safe

Often when troubleshooting systems, you might wish to boot into Safe Mode to run in a minimized boot environment to test if a third-party extension or add-on is causing problems with your machine. In addition, booting to Safe Mode also runs some cleaning and maintenance routines on your system, which can help iron out problems.

Most people know about using the keyboard to boot to Safe Mode, by pressing the Shift key down after hearing the boot chimes, and holding it until you see the grey Apple icon with the spinning indicator below it. You may also see a progress … Read more

If a group of scientists can get their project off the ground, there's a chance U.S. air travelers may one day be able to bring aboard more liquids in their carry-on luggage again.

The team, led by Oklahoma State University chemistry professor Allen Apblett, has come up with what it says is a nanomaterial that can both detect and neutralize some dangerous explosives. If deployed in a practical manner at airports in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world, it could, in theory, make it possible once again for some people to bring more liquids with them … Read more

A German advertising agency highlights an innovative idea from Mercedes-Benz in this Web video.

The Mercedes-Benz safety feature, "Pre-Safe," is a collision warning system that anticipates oncoming hazards.

In the ad "Transparent Walls," the Pre-Safe concept plays out more like an art installation piece than a safety feature demonstration. Transparent Walls shows what Pre-Safe would look like as seen through human eyes.

Live video is captured on the onside of a wall and projected around the corner onto another wall--making the wall look transparent. As drivers pass, they can literally see what is coming from behind … Read more

Many users are aware of some boot commands for Mac OS X that provide different functionality for your system. The following is a more comprehensive list of the keyboard commands you know and many you may not.

A recent tweet from @superfetz reminded me of several boot commands I've learned over the years, so I thought a more comprehensive list would be useful for MacFixIt readers.

While you cannot run any code from Terminal or otherwise to set an order of boot devices, you can easily control where your Mac boots via keyboard commands. The following key combinations can … Read more

Sometimes problems happen for what turn out to be rather bizarre reasons. Recently we were contacted by MacFixIt reader "Frank" who had a long-standing problem where his Mac Pro would not accept boot arguments such as booting to Safe Mode when holding the Shift key.

Many times when boot commands are not working people suspect either the PRAM, the SMC, or an enabled firmware password is the root of the problem; however, this is not always the case. Sometimes incompatible hardware or faults in hardware can interfere with the ability to pass boot arguments to the system, though … Read more

We're constantly installing and uninstalling the programs that we review for Download.com, and we're sure you can imagine the mess that this creates on our computer: files, icons, and menu items that are left behind, and lots and lots of registry errors. Fortunately, there's a wide variety of registry cleaners that can tidy things up for us. Argente - Registry Cleaner is one such program. We can't say that there's anything about it that really sets it apart from the crowd, but it does an adequate job as far as we can tell.

The … Read more

When troubleshooting various aspects of OS X and Mac hardware, one common routine is to boot into Safe Mode to automatically run some maintenance routines and prevent the system from loading inessential features. This can be done by holding the Shift Key immediately after hearing the boot chimes when starting the system up; however, sometimes this may not work.

Booting to Safe Mode requires the Mac's firmware to send the kernel some variables (boot arguments) that it interprets as a command to modify the procedures it uses to load the rest of the system. These can be set manually … Read more

SafeHouse Explorer creates secure, strongly encrypted volumes that can secure huge amounts of data on your main system, portable devices, and even USB drives and other storage media yet remain hidden until accessed with a password. It's portable freeware that can run without being installed, even from a USB drive or the Internet, giving you access to your protected files anywhere, including public computers. It may also be the easiest tool of its type we've tried.

SafeHouse Explorer is a slimmed-down but fully functional version of the developer's commercial products, and it shares the same technology for … Read more

Handing a newly minted teen driver the keys to the family car is often a leap of faith that they'll return safe. Teens are four times more likely than adults to crash, and more than 3,000 fatalities each year makes motor vehicle accidents the leading cause of death among 15- to 19-year-olds. But one insurer found that mounting cameras inside the vehicle reduces risky driving behavior by 70 percent, which probably saved a few lives.

American Family, a Wisconsin-based insurance company, has offered the cameras and service since 2007 as part of its Teen Safe Driver Program. The … Read more