Solving Minor Errors on Mac OS X?

Below are the collections of few basic Mac OS X errors that come out of nowhere and tease the user to some extent. The first reaction to these errors is certainly tensed but most of them can be solved with the help of few basic adjustments.

• When Mac says 'No available applications to open it?'

Though this error message is quite minor in nature but many times it causes the user to go complete nuts about it. Safari is an built-in OS X web browser and can't open an executable application on its own. Safari locates the appropriate or associated application on the Mac OS X hard drive to be most suited for the downloaded applications. Anyhow, when Mac's browser could not locate to find such an application that will help execute the application, it out of nowhere prompts this error message.

For Instance: I am in the process of downloading a Photoshop file that requires Adobe Photoshop to be pre-installed on my Mac. As the Photoshop application is missing out the OS X the Safari would not hesitate to display this error.

You can immediately resolve this minor error by identifying the file extension of the downloaded file. This is simple and even a novice can do without any technical guidance. Check out the file extension from its properties. If suppose the file extension is .psb then it’s an Adobe Photoshop image file and you now know which application to download from the Internet.

• When Mac says 'You are not authorized to open this application?'

This error goes on to display on the Mac screen when the application is from the developer which Apple don't trust. With the help of minor settings in the System Preference you can help eliminate this message.

• go to apple logo and click system preference

• double click security & privacy icon

• See the first tab 'General'. Click the lock below to unlock it. It will ask for the password (if any)

 

• Select the third option which is ‘Anywhere’. This allows you to download an app from any developer whether trusted or not trusted by Apple Inc. Actually, doing so is compromising with the system security and be performed only when you are critical about it.

The other two options in the Security & Privacy Window allow downloading apps only from the Apple App Store and few identified developers respectively.

• When Mac says 'Your Start-up disk is almost full'?

Consider this error message as a warning of start up disk running out of free hard drive spaces. Mac OS is loaded on to a particular volume which helps boot the OS whenever it is ask to do. The OS X all the time needs reserve free spaces to run the execution of the Mac applications perfectly. In the absence of these free spaces, the OS X will begin to respond painfully slow which is not at all good for a computer system.

If you have sight this error message quite often then you have to gear up and perform cleaning task for your boot volume. You can begin cleaning any possible junk and duplicate data that is eating up the spaces on your boot volume. Be very sure not to delete any system file in a hurry else you will end up in a bigger trouble.

• When Mac says: “Not able to install abc.xyz on Mac”?

There are some technical points to what caused this error to flash on your Mac OS X. Firstly; the hardware of the Mac OS X may be outdated to run a newer application. This is quite a common thing with the PowerPC machines that are unable to launch an Intel based OS X applications. Secondly, even if you have an Intel Mac at your place, its OS X could possibly be the other reason of installation denial. To get the things done, you should have an upgraded Mac with Intel processor and also the supported OS X for the application.

• When Mac says “The operation couldn't be completed. (OSStatus error – 67049.)”

You must have encountered this strange error on OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) and also on Lion 10.7.5. Remember, Apple introduced Gatekeeper to secure your Mac OS X from malicious apps that causes nasty user experiences. The gatekeeper monitors the applications that are downloaded from the Internet, mostly from the unidentified developers.

Solution to overcome this error is very simple and all you have to do is repeat the steps suggested in the second question which says - “When Mac says 'You are not authorized to open this application?”

• When Mac says “The operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code – 8003).”

This error indicates, you are unable to delete a file out of a trash can permanently. This may occur either due to lack of write privileges on the file itself or due to damaged permissions setups for the file. On any of the occasion this file would make trouble to move from the trash. However, you can try with the few helpful tips that follow below:

• Macs have ability to secure wipe the trash can and delete all the contents inside it without possibility of recovery. All you have to do is press hold the mouse click on the trash can and hold down the Apple Key (Command) to bring out the option of Secure Empty Trash.

If this option fails to solve the query then turn up to a free utility that uninstalls or remove your application instantly. Read about the error - 8003 in detail.

• What to do when Mac shows a 'flashing Globe icon at startup?'

A Flashing Globe on a Mac start screen looks panicking at early. But this is not caused due to any technical glitches or so. It’s just that a network drive has been selected as a startup disk and now OS X is looking for that drive. If the Mac locates the network drive then it will boot into this drive, else it boots back into its own OS X after few minutes of delay.

The delay however can stretch to few or more minutes but restarting the Mac in agony would make no changes to this process. It is advised to stay patient while the Mac end its search for the network drive and boot normally.

• When Mac says "You are opening the application, ****, for the first time".?

Do you know how and when this error is flashed on your Mac OS X system?
After you ran a clean up utility like Onyx, this error is expected to put up on the Mac screen. As Onyx removes the system caches from the hard drive the OS X treats the application as a fresh one. As we know, Caches are nothing but bits of information and activities that are stored and retrieved when an access of the application is made. Upon the deletion of this stored information (caches) the OS X treats it as you are opening the application for the very first time. This is one of the major side-effects of system caches wiping.

There would certainly be more basic Mac OS X errors coming with their simple and effective solutions. Stay Tuned.

Windows 8.1: Leaked Features and Improvements over Windows 8

Windows 8.1, codenamed Blue is the first major update after Windows 8 and expected to arrive here for public review on 26th June 2013. It has lots of improvement and added functionality to mitigate drawbacks of Windows 8 such as start button returns, more personalization settings, improved apps store and more. Microsoft will provide this update for free to Windows 8 and RT users,available from the Apps Store.


Microsoft has implemented these updates to Windows 8 after receiving feedback and reviews from  the avid PC users and has high hope to provide uniquely build OS for both consumers and businesses. Needless to say, this time Microsoft won't want users to be disappointed and doesn't want the charms of Windows 8 get ruined.

Let’s talk about some leaked features of Windows 8.1, the upcoming version. In depth details about all the features will be available only after putting it in the live test environment.

Start Button Restored
Much awaited and long missed traditional start button is likely to be placed again in Windows 8.1. However, the functionality may differ as compare to start button in older version of Windows. New looking start button will alike as latest Windows logo and is placed at the bottom exactly where it exists in the previous windows versions.

                   


However, unlike its functioning in previous Windows copy, press start button in Windows 8.1 a. k. a. blue will take user to the metro-style start screen or UI interface. Sources also confirmed that the so called new start button will not be visible on the metro-style/ Windows app store screen but can be accessed by hovering over your mouse to bottom left corner of the screen.

Though, user may able play with start button settings and can set it to open in old fashioned manner in which, all programs were available on the single screen. That will makes it easier for user to find installed programs that is not pinned on the start screen or has quick launch icon on the desktop screen.

Directly Boot into Desktop

This one would be best news for users who hates the modern start screen which appears just after starting Windows 8. In the so called “Milestone Preview” release of Windows 8.1, users may able to boot directly into the desktop environment instead of seeing the bogus UI screen filled with apps.

In this upcoming release of Windows, users have the full capability to bypass infamous UI screen and see their traditional desktop screen on startup. Metro apps screen distracted windows users to a great extend and becomes the primary causes of not so much success of Window 8.

Since the said features are still not confirmed by Microsoft, anything can be change when it ships finally to consumer hands.

Option to Set Personalized Wallpaper on Start & Lock Screen

There is much more added to make your PC more customized exactly in the way you want it to be. Now you can your own set of wallpapers to lock screen or change background and accent colors to start screen or apps screen. In the current running Windows OS, you can only change the color scheme and accents, but these limitation would likely be lifted with Windows upcoming release. For the lock screen, you can create a slide show of photos that is stored in the PC or hosted on the cloud. You can also take pictures using built in camera from the lock screen apps without logging in.

This is not over, to slim the confusion between start screen and your desktop screen, you can set your desktop background as your start screen background or vice versa and makes both screen highly looks alike.

Customize Tiles with easy

Windows 8 has large tiles button at the start screen that looks ugly and distracts users by default. Things get even worse as the user won't provide with any option to make tiles large or small for apps or programs which they use most or which they'll use less frequently.

Many flexibilities were also added in customizing tiles such as rearranging group or tiles, select multiple apps at once to resize, uninstall or rearrange them. This will allow adding more tiles or pinning more apps to your start screen and starting digging them.

Unified Search Screen

Search feature in Windows 8.1 is completely revamped and feature rich. You'll get the search results from the web, apps, skydrive or settings in a simple to read, hierarchy form and available without tapping menu's that makes it easier for you to find almost anything, either from the web or from your local computer.

P.S. This search feature will use Bing search to fetch results from the web.

You can scroll down at bottom for search queries that yields many results. In Windows 8, user gets the results only from apps by default. To see results from settings or files, you'll need to tap it, available at the bottom of apps button.


Inbuilt apps get redesigned and Good Looking Windows apps store

Whenever we talk about tablet or smart-phone, we can't forget about apps. But now windows 8.1 have everything that you could find on tablet and much more to offer in near future. Windows 8 inbuilt apps like “Music” or “Photos” app were updated to helps you make the most of it in Windows 8.1 a k a Windows Blue. Such as, photo apps will let you quickly edit or adjust pictures or open them directly from other placed like mail, cloud server or camera apps. Whereas, music app is redesigned to help you quickly pick and play music from your great music collection.

Microsoft is planning to offer more inbuilt apps with Windows 8.1 which will launch very soon.

Unlike Windows 8 apps screen where only one app could be seen at a time, now you can have at most four apps on one single screen. You can also view the double window of same app on one screen, such as two running window of Music app can be seen on one single screen.

Windows 8.1 apps store would get also updated where large number of apps in top free, new release and picks for you would available that help you decide more suitable apps from the huge list. Apps screen will constitutes more information and an extra area is added to help you choose more related apps.


There are still much more to explore in this highly redesigned Windows OS. We can't predict about its success or failure as like Windows 7 which is a very successful release of Microsoft just after failed Windows Vista but can presume that It'll going to tougher the operating system marketing challenges as well as brings revolutionary change in the apps history. Let’s wait and watch!!!

How to salvage data from a Volume Corruption in Mac?

• Mac OS X General Volume and Partition information

To know about your Macintosh HD and volumes go to Finder<Application<Utilities and Disk Utilities window. The left hand side of the disk utility windows shows all the partitions along with your Macintosh HD.

• How to find if a volume is logically corrupted?

Even before the disk utility reports you about the possible logical corruption on the OS X volumes, you can judge by the absurd behaviour of that particular Mac volume. This absurd behaviour may include:

• Inaccessibility of the Mac volume,

• The volume may not be formatted or any other operations may not be performed on damaged volume,

• The volume in disk utility may appear in light shade. This light shaded partition is indication of an unmounted Mac volume. The unmounted drive causes inaccessibility of data that is stored on it.

These are not all but some of the common incidents that begin to show up when one of the Mac volumes goes corrupt. The situation is calculated to be worse when the corruption case is of the boot volume of the OS X Mac. To assure the presence of errors on the OS X volumes go to Disk Utility and select a partition from the left menu. Now, in First-Aid tab click the verify disk to scan volume for errors.

Consider the above snapshot of a Mac volume diagnosed with logical corruption. In a normal scenario the disk utility scans the media and reports the final summary as - . But in an opposite case the disk utility will return each diagnosed corruption with a red line indicating 'danger'. Follow the summary of the 'Verify Disk' process and execute the below places button which is 'Repair Disk'. Many a times the disk utility volume report also indicates faulty disk permissions. So, you have another pair of Verify and Repair Permissions button in the same First-Aid tab. Both of the options can be used to check damaged permissions and ultimately repair them.

Types of logical corruption occurring on Mac partition(s)

It wouldn't be wrong to categorize the types of logical corruption of volume into these phases, namely:

• Mac boot volume corruption,
• damaged permissions on OS X,
• Affliction to caches files and folders.

Most known reasons responsible for logically damaged Mac volumes:

• The first and the foremost reason for logical damages would be abrupt system shut offs, including hard Mac shut downs,

• Fallacious applications causing damages to OS X resources,

• Directory corruption of the volume leads to complete inaccessibility of the data,

• Although Mac is much secure against malware and viruses but possibility of logical failure of the volume can't be ruled out.

• Other instances of volume corruption could be summed as – damage to catalog files, overflow extent, faulty journaled, errors in multi-linked files etc.

Types of Failed Volume error messages displayed by Mac OS X:

This error in particular is displayed when the header is corrupted in one of the Mac volumes.

'Volume Header needs minor repair
The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair'

Initially start with the Disk Utility to repair the corruption, else follow below tutorial.

How to salvage data from a logically failed volume?

If salvaging data is on the priority then here are few tips you can implement to get maximum data out from a corrupted hard drive.

• Get a demo version of the Macintosh file recovery program. Please careful not to go for a free recovery program as they are inefficient to salvage data from a corrupted hard drive. Yes, they sometimes may recover data which is deleted normally but don't trust such tools for advance operations like recovery from a damaged hard drive.

• Scan your corrupted hard drive with the data recovery Mac tool & preview the recoverable files from the inaccessible volume. Once you registered for the tool to save the recovered data back to Mac, be careful you choose another destination.

• In case your boot volume is corrupted then choose a data recovery Mac tool with boot DVD. This boot DVD can be of immense help as it will help you to start the Mac and then scan the boot volume with the file recovery tool. Once all recovered files are previewed you can save them on an external hard drive.  

How to resolve a failed volume?

Above is the case when salvaging data is on your priority. If any how you don't care about the data or you don't have any important data on that volume then you can go for repair first.

Free tips to resolve a corrupt partition on Mac OS X:

• Jump to disk utility and hit repair disk for the damaged volume. The disk utility will surely resolve errors that are not gigantic in nature. In case the problem is too big for disk utility then follow the next step.

• Get clone software and an external hard drive.

• Once you develop a bootable clone media for your Mac you can then perform repair task on the volume with the help of a disk repair utility. This process can also be applied to Mac start-up disk in case of corruption.

How to timely find out a Mac volume corruption?

To timely find out a volume corruption or to prevent a possible corruption, monitor the SMART status of the hard drive. Also, put a habit of verifying and repairing Mac disk on periodic basis.

Let us not ignore some physical damages too?

Yes, a Mac disk is also prone to physical damages. Among most unpopular events of hard drive crashes are the bad sectors. Again, there is no utility present in Mac to figure out no. of bad blocks on the hard drive. You have to turn up to a non Apple utility to check out the presence of bad sectors on the Macintosh HD and partitions.

Once the 3rd party tool reports bad sectors on the hard drive, immediately use a clone utility to copy the media to another media. Don't worry the cloning utility as well as imaging doesn't replicate the bad sectors of the hard drive. It only copies the good and healthy sectors. While doing so you may loose some pieces of data that is located on to the bad sectors of the hard drive. But again you will be able to succeed in salvaging data from the entire hard drive in question.