Brand New Sr. Citizen User Basic iMac Questions, Please ?

[Robert11]

Hi,

Happy Holidays to all.

Just bought a iMac. Have given up trying to get my Dell Desktop to work.
Put incredible number of hours into it, but have just given up on it, totally.

So, am now a member of the Apple culture.

First time Poster:
Will have a zillion very basic questions, please:

a. Have a set of powered small desktop speakers.
They use a 3 mm plug that used to go into the appropriate jacks on the Dell.
Nothing comparable on the iMac.
Can I, should I, use the Headphone jacks, or...?

b. Can I place Folders right on the Desktop, like in W10 ? How ?

c. That bottom bar with the icons that seem to appear and disappear on their own:
What is it called ?
What goes their automatically ?
Can I place "things" there too ? What items ?
Can I "drag" from bar to Desktop ?
*What happens if bar get full ?

d. And, is there any virus protection built in, like Windows has ?
If not, what is recommended ?

Much thanks; appreciate the help,
Bob

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Hi & welcome

a. Have a set of powered small desktop speakers.
They use a 3 mm plug that used to go into the appropriate jacks on the Dell.
Nothing comparable on the iMac.
Can I, should I, use the Headphone jacks, or...?

Sure, this is what I used to do. If the speakers worked on the Dell they should be fine. It's basically the same principle but the speakers on a set of headphones are smaller & designed for personal listening.

b. Can I place Folders right on the Desktop, like in W10 ? How ?

You can drag & drop folders onto your Desktop (Called Finder), or you can Ctrl/Right-click & create a new folder there. The keyboard shortcut is Shift Command N.

c. That bottom bar with the icons that seem to appear and disappear on their own:
What is it called ?
What goes their automatically ?
Can I place "things" there too ? What items ?
Can I "drag" from bar to Desktop ?
*What happens if bar get full ?

• "What is it called ?" This bar is called the Dock, you can find the settings for it either in System Preferences. There will be an alias to System Preferences already in your Dock. You can set the Dock to show/hide when the mouse cursor is pointed downwards to the bottom of the screen or to be always visible.
• "What goes their automatically ?" When you create your account & log in for the first time there will be icons (alias') already in the Dock. These will be some System Utilities along with apps that you will likely use the most. Any app that is launched will have an icon placed in the Dock if its not already there. If not already there you can choose to keep an Apps icon in the Dock otherwise when you quit the App the icon disappears.
• "Can I place "things" there too ?" Yes, you can also remove items.
• "What items ?" You can drag Applications from your Applications folder down onto the Dock. Right Click an Apps icon in the Dock for settings. If you look closely to the left of the Trash icon on the far right there is a line. To the left of this line is the System part for Apps but to the right of this line is where you can drag your own files/folders/Website shortcuts etc. When you launch an app, it's icon is automatically put on the Dock as an alias. If this App doesn't already have an icon in the Dock then when you quit this App the icon disappears unless you 'pin' it to the Dock. To remove any Apps icon just click hold then drag the icon upwards to see a 'puff of smoke' as the icon vanishes.
• "Can I "drag" from bar to Desktop ?" If you drag from the Dock to your Desktop, if it's an Applications icon then it goes up in virtual smoke but it's only the alias that disappears, the App is safe in your Applications folder. If the item is to the right of the Dock's 'bar' near the Trash, then you would need to Right-Click the item then choose "Options" then "Remove from Dock". You are removing an alias so the original file/folder will still be where you originally stored it on your hard drive.
• "*What happens if bar get full ?" There is an option in System Preferences ~> Dock, where you can change the icon size so I think to answer your question the best thing is to just have a look in the Dock settings section of Sys Prefs & familiarise yourself with the choices. I think there is quite some scope for the Dock to accommodate most folks usage patterns.

d. And, is there any virus protection built in, like Windows has ?
If not, what is recommended ?

There is a Firewall in System Preferences ~> Security & Privacy that you can enable or disable but asides from this most folk around here seem to be happy with the free Malwarebytes ( https://www.malwarebytes.com/ ), either the free or paid version it's up to you. I use the free version & providing you are prudent about what you click on when on a web page or surfing the internet, then this should be sufficient when coupled with the inbuilt Mac Firewall.

I hope I have helped, I've tried to be straight forward, I'm in my late 50's so I do see how easy it is to be confounded by what seems very basic to others.

Please feel free to ask any further questions, there is no such thing as a silly or stupid question.

 

[Robert11]

Hello,

Just a quick thanks for such an informative, and complete reply.
Really appreciate it.

Best regards,
Bob

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

C