool.

With the slider, you can select the security level. The further to the right you move the slider, the more ‘passes’ the erase tool will make and the more securely files will be deleted. However, it also increases the time it takes to format the drive.

– Click on Ok
– Click on Erase.

This will work through the format process of the USB as shown below.
– See the details tab for more information.

The below image shows that the formatting of the USB is complete.
– This will display the green mark as shown below.

The right format type to choose from is paramount in this case.

How to start an application automatically on macOS

This process is almost similar to removing an application from automatically starting up in macOS, see the link for more details.https://techdirectarchive.com/2019/01/15/how-to-stop-a-program-from-starting-up-automatically-on-macos/

Launch the system properties as shown below

– Click on Users and Groups
– Click on the Login Items and
– Click on the “+” as shown below

Now select the application you wish to startup automatically.
– Select the application and
– Click on Add

When this is done, to ensure this app is available to start automatically, click on the “Password” tab and back to the “Login Items” tab. Now you should be able to see the application listed in the list as shown below.

That is all that needs to be configured for automatic launch of an application.

How to stop Cisco Webex Meetings from starting up upon in macOS

The steps to make this possible are similar to the steps described here https://techdirectarchive.com/2019/01/15/how-to-stop-a-program-from-starting-up-automatically-on-macos/

Launch the system properties as shown below

– Click on Users & Groups
– Click on Cisco Webex Meetings and
– Click on the “-” to remove it from automatic startup as shown below

As you can see below, the application is no longer available and will not started automatically anymore.

As we can see below, the application is no longer available in the automatic startup list

In this way, you can stop any applications from starting automatically on macOS.

How to set a default app to archive files on macOS

Below is a file I would like to unzip automatically whenever I double click on it. To achieve this, follow the steps below.

– Right-click on the zipped file “PSWindowsUpdate.zip” and
– Click on “Open with”

Scenario: But in my case, I currently have used this previously and because of this I had it already. in this case. simply select the below.
– The “Archive Utility (default)

But if the above scenario is not similar to your and that you wish to select from the list of applications, perform the steps below.

– Select others and from the list of applications,
– Select the “Archive Utility (default)

If you are unable to see the application in the list of applications, you can use the search bar as shown below

And finally, remember to click on “Always Open With” as shown above.

How to install and uninstall PowerShell on macOS

PowerShell is supported on macOS 10.12 and higher. All packages are available on GitHub releases page. To install PowerShell on macOS, the Homebrew package manager is utilized.

To have the Homebrew package manager installed on your device, see https://techdirectarchive.com/2020/03/20/how-to-install-homebrew-on-macos/

The steps below are ways to install PowerShell on macOS

Via Homebrew: Launch your iTerm (Terminal emulator for macOS)
– Run the below commands to install Powershell 

brew cask install powershell

After the package is installed, run “pwsh” from a terminal.

Now, you can continue running some Command Prompt commands and PowerShell cmdlets as well on your macOS. See some examples below.

Now you can run PowerShell cmdlets right inside your macOS device 🙂

To uninstall PowerShell from your device, run the following command below

brew cask uninstall powershell

Note: This is only applicable if you used the homebrew package manager to install PowerShell, otherwise you will have to uninstall PowerShell manually

How to install Homebrew on macOS

Homebrew is the preferred package manager for macOS. Homebrew installation is pretty straight forward

Launch the iTerm terminal (Terminal emulator for macOS) on your macOS
– Navigate to the website https://brew.sh/
– And paste the command below in the terminal 

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"

This will continue the installation of Homebrew on your macOS
– This will at some point prompt for a password to allow the installation to continue.

Now, Homebrew package manager has been successfully installed on your device as shown above.

To see how to determine if Homebrew is installed on your device, see https://techdirectarchive.com/2020/03/20/how-to-check-if-homebrew-is-installed-on-mac-os/

How to Check if homebrew is installed on Mac OS

What is Homebrew? Homebrew is the preferred package manager for macOS.

Below are some steps to determine if Homebrew is installed on your macOS

Note: The standard way of figuring out if Homebrew is installed is by using the “which” command

which brew

An alternative method to determining if brew is installed is to use the command below. This “command -v brew” will output nothing if Homebrew is not installed

command -v brew