Chrome and ads

[ADKM]

Hi, I am 100% new to Macbook Pro but familiar with Windows.
I've installed Chrome and have an icon on the desktop, but it doesn't look like Chrome. There's just a box with A in it, and an arrow. Opening it shows a list. I can't see an address bar or home page,.
Can I add these and maybe a Bookmark toolbar ?
And can I run an adblocker?
Thanks for any advice. I realise I've a fair way to go with learning Mac methods.

 

[Toutou]

The way you "install" apps on macOS is a little bit different than on Windows. On Windows it's common to have an installer, which is either a .msi or an .exe file, that you run and it puts the app and everything it needs into the right folder for you (and usually puts an icon of the app on your desktop).

macOS apps, on the other hand, are commonly self-contained (it's called an Application Bundle, a special kind of .app file), and there is no "installation" process, wherever you place the app, it runs from there.

While that Application Bundle looks like a single file with the .app extension, it is, technically, a folder (directory). And the way we've built the relevant protocols, you can't download a directory from the web, you can only download a single file.

So the way macOS apps are distributed is that you download a special kind of file called a DMG (Apple Disk Image).

The DMG is essentially virtual disk drive, so when you double click the DMG, it's "mounted" by macOS, which is exactly the same thing that would happen if you put a CD or a DVD into the Mac. By default, all CDs, DVDs, USB memory sticks and mounted DMGs are shown on the desktop, which is why you should now see a tiny disk drive called Google Chrome there.

Please note that it doesn't mean that Chrome is physically present on your desktop, it's just that macOS shows it there for some reason. There's a virtual disk drive called Google Chrome plugged into your Mac.

Now if you double click that drive, it shows its content in a new window, like this.

That thing on the top is the actual Application Bundle, that's Google Chrome that you can double click and run. Remember how you can put it anywhere and run it from there? There's a special directory called Applications where you're supposed to put your apps so you always know what you have and what you don't. Unless you have a specific good reason not to do that, you're expected to copy the app itself from the DMG to your Applications folder and run it from there.
So what most app developers do is that they put a shortcut to your Applications folder into the DMG right next to the app, usually with a little arrow or a text saying "drag this and drop here".
So that's what you do, you take the app with your mouse and drop it onto the Applications folder. It gets copied there and you can now find the app in your Launchpad (the large grid view of all apps) and launch it.

That's it, that's the whole installation. Download the DMG with the app inside it, put the app into Applications, done. In order to "uninstall" the app, you open the Applications folder, find the app, trash it, done.

Now the last thing is kind of confusing, after you've put the app into Application, the DMG, the virtual disk drive is still mounted, the non-existent CD is still in the non-existent drive, and it still shows on your desktop as a reminder. What you need to do is right-click the little virtual drive icon and Eject it, just like you would eject a physical CD. Poof, it's gone.

Hope that helped. Please note that things may look a bit different on your Mac, as mine is running the latest macOS which changed the visuals a lot.

 

[ADKM]

Thanks for the nicely-detailed reply. I'm just off to buy a Bluetooth mouse today and follow though on putting Chrome into the Application folder. File copying is one thing I want to get familiar with. I take it the dialog windows with LH showing Favourites-Locations-Tags is the equivalent of Explorer? There's a "Get To Know Your Mac" option which I'll follow once I get the mouse. Not sure how to confirm what MacOS, other than Catelina. I see some other tutorial things under Help as well. Looking forward....

 

[Toutou]

the dialog windows with LH showing Favourites-Locations-Tags is the equivalent of Explorer?

Yes, that's macOS' file manager, it's called Finder and it's the equivalent of Windows' "File Explorer". You can launch Finder from your dock (the row of icons on the bottom of the screen), it's the leftmost, smiling, one.

File copying is one thing I want to get familiar with.

If you're familiar with the Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V combo from Windows, you already know how to use Cmd+C, Cmd+V on a Mac, it works the same, Macs just use the Cmd modifier for most shortcuts. You select the files (make them blue) on your desktop or in Finder, hit Cmd+C, then open the destination in Finder and hit Cmd+V to copy the file(s) to that location (or you add Option/alt to the shortcut, so it's Cmd+Option+V, which moves the file(s) instead of copying).

macOS is also very drag and drop oriented, so if you already have both the source and the destination open, you can just move the file with your mouse and drop it (which moves the file) or do the same but hold Option when you're dropping the file, which does a copy. Sadly, it's the opposite of how the shortcuts work, but it's easier if you notice the little green plus symbol that appears if you press Option when dragging -- plus means that a new file (the copy) is being created, no plus is the original file being moved.
Same goes for trashing files, you can either use the shortcut (Cmd+Delete) or just drop the file onto the trash icon in your dock.

Not sure how to confirm what MacOS, other than Catelina

If you press the Apple symbol in the top left corner and click "About this Mac", it shows a small window with the most important info about the computer -- which version of macOS it's running, what kind of Mac it is and the serial number.

 

[ADKM]

It's all coming together rather well and thank you for the info. I'm very familiar with Windows drag'n drop and Cntrl-C etc so should find that instinctive when there's some files to copy. I did install Chrome without any trouble following your instructions. AdBlock (rec. by Google) unfortunately doesn't block ads on DailyMail.com. Chrome In Windows using adGuard does so will try that instead.
It did seem Mouse wheel scrolling was in reverse. This was while scrolling on line. It's not a Mac mouse (they were pretty expensive) but a Microsoft Bluetooth Mouse (no model number).
In playing around if offered "Big Sur" so I blindly said Yes to find it updated the OS. I don't appreciate any differences yet, but have lost the rather impressive main picture of Catelina Island. Can I get that back ?

Apple-About this mac shows Big Sur version 11.4 and Macbook Pro 16" (2019). 2.3 GHz 8 core Intel Core i9. 16 GB

The finder display is very nice and Under Locations-Network I can see some other machines on LAN, but not consistently. Some entries come and go. One shows under Locations (as well as Locations-Network). These are Windows machine and it was good to see there is access one way to some things. I can't as yet see Apple from Windows, will have to learn what allows something to be there/not there. I also stumbled over "Go Ahead I'm listening" but didn't ask anything. At one stage "KODI" would show up which is the Rasp Pi for streaming video from Windows, but can't find it a second time, or perhaps now that Big Sur is running.

 

[allan.nyholm]

@ADKM You can still find various Catalina wallpapers in Big Sur - see image. There's more if you scroll down the list you see.

You'll find that there's sometimes actual installers available for macOS - some are small installers that fetch a larger download, like in the case with Spotify let's say.

Then there's Apple installers; PKG files. These are a brown box with yellow thingies sticking out from the top. These can require a reboot of the Mac by the end of the installation with an only option to Restart - unless you Force Quit the installer at that point. Then carry on until you're set to reboot. Perhaps you needed to finish watching a YouTube video first or something.

The Microsoft Edge browser comes as an actual installer that however doesn't require a reboot of the Mac - sometimes installers, like the Opera browser installer re-launches your Dock process and interrupting your copy or move process which is a dumb move by the Opera Browser. Be careful with that one especially. Luckily it's very few installers that does that now.

Most of the time it's so-called "Helpers" that are to be installed after the fact. Like the app iStat and its iStat Helpers or the like. These aren't installers as such, but have in mind that there's a lot of that going on. Especially for monitoring applications like the before mentioned iStat. It's probably too niche to get into right now.

The Mouse reverse scroll is changed by going to System Preferences and the Trackpad settings - and the same for the Mouse - it's called natural scrolling on macOS and Apple's universe.

 

[ADKM]

Thanks allan, desktop picture restored. I'll leave Opera and stick to Chrome or FF. Depending on ad block capbility.
Ok on the installers, no doubt will come across sooner or later. Any card games you know of, like cribbage or 500 ?

 

[allan.nyholm]

Thanks allan, desktop picture restored. I'll leave Opera and stick to Chrome or FF. Depending on ad block capbility.
Ok on the installers, no doubt will come across sooner or later. Any card games you know of, like cribbage or 500 ?

I know of a few card games - here's Cribbage as an example - the design of the cards can be altered I think.
Cribbage by GrowlyBirdSoftware

Lots more card games in the category on the left side there. I bought a card game on the Mac App Store called Full Deck Solitaire that has quite a few solitaire games. I wanted the full package, but it's a free download that you can buy into the additional solitaire games for somewhere around $10-12

There's quite a few card games on the Mac App Store, but be careful not to fall into the subscription trap there(perhaps not for card games)

 

[The_Interloper]

To fix ad blocking in Chrome, install uBlock Origin.

 

[Tenkaykev]

Could I just add to this by recommending the “ macmost” YouTube channel. A wealth of short videos of just a few minutes for each topic, demonstrating how to do various things from the most basic to the more involved.

 

[MacBH928]

If you want the best adblocker there is install uBlock Origin(non-existing for Safar in that case you can use 1Blockr or Adguard Safari).

As for browsers if you care about privacy you can choose FireFox or Brave, Brave is basically a Chrome clone without the Google spyware and has built in adblocker. If you do not like it you can disable it and install uBlock Origin on top of it.

Make sure to install uBlock ORIGIN there is another bad one called plainly uBlock

@ADKM You can still find various Catalina wallpapers in Big Sur - see image. There's more if you scroll down the list you see.

You'll find that there's sometimes actual installers available for macOS - some are small installers that fetch a larger download, like in the case with Spotify let's say.

Then there's Apple installers; PKG files. These are a brown box with yellow thingies sticking out from the top. These can require a reboot of the Mac by the end of the installation with an only option to Restart - unless you Force Quit the installer at that point. Then carry on until you're set to reboot. Perhaps you needed to finish watching a YouTube video first or something.

The Microsoft Edge browser comes as an actual installer that however doesn't require a reboot of the Mac - sometimes installers, like the Opera browser installer re-launches your Dock process and interrupting your copy or move process which is a dumb move by the Opera Browser. Be careful with that one especially. Luckily it's very few installers that does that now.

Most of the time it's so-called "Helpers" that are to be installed after the fact. Like the app iStat and its iStat Helpers or the like. These aren't installers as such, but have in mind that there's a lot of that going on. Especially for monitoring applications like the before mentioned iStat. It's probably too niche to get into right now.

The Mouse reverse scroll is changed by going to System Preferences and the Trackpad settings - and the same for the Mouse - it's called natural scrolling on macOS and Apple's universe.

View attachment 1809694

yes I never understood those PKG brown box installers, whats different between them and apps that require just drag and drop in App folder?

 

[ADKM]

Thanks for suggestion about "macmost"and about to take a look.
I think I installed uBlock Origin (not just Origin) but it didn't block the ads on DailyMail.com so tried Adguard and that worked ok. Also reversed mouse scroll ok.
A bit stumped with Growly-Cribbage though, it wanted action "Game-Go" but I couldn't figure out what that was, nor could Google.

 

[allan.nyholm]

yes I never understood those PKG brown box installers, whats different between them and apps that require just drag and drop in App folder?

There's a difference in that these .pkg contains means to copy specific files to almost any place on the system - one example is "Aqueux" which is a wallpaper installer that puts wallpapers directly inside the Desktop Pictures folder so they pop up inside the Desktop and Screensaver section in System Preferences ;

/Library/Desktop Pictures

PKG archives contains a payload / script that controls where things are meant to be installed to. If something is suspicious to me I open them with Pacifist or Unpkg - usually Pacifist because I can inspect without extracting.

 

[MacBH928]

Thanks for suggestion about "macmost"and about to take a look.
I think I installed uBlock Origin (not just Origin) but it didn't block the ads on DailyMail.com so tried Adguard and that worked ok. Also reversed mouse scroll ok.
A bit stumped with Growly-Cribbage though, it wanted action "Game-Go" but I couldn't figure out what that was, nor could Google.

you did something wrong, uBlock Origin will definitely block dailymail.com. I wouldn't install multiple adblockers on the same browser. Go with uBO.

 

[ADKM]

I will try again with uBlock Origin. Can you have the equivalent of Windows Control-MouseScroll to change the text size. Or make the readable part of Daily Mail fill the whole screen?

 

[allan.nyholm]

@ADKM In Google Chrome there's a hidden setting in the

chrome://flags

entry in the URL bar - if you type that in and search for reader you are presented with an in-progress Reader-View setting(I believe Google already enabled this setting for their Google Chrome Canary)

You can either Enable or have in your Google Chrome settings to be turned on or off as you may wish. That's what I do. Might as well just have it set it to Enabled all the time.

Reader-View for DailyMail.co.uk is then enabled. I tried just now with an article about Piers Morgan (don't ask - I just wanted to test for you)

Now on the right side of the Google Chrome URL bar you now have a Book icon of sorts. This icon enables Reader-View for a given article that supports it or even doesn't - in there you can read the article with images and sometimes without and change your preferences for font size. See attached image for Reader-View

In macOS there's some options in the Accessibility portion of System Preferences -> Zoom.

Otherwise, Google Chrome has Site Settings that should allow for a specific zoom and/or font preference.
I admit to not having dived much into that today.

Try this Google Chrome extension too. Look at the attached screenshot of the extension and how it expands DailyMail
Zoom It by Rebecca Duncan


For your uBlock Origin woes - it could happen that your blocklists inside of uBlock Origin either needs an update or you should try some different blocklists than the one you have? In addition to the pre-installed blocklists I also use Steven Black's blocklists.

Reader-View preview as mentioned


The icon for Reader-View

 

[MacBH928]

I will try again with uBlock Origin. Can you have the equivalent of Windows Control-MouseScroll to change the text size. Or make the readable part of Daily Mail fill the whole screen?

I am sure there is a reader mode, you can also use pinch-to-zoom or command⌘+(minus or plus)

 

[ADKM]

Mucho thanks for the info.. Command+- worked great so I didn't try the more complex Reader methos yet.
But I have found if I just close the lid at the end of 'GrassGames Cribbage' when next opened it's at the desktop wanting a password, but the keyboard isn't working. I have to hold OFF down and restart. Any solution to that ?
What's the best thing to clean finger marks off the screen?

 

[maternidad]

What's the best thing to clean finger marks off the screen?

It's very popular to use microfiber cloths. Just wipe the screen with them, and clean the cloths regularly. Some people spray special cleaning solutions to the cloth before wiping. I've found they're generally unneeded, but you can purchase them at Apple stores.

 

[MacBH928]

Mucho thanks for the info.. Command+- worked great so I didn't try the more complex Reader methos yet.
But I have found if I just close the lid at the end of 'GrassGames Cribbage' when next opened it's at the desktop wanting a password, but the keyboard isn't working. I have to hold OFF down and restart. Any solution to that ?
What's the best thing to clean finger marks off the screen?

The other methods are not complex, just use this shortcut:
Firefox: alt+command+R
Safari: Shift+command+R

the way you are closing and restarting after Cribbage is not healthy for your computer, might causes errors after much use. I suggest you quit the app after use, then close the lid.

For screens, I use Whoosh available on Amazon and elsewhere. The results are splendid. The guy at Apple Store told me thats what they used.

 

[ADKM]

Thanks again. Have ordered some Woosh and will close all apps before the lid.
Can I ask - this may be the wrong area - about Networking?
Have found Finder-Network a little odd. I have a number of Windows machines on LAN (wired) and some appear there, but not consistently. That is, they're not there all the time, or might appear after quite a delay or drop off. When missing I'm not sure how to "browse" to them. (If this happens in Windows I type \\COMPNAME into Explorer).
I've not tried to configure this in any way, it's just how it is. The Windows machines don't see the Mac, but I expected this and looking into it. I presume all comps will see each other when setup properly?
I had no trouble printing from the Mac to myLAN printer. (Or with wifi)
There's no major reason (yet) to transfer anything either way but it'd be nice to have the means to.

 

[MacBH928]

i have no idea about networking I have never set it up but I know there are options to that you have to switch on to make computers talk to each other on the same network. You have to search how online or someone else here might help

 

[ADKM]

Understood, thanks. No doubt will sort it but if anyone has any info it'd be appreciated.

 

[ADKM]

I did search here and found someone else asking the same thing , but no answers.

 

[MacBH928]

I did search here and found someone else asking the same thing , but no answers.

search online link