https://www.stuartellis.name/articles/mac-setup/
To make the trackpad behave correctly, ensure that these settings are enabled:
- System Preferences > Trackpad > Tap to click
- System Preferences > Accessibility > Pointer Control > Trackpad Options…
- Scrolling Speed Fast
- Enable dragging > three finger drag
Apple provide quite secure operating systems, but unfortunately convenience has won out over security in a few places. These can easily be corrected by changing a few settings. If you are using a laptop then you should probably make all of these changes as soon as possible.
Basic Settings Select System Preferences > Security & Privacy, and set the following:
- Under General, set require a password after sleep or screen saver begins to immediately
- Click Advanced… and select Require an administrator password to access system-wide preferences
- Under Firewall, click Turn Firewall On.
- Under Privacy, select Analytics and ensure that the options are not enabled.
By default, Spotlight sends queries to Apple. Unless you want this feature, turn it off.
Select System Preferences > Spotlight > Search Results, and ensure that Spotlight Suggestions is not enabled.
Current versions of macOS include File Vault 2, a full-disk encryption system that has little in common with the much more limited File Vault 1. You should enable File Vault NOW, because it is the only protection against anyone with physical access to your computer. All other security measures will be completely bypassed if someone with physical access simply restarts the computer with a bootable pen drive.
File Vault really is secure, which means that you can permanently lose access to your data if you lose the passwords and the recovery key.
Set a password to stop access to the Recovery mode. Otherwise, any malicious individual can change the firmware settings to boot from a disc or device of their choosing. If you did not enable File Vault, then the attacker will have complete access to all of the files on the system.
Apple Knowledge Base article HT204455 provides full details.
Time Machine is simple to set up. Just take a suitably large external hard drive, plug it in to your Mac, and agree when prompted. The drive setup process will reformat the hard drive. The only settings that may need to change are the exclusions.
Choose System Preferences > Time Machine, and click Options. Add to the exclusions list any folders that contain ISO disk images, virtual machines, or database files (such as Entourage). If the external hard drive is short of space, exclude the System folder.