10 Things You Must Do After Buying a New Mac

Set Up Your Apple ID 🔗

When you set up your Mac, you’re required to sign in to your Apple account. If you skipped it earlier, now is the time to do it via the Apple menu > System Preferences > Sign In.

You can’t use the App Store, download updates, or use iCloud without logging into an Apple ID, so you definitely should.

Activate Service and Support Coverage 🔗

A key thing to do is activate your Mac’s Service and Support Coverage. If you don’t do this and your Mac suffers a problem, you won’t be able to claim Apple’s help.

To activate your device’s warranty, head to checkcoverage.apple.com and enter your Mac’s serial number. Then, click Continue, and a page will show you whether your Mac’s warranty has been registered or not.

Read how to get your Mac’s serial number .

If it’s a new device, you can activate it from this page. If you’ve bought a used Mac, you can see when it was registered and when the coverage expired (or will expire).

Check for Updates 🔗

It’s possible that your new Mac’s OS isn’t up-to-date. Updating your Mac to the latest available macOS helps you unlock the latest usability and performance improvement features.

To do this:

1. Click the About This Mac from the  Apple menu in the top-left corner.
2. Then, click the Software Update button on the pop-up window. Your Mac will then check for updates.
3. If your Mac is up-to-date, the pop-up will say so. Otherwise, you’ll be able to see the available update. Click Upgrade Now and the process will begin.

Schedule System Backups 🔗

System backup helps you restore data that you may lose if your Mac suffers a software or hardware accident. To avoid this, set up Mac’s Time Machine with an external drive.

Time Machine is a built-in macOS tool that creates system backups periodically (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly). This way, you can easily restore data in the unfortunate circumstance that you lose it.

Set Up Hot Corners if you like 🔗

A lesser-known usability feature that can make your life easier is Hot Corners. It lets you assign each corner of your screen a function that triggers when you hover on it.

To set up Hot Corners, head to Settings > Desktop & Screen Savers > Screen Saver Tab > Hot Corners. Here, you can set different functions for all corners, like locking the screen, opening Launchpad, showing Desktop, and much more.

Set up additional Touch ID fingerprints 🔗

It is nice to be able to unlock my MacBook with both hands. So, adding my left index finger from System Preferences > Touch ID > Add fingerprint is something I surely do.

(Safari) show links in the bottom corner when I hover over it 🔗

Open Safari, then click on view > show status bar or just click Cmd + /.

Learn keyboard shortcuts 🔗

Install Applications 🔗

• Google chrome : the most common internet browser.
• Mozilla Firefox : the opensource internet browser.
• VLC Media Player : if the pre-installed video player application is not enough for you, use VLC media player instead.
• OBS Studio for screencasting and streaming.

For developers 🔗

Package Manager 🔗

If you are a developer, install homebrew or macports or nix .

Source Code Editor 🔗

• Visual Studio Code (also known as VS Code)
• Sublime text
• Android Studio : if you are Android developer using Java, Kotlin or Flutter (Dart).
• XCode

Docker 🔗

Install docker and docker desktop .

Programming Languages, Frameworks and Runtimes 🔗

Install what you need for your tech stack and workflow. Use a package manager to install these.

• Go : Install Go programming language via brew install go or sudo port install go or nix-env -iA nixpkgs.go.
• Rust : Install Rust programming language (rustc and cargo) using this command brew install rust or sudo port install rust or those commands nix-env -iA nixpkgs.rustc and nix-env -iA nixpkgs.cargo.
• NodeJS Javascript Runtime : brew install node or port install nodejs7 (change the version number if you like).
• Flutter framework and Dart language
• Python scripting language
• PHP scripting language
• Zig programming language
• V programming language
• HUGO the static site generator