Just bought MBA - First time Mac user questions

[saintforlife]

I got my MBA a couple of hours ago and this is my first Mac. I already did something stupid and I don't know how to undo it. I wanted to put a short cut to my hard drive on my desktop so in Finder I saw the hard drive under devices in the left pane and tried to drag it to the desktop and... 'poof' it vanished. I don't see the shortcut on my desktop and now it has also disappeared from the 'Devices' list in Finder. Can someone help me put the hard drive back in the devices list in Finder and also tell me how to create a short cut to the hard drive on my desktop?

Also I since there is no 'End' button on the MBA keyboard, how do it go to the end of a line when I am typing something? What is the keyboard key/shortcut to do this?

Is there is a good resource or link online that shows me the Mac equivalent of Windows stuff like - Start, Program Files, Control Panel etc.? If there is a side by side comparison of the differences between Windows layout and Maxc OS X, it will be awesome. I don't want to make stupid mistakes like above and want to learn my way around the Mac OS X in the least amount of time.

Thanks in advance!

 

[TEG]

To get your HD back on the side pane of your finder windows, go to the menu Finder>Preferences>Sidebar.

As for Home/End and PgUp/PgDn those are accessed using fn+ <- -> ^ V (left arrow, right arrow, up arrow, down arrow) respectively. However, Home and End don't behave like in Windows, they usually go to either the beginning/end of a page or document, depending on the application. As for how to get to the beginning/end of line, that is usually Command+arrow keys.

Apple has a comprehensive list on their website at http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1343

TEG

 

[alust2013]

To get your hard drive icon back in your Finder window and on your desktop, click on the desktop background, and you should see Finder in the top left of the screen next to the apple. Click Finder, and go to preferences. In the General tab, you can select to have hard disks show up on the desktop, then in the sidebar tab, you can select what you would like to appear on the side of your finder windows.

As for your switching questions, there is a thorough Mac Beginner's Guide here.

 

[GGJstudios]

I got my MBA a couple of hours ago and this is my first Mac.

Helpful Information for Any Mac User​

 

[saintforlife]

I am going to ask one more quick question and then will go through the tutorials you guys have linked above.

I just tried downloading Google Chrome and I immediately see that the installation process is different. I see a Google Chrome disk mounted in my Finder window and also on the desktop and then I have a small window that opened up which says "Google Chrome" at the top. In this window there is an icon of Google Chrome and what looks like the Applications folder below it with a grey arrow between the two. Can anybody tell me how to proceed with the installation? Also is the installation process same for all applications?

Thanks.

 

[GGJstudios]

I am going to ask one more quick question and then will go through the tutorials you guys have linked above.

I just tried downloading Google Chrome and I immediately see that the installation process is different. I see a Google Chrome disk mounted in my Finder window and also on the desktop and then I have a small window that opened up which says "Google Chrome" at the top. In this window there is an icon of Google Chrome and what looks like the Applications folder below it with a grey arrow between the two. Can anybody tell me how to proceed with the installation? Also is the installation process same for all applications?

Thanks.

Drag the Chrome icon to the shortcut (alias) of the Applications folder. Then you can drag the disk icon from the Desktop to the Trash to eject it. You can also delete the .dmg file you downloaded. Your app is now installed.

 

[saintforlife]

Holy sheeeet....is all I can say. The speed of this thing is amazing! It literally takes 15 seconds total to shut down, restart and back to desktop. It takes only 2-3 seconds to shut down. Clean start from power takes 12-13 seconds to get to the desktop. I am simply blown away. Don't know what else to say.

Does this kind of speed last? What do I need to do keep the computer working like this or rather what should I not do to mess up its speed and end up making it slower? All I have done is installed Google Chrome till now. I am addicted to the blazing speed now and can't settle for anything less.

 

[GGJstudios]

What do I need to do keep the computer working like this or rather what should I not do to mess up its speed and end up making it slower?

Just use it. Your boot up times can increase if you have a lot of apps launching on login, but other than that, it should keep on running that way without you doing anything special. My 3 yr old MBP runs as fast today as it did day one.