mac geekery

how do I get into terminal?

will this allow me to delete files I don’t want found on my computer? If so, how do I know which files I need to remove?

I’m not very computer savvy, but need to cleanse my computer.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

“will this allow me to delete files I don’t want found on my computer? If so, how do I know which files I need to remove?

I’m not very computer savvy, but need to cleanse my computer.”

Well, a basic notion of unix systems would be a start. Else I would advise you not to touch the hidden files (especiallly those outside your of home folder).
In your case I would advise a backup of your applications and do a fresh install. If the files you want to get rid off are realy sensitive use a program that overwrites your disk several times before you format.

...gotta love the "defaults write" -- wish that Apple would clue in and provide these obscure settings in a more straight-forward manner (ie. within the control panel). I suppose that they're just trying to protect their reputation by protecting their non-technical userbase from breaking their installations. Of course, these are the same people who wouldn't go diving for Terminal.app (&&fear the command line) so perhaps there is wisdom here...

Since sources like this are readily available/googleable my heartburn is minimal. Thanks for the tip -- I had forgotten it! Long live tribal knowledge...

Does this work on Leopard? I just tried it and though I didn’t get an error at the standard output I still can’t see hidden files in finder.

Yes it works in Leopard. I just put the show and hide commands provided by AT in two shell scripts, you can find them here:

http://www.4shared.com/dir/6513499/afc2a365/Mac.html

You need to open them with Terminal.

The important part is the Force Quit and Relaunch Finder. The changes will not reflect without that.

Thanks for the Leopard suggestion, works great.

i’m trying to follow the instructions from this link: http://www.cnet.com/4520-7899_1-6488385-1.html

however, I can’t find the “ipod control folder” and the terminal.app instructions don’t seem to be allowing me to view my hidden folders, ergo, how do i do that too?

thanks everyone.

-by the way this is all for mac

Hi, I had an app to hide folders called Hide Folders. What this app do is that to hide folders and files.

My mac no longer works (some logic board issue) so Apple is giving me a new pro book.

The question is, if I want to recover that hidden files from that hard drive where the app were installed (HD belonging to the original damaged computer), I will be able to view them using this methods on another computer that I will be using to view the files stored on that hard drive?

Thanks for any help

Thanks! Excellent!