This video is brought to you by TextSniper
Hey, Iskren here, but feel free to call me E, let's just dive into everything
that I do when I setup a new Mac. Fist things first, once the initial
setup of the computer is done, be sure to check for any operating system updates.
In case of my M1, there was a new important update that fixes issues when using external hubs.
Next up is to enable tapping on the trackpad which I still don't undestand why Apple would
have it inactive by default - if you are an Apple Watch user, I would highly recommend enabling
the Apple Watch unlock. It may not seem like a huge deal – just a way to conveniently unlock
your Mac - but it's one of those things that you will miss once you don't have access to it.
In accessibility go to Zoom and be sure to enable scroll gesture Zoom. I use this no stop. Point
your mouse to the desired area o your screen, hold Control and use the scroll to Zoom
and enlarge whatever you are working for. You eyes will thank you.
Next, go to the Security and Privacy settings under Firewall and make sure the firewall
is enabled. Need to take your security seriously. BTW, if you are enjoying this video, don't forget
to thumbs up, subscribe to my channel and click the bell icon button to get timely notifications.
The next thing is setting up my iCloud. What I try to do is emulate all my files and folders from
the Cloud so they fit perfectly with my finder workflow. This delivers the same experience
as if those files are stored locally and I don’t feel like I am downloading them.
Then I put my projects and other folders that I access frequently in the Finder's
sidebar. If you want a more detailed guide on how you can get the most out of iCloud, I have a
dedicated video for you. Just click here: <link> At this point, as far as iCloud is concerned,
all you need to do is wait (or keep working on the next thing in the list). The service will take
its sweet time especially if you have hundreds of gigabytes of data. I am sort of a digital hoarder
so I have over 1 terabyte of data on the cloud. But you don't really need to be concerned about
the storage space because macOS is pretty smart about syncing – instead of dumping everything on
your local storage, what it does is only downloads the files that you access frequently. If the
storage space on your M1 Mac is lower than your Cloud data, that's not going to be a problem.
Once I am done with setting up my iCloud, my next focus is on organizing the dock and app
drawer. It may not appear to be a big deal but believe me, having an overall app organization is
important for productivity. And if you're anything like me, you will appreciate the clean look.
So, first of all, remove all the apps from the dock that you aren't using frequently. Also,
I prefer to disable Show Recent applications in the dock because I know exactly what I want to
see at all times, no need for suggestions. Also, since all displays these days are horizontally
oriented, I prefer to not waste any vertical real estate, so I move my dock to the left.
Sometimes, I have it on auto hide, other times, I keep it visible at all times. Meanwhile, if
there are any default apps in the app drawer that you don't use, move them to your junk or
misc folder (a.k.a. Other) in the app drawer. You are going to appreciate that extra space.
If I am being honest, the app drawer isn't that important to me as I use Alfred to fire up
most of the apps that are not in the dock. But I do like to have a visually aesthetic app
drawer. That's just what I prefer. I do me, you do you. They do them… and so on.
Now let's move on to the next thing – which is enabling stacks on my desktop and organizing
my finder. If you open finder's preferences, you will see New finder Window shows RECENTS but,
to me, the most used folder is DOWNLOADS so this is what it will be switched to. That means
that I open a new window or tab in finder, it will display my downloads folder
which is what I look for 90% of the time. In the sidebar settings, I hide
everything except for iCloud, AirDrop, Applications and Downloads... of course keeping
all external locations visible as well. The rest of my folders that I keep in the sidebar
either come from iCloud or from the external drive that I use as favorite shortcuts.
Personally, I don't care about Pictures, Music, Movies, and Recents –wow do I
come across as the most boring person on the planet… Anyway, you'd want to arrange
your folders and favorites based on your own workflow. Removing rarely used paths really
brings out that minimalist aesthetic I love. In finder, I enable SHOW PATH BAR and SHOW
STATUS BAR. These may be trivial but for me, those tidbits of information including path,
file size, date, etc. are paramount. That's why I prefer to enable them. Also, I keep all my views
in list view with Preview enabled on the right I also add a custom icon for my video projects
location on the top of my finder window for better visibility and accessibility.
You can do that by pressing the command and dragging the folder to the desired location.
Another thing that I enable on my desktop is in View Options. I organize my desktop files
with label position on the right, sorted by Kind and by Date Added. This gives me a chronological
rundown of the files - just the way I want it One pretty useful thing that I do – which I
believe would be great for people who create music or deal with audio files - is that
I select to play audio files by default in QuickTime. That's because if I am downloading
some temporary project file effects or music, I simply don't want that to end up in my Music app
and mess up my music organization. If they do end up in your Music, it'll take a lot of time for
you to sort them out and move or delete them. Talking about downloading audio files, I hate the
default behaviours of Safari where it Safe Opens all downloads right away...so do yourself a favor
and disable this option from Safari's preferences. By the way, feel free to check out my bi-weekly
newsletter where I share behind scenes moments, freebies, and links to products
that you might find interesting. Before we move to some apps, there's one more
thing that I want to point out and that is of course enabling Massages in iCloud. This will
guarantee that your iPhone, iPad and Mac are on the same page when it comes to iMessage.
The last thing I do is transfer over my collection of fonts that I have
accumulated over the period of the last decade - for instance, my channel font.
Now it's time for installing Clean My Mac X. You can use it to find and remove all the junk
and scan activities that have been draining your computer's resources. Or you can just stop
using Google Chrome and switch to Safari... just kidding. Or Am I? You can also use
Clean My Mac X to uninstall applications in a proper way so they don't leave anything behind.
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functionality which is great for people with dyslexia or those who are visually impaired. The
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do yourself a favor and Download TextSniper using the first link in the description below.
Now, I will just mention some other essential apps that I always install on my new computer. And
having in mind that this is an M1 at some point during the apps installation you will trigger
a Rosetta Stone setup, which is what Apple uses to translate Intel based apps to run on M1.
Rosetta works flawlessly in secret and once installed you'll have hard time figure out
which apps is not optimized for M1. The installation of Rosetta is as difficult
as pressing a single button. So, APPPS. 1Password - Duh! Nobody is managing all those
passwords on their own, you need the app. LastPass is also an option but 1Password has been great for
me and I've been using it for years. I did give Apple's keychain a chance and would've kept using
it exclusively but it lacks a proper iOS app which is not only a deal-breaker but kind of ironic.
Then I install Alfred which does a number of trivial tasks efficiently. I use it for launching
apps, making calculations, accessing folders, and keeping the clipboard history.
I use Bartender to keep my menu bar organized and clean. Another small app that
I love is called displaputure which gives the screen rounded corners so it makes my M1 Mac
look more like an iPad Pro. Weird kink, I know. Also, declare me guilty but I do use Google Chrome
for a better YouTube watching experience and of course Final Cut Pro for video editing and all
the plugins. The only app I use from the Adobe suite is Lightroom for retouching photos.
For productivity, nothing beats Microsoft Office - I also install Simple Notes for handy
cross-platform note-taking with a word counter and Notion for keeping track of my YouTube projects.
When it comes to graphic work, I am in love with all Affinity Apps -
Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher. Wanting to stay safe while being
constantly plugged into the Internet, I use NordVPN, which also gives me access to
Disney+, because it's not available in my country. Then there are small apps for daily tasks like
VLC Player, PhotoBulk for batch editing images, Rectangle for organizing and snapping windows
(which by the way was referred to by a viewer last time I did my favorite apps video),
and Pocket for saving articles, videos, and other content for later consumption.
There's also a cool app called Theine. I use it to keep my laptop active, not allowing
it to fall asleep while recording something. Of course, no setup goes without
the giant flip screen saver clock, which I'll link below. The site is full of
rediculous ads, so be careful where you click. Hey is my new favorite email client and
service so that get's installed too. If you'd like to learn more about how I use iCloud
to run everything, make sure you check out this video and if you have any questions, feel free
to list them below or reach out to me on Twitter. It's been an absolute pleasure sharing my
setup with you. If you liked the video, don't forget to leave a thumbs
up and subscribe to my channel. This is E
Over and Out
