TABLE OF CONTENTS
- A Note About the Laptop Hardware
- Turning on the Laptop
- First Step: Set up the Chrome Browser
- Second Step: Clean up your Dock
- Third Step: Restore your Printers
- Final Setup: Miscellaneous Settings
- Software Updates
- Backup Drives
A Note About the Laptop Hardware
These new laptops only have 3 ports: two USB-C ports on the left side and one headphone jack on the right. The power adapter can be connected to either of these USB-C ports to charger your laptop.
These laptops use a standard USB-C charger, so you can also use a charger from another manufacturer to charge your laptop, as long as the charger can provide 30 Watts (30W) of power.
These USB-C ports are compatible with the older, larger type of USB ports using a USB-C to USB adapter. One adapter has been included with your laptop; if you don't expect to ever connect a USB device, please return this adapter.
Turning on the Laptop
When you first open your new MacBook, it may turn on automatically. If it does not, press the square, unlabelled key in the very top-right corner of the keyboard. You should see the familiar login screen; enter your username and password to sign in.
If you ever signed in to your old laptop using a personal Apple ID, you will likely be greeted by a number of warning messages about signing in to iCloud, Messages, FaceTime, or other Apple services, similar to this:
You can safely click Later or Cancel. You'll have another chance to sign back in; Apple will be sure to remind you again, over and over... If you use other services like DropBox, you may be prompted to sign in to those as well.
Check Over Your Files
When you have time, look around the laptop and make sure your files are all accounted for, including documents, photos, etc. If any files are missing we will need to know before the old laptops are sent to a refurbisher, which should happen in just a few weeks.
First Step: Set up the Chrome Browser
The Chrome browser likely needs to be reminded of your identity. Open the Google Chrome browser, either by clicking its icon in your Dock or by pressing the Command + Space keys, typing Google Chrome, and pressing Return.
Several windows may open at once; look for the square window which asks "Who's using Chrome?". This window should list several profiles. Look for a profile which has your Kentfield account user icon, and likely has a small badge which looks like two office buildings:
If you find a profile like this, click that user icon (A). If you don't see one, click the Add button (B) instead:
Either way, you should be prompted to sign in to your Kentfield account. If you are prompted to Link Data or to Enable Sync, choose Yes. This process will create or enable your Kentfield account as a profile in the Chrome browser.
If you would like to create another profile for a personal email account as well, click the Profiles menu at the very top of your screen and choose Add Profile..., then choose Sign In. If you'd like to remove a profile, open this same Add Profile... window, click the small Back arrow at the top of that window, then click the three dots in the top-right corner of that profile and choose Delete.
Second Step: Clean up your Dock
Your Dock may look a little different now, and need some cleaning up.
Apple will have added new icons for applications they think you should really try out, including the News, Podcasts, and TV apps, and likely more as well:
You can remove these from your Dock by dragging the icon out of the Dock, up toward the middle of your screen. After a moment the word Remove will appear; this means you can let go of the icon and it will vanish.
There may also be some unfamiliar icons in your Dock which indicate problems with certain applications:
In this case the two Question Marks at either end are for applications which can no longer be found. These apps may not have been able to transfer from your old laptop, or had some other problem. The three icons with a circle and slash over them are unable to run on this new computer; they are likely too old, and you will need to find a newer version of the software.
In both cases, you can remove these icons from the Dock by dragging them out as described above.
Third Step: Restore your Printers
Printers should have transferred over from your old laptop, but in many cases they seem to have gotten lost along the way.
Fortunately, you should be able to add your printers on your new laptop by following the directions in this help article.
One important thing to look out for, however, is the printer driver. When you choose your printer in the Add Printer window, check the driver listed in the Use: field at the bottom before clicking Add.
For newer printers, the Use: field should always say AirPrint or Secure AirPrint.
For older printers, the Use: field should always begin with the name of the printer manufacturer.
For example, it should say Xerox D125 Copier-Printer... for the Staff Room Xeroxes, HP LaserJet... for the older HP printers, and Brother... for older Brother printers.
If you don't think you're seeing the correct driver listed in this field when adding your printer, please submit a helpdesk ticket.
Final Setup: Miscellaneous Settings
Installing Rosetta
When you launch an older application for the first time, you may see a pop-up which says you "need to install Rosetta".
If this happens, you should click Install, then enter your password and wait for the software to install, which shouldn't take more than 10 seconds. Rosetta is a kind of software translator which allows older apps to run, even if they would otherwise be too old to work correctly on these new laptops.
If you don't ever see this pop-up, don't worry; you may not have any old software, or Rosetta may already be installed.
Set up Touch ID
Your new laptop has a fingerprint reader, which allows you to sign in using "Touch ID" instead of entering your password. The fingerprint reader is the square, unlabelled button in the top-right corner of your keyboard, which doubles as the power button. When using it as a fingerprint reader, simply rest your finger lightly on this key; don't press down hard enough to activate the power button.
To set up Touch ID, click the Apple menu in the top-left corner of your screen and choose System Preferences, then click Touch ID.
Click the Add Fingerprint button to begin scanning your fingerprint; you can add as many fingers as you'd like, but your right-index finger is likely the most natural choice to begin with.
After adding a fingerprint, check the boxes under Use Touch ID for: to indicate which kinds of authentication you'd like to use with Touch ID. Choosing the first option, Unlocking your Mac, will allow you to wake your laptop from sleep using your fingerprint, rather than needing to type in your password.
Update Password Settings
You may find that your new laptop is much more aggressive about asking for your password after going into sleep mode. Touch ID can help speed up this process, but if you still find this to be a problem, you can change how quickly you are asked to sign in.
Open System Preferences and choose Security & Privacy.
In the drop-down, choose how quickly you'd like to be asked to sign-in after the computer goes to sleep or starts the screen saver.
I would not recommend choosing any option longer than 5 minutes, as this does increase the possibility that a student may be able to access your laptop without needing to sign in.
Update Power Saving and Screen Saver Settings
Finally, you can change how long you'd like your laptop to wait before turning off the display. Open System Preferences and go to Battery.
On the left side, choose Battery and drag the slider to indicate how long the screen should stay on when your laptop is not connected to the power adapter.
Choose Power Adapter on the left side to control these settings when your laptop is connected to power.
If you have a screensaver set up, you can similarly adjust the screensaver settings by going to System Preferences -> Desktop & Screen Saver, then clicking Screen Saver at the top of the window. Here you can change (or disable) the delay before the screen saver activates:
Software Updates
You will eventually see Software Update notifications in the top-right corner of your screen, and may even see a message that "macOS is trying to install Apple software":
I would recommend that you go ahead with these updates, although you may want to wait until you can leave your laptop alone for an hour or two while it completes the update.
Backup Drives
If you have a backup hard drive, you should be able to connect it to your new laptop using the USB-C adapter. A message will appear asking if you would like to use this drive with Time Machine; choose Yes and the first backup should begin.