Mac OS X Lion: The Missing Manual

Getting into Mac OS X

When you first turn on a Mac running OS X 10.7, an Apple logo greets you, soon followed by an animated, rotating “Please wait” gear cursor—and then you’re in. No progress bar, no red tape.

Logging In

What happens next depends on whether you’re the Mac’s sole proprietor or have to share it with other people in an office, school, or household.

• If it’s your own Mac, and you’ve already been through the Mac OS X setup process described in Appendix A, no big deal. You arrive at the Mac OS X desktop.

• If it’s a shared Mac, you may encounter the newly redesigned login screen, shown in Figure 1-1. In Lion, it’s not a list anymore; it’s more like a portrait gallery, set against a handsome piece of dark gray linen. Click your icon.

  If the Mac asks for your password, type it and then click Log In (or press Return). You arrive at the desktop.

Note

Lion Watch: The very first time you run Lion, you get a huge “Scrolling in Lion” warning window. It’s Apple’s attempt to draw your attention to the new, drag-up-to-scroll-up behavior of a fresh Lion installation; clearly, the company correctly anticipates that this reversal of scrolling direction will freak out an awful lot of baffled customers. For details on this whole reversed-scrolling business (and how to turn it off), see Full Screen Mode, Safari.

Chapter 12 offers much more on this business of user accounts and logging in.

Note

In certain especially paranoid workplaces, you may not see the rogue’s gallery shown in Figure 1-1. You ...