Macintosh System Preferences

The System Preferences application contains many configuration settings for your Macintosh computer. You can find System Preferences in the Apple menu. System Preferences contains five categories: Personal, Hardware, Internet & Network, System, and Other (guess where the miscellaneous settings go!).

These instructions were written with OS 10.4 in mind. The names of the preference panels may change depending on the version of OS X you are running. We've attempted to provide the equivalent names for panels under older versions of OS X. At the bottom of this page, you will find a table of panel names and under which versions of OS X they appear in System Preferences.

Personal

Appearance allows you to change some general options that affect the look of all applications on your computer. It allows you to adjust the color scheme as well as various scrolling and clicking options.

Dashboard & Exposé allows you to temporarily see all your open windows at once, so you can easily click on any window to bring it to the front. You can easily click on any window to bring it to the front. You can set a Dashboard shortcut to show or hide the Dashboard.

Desktop & Screen Saver allows you to adjust the desktop background and screen saver. Additionally, you can configure the Hot Corners, which allow you to specify an action that will occur when you put the mouse into one of the four corners.

Dock lets you customize various Dock preferences including its location, size, and various effects. More information about the Dock...

International contains options for customizing languages and the formatting of dates, times, and numbers. It allows you to change the default language as well as adjust the keyboard for the different locales.

Security allows you to set a master password for the computer and gives you the option to encrypt files in your home folder.

Spotlight provides options for configuring the built-in search in OS 10.4. It allows you to customize the list of locations that Spotlight should index as well as the keyboard shortcuts to open Spotlight.

Hardware

Bluetooth allows you to customize settings for how Bluetooth hardware should operate. This panel is only available if your computer has built-in Bluetooth.

CDs & DVDs allows you to adjust what your computer should do when various types of CDs and DVDs are inserted.

Displays allows you to change screen resolutions, adjust the color profiles, as well as calibrate your monitor's color profile. Energy Saver allows you to adjust options that will affect the power usage of your computer. These include the amount of time before the screen saver turns on or the monitor turns off or the computer goes to sleep. If you have a laptop, this panel will also include settings that will affect the battery life and performance of your laptop.

Keyboard & Mouse allow you to adjust keyboard settings (key repeat rate, keyboard backlight), mouse settings (double-click speed, scroll rate), and system-wide keyboard shortcuts.

Print & Fax allows you to add, remove, and share any printers and fax machines connected to your computer. You can also adjust the settings for these devices.

Sound allows you to adjust input/output device settings as well as selecting an alert sound and the output volume.

Internet & Network

.Mac allows you to adjust settings for your .Mac account (if you have one).

Network gives more detailed information about the different types of connections available on your computer. These include internet (Ethernet, Modem, Airport), firewire, and VPN connections.

Quicktime allows you to configure the settings for Quicktime, adjust the auto-update options, and register for Quicktime Pro (if you wish to do so).

Sharing allows you to customize how other computers can connect to your computer. It also contains the settings for the Internet Firewall.

System

Accounts contains information on all of the accounts on the computer. You can set security passwords and add or remove other accounts if you are an administrator on the computer.

Classic contains additional settings for running OS X in Classic mode for applications that are not supported by OS X.

Date & Time allows you to change the date and time. You can adjust what Time Zone you are in. You can also change the appearance of the clock.

Software Update is the program that checks to see if there is any out-of-date Macintosh Software.

Startup Disk lets you select which system you want to use when you start up your computer. You shouldn't change this unless you have several different operating systems on the same computer and you know which one you want to boot off of.

Universal Access lets you further adjust various video, audio, keyboard and mouse options.

Changes Between OS 10.2, 10.3 and 10.4

As promised before, this is a general listing of (hopefully) all the panels that are available in OS 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4. It will tell you if a specific panel exists in a specific version of OS X. Note that, between versions, panels may have changed names or been combined.