iMac are all in one Macintosh desktop computers designed and sold by Apple as a part of their consumer desktop offerings. The first iMacs were released back in August 1998 and its current generation models are still on sale today. Similarly, they are genuine replacements to traditional bulky desktops and are widely popular in the market. For anyone new to iMacs, we have created a Complete Beginners Guide to iMacs in this article to use them efficiently.

iMac Complete Beginners Guide:

Hardware features:

After you open your brand new iMac from its packaging, you can already see that it has a clean and pleasing design language. Similarly, one can find most of the important connectivity and ports like the USB, Charging ports, USB-C ports etc. at the back of the device. Also, the Power button for the iMac lies at the back side of the iMac as well. Now before we turn on our new iMac, you should also turn on the magic mouse and keyboard that came with the iMac. In case the mouse and keyboard doesn’t have a charge, you can just charge them through a standard lightning cable.

Setting-Up the Device

To start your device, just connect it to your nearest wall power outlet and tap the power button at its back. Generally, the iMac will have you go through a basic set up process and you should have an internet connection to complete it. Nonetheless, let’s glide through the basic setup process for a better understanding.

On the first boot, the iMac will bring you to the “Country Selection” screen to choose the location for the device. Just choose your current location and continue the process. Next, it’ll bring you the screen to connect to a wireless network. Although, internet connection is not mandatory, it’s best to have it for setting up the device for the first time.

The next page will show us some information about Data and Privacy which we can just click on continue or read it if we like. Now, the iMac will show us some options for data transferring from older computers and devices. For now, we just click on the “Don’t Transfer” option or you can choose any other option if you like. The iMac will guide you through the process automatically.

Similarly, the next screen will prompt us to sign in with our Apple ID. New users can also find the option to create one if they don’t have one. Likewise, it’s better if you sign in with your Apple ID now as it’s the gateway to all the Apple services. After that, the iMac will prompt you to agree to their terms and conditions. Here, we can simply read them through or just click on the “Agree Option” at the bottom of your screen.

Finally, the next screen lets us create our Computer Account for our iMac device. Here, we just have to enter our full name and computer name with the password for the device. Also, it’s better to turn on “Allow Apple ID to reset this password” for any future emergencies. Next, the setup process will guide you through additional features like Find my, Express set up, Analytics, Screen time, Siri etc. Just glide through them briefly and enable the features that you think is needed for you. After that, the setup screen will provide us the option to choose our device theme i.e. Light dark and Auto, followed by the True tone options.  Just choose the one you like and press continue. Lastly, this should successfully take us to our iMac desktop.

More Tech Guide: Apple Watch Complete Beginners Guide

Tips and Tricks on iMac

After the set up process, it’s always good to check and install any new updates for our new iMac’s. Users can do so through System Preferences> Software Updates> Check for new Updates> Upgrade Now (for any new updates).
Similarly, users can easily search and find their desired settings in the iMac through the search bar shown at the top of the System Preferences. Now, let’s learn about some of the useful tips and tricks that we can enable on our new iMac. Some of them are shown hereafter:

1. Spotlight for quick Calculations

And Yes, mac OS does have a calculator app built in. However, its way faster and easier to use spotlight for basic mathematical calculations. To use this feature, just tap on the search button and the Command button + Space bar.

2. Create several Desktops

You can easily create new Desktops on your new iMacs through some simple steps. To create one, just tap on the Mission Control (F3) button on your keyboard. Now, click on the “+” sign to create your desired number of desktops.

3. Assign Hot Corners

Hot Corners are an easy method to activate your predefined actions through the mouse cursor on your desktops corners. To enable this feature just head to System Preference> Mission Controls> Hot corners. Now choose your desired actions for each corner of your screen.

4. View saved Wi-Fi Passwords

You can also view and share your saved network passwords to others through your iMac. For this just, launch the Keychain Access App> iCloud> Find networks Names> Show passwords> (enter your iMac password to view the saved passwords)