When your Mac has been controlled it is as if the adminstator is sitting in front of the screen and using the keyboard and mouse directly. This is essential for troubleshooting machines when there are no support staff on site. If you have a problem then the administrator can connect to your mac, and take control of it. This is commercial software available from Apple, that has been installed by your administrator to enable them to access your Mac remotely. One of the items in the System Preferences is Remote Desktop. This is important if you have special software installed that may be affected by the upgrade. If you are unsure as to whether it is a good idea to run an update or not then please contact your System Administrator for advice. Some updates require a restart once they have finished running. You can also disable updates and make them inactive, or run them at a time that is convenient to you by temporarily disabling the update. Once a new update has been detected a window pops up and tells you the name of the update. For more handy macOS tips, be sure to check out our macOS playlist on YouTube, and read our getting started tips for new Mac users.On personal or office Macs you can use the automatic update if you have an account that has administrator privileges. This is a handy tip for those times when you need to configure System Preferences for a particular item and wish to navigate there quickly. Subscribe to 9to5Mac’s YouTube Channel for more hands-on Mac videos In fact, every applicable button in the Touch Bar will open to its matching System Preferences panel by using the Option modifier key along with it. As mentioned, shortcuts work the same with static function keys, but you have a lot more options on the new MacBook Pro since the Touch Bar is user customizable. The Display Section of System Preferences will be opened if you do the same with the Brightness button in the Touch Bar, and so on. If you press the volume button in the Touch Bar’s Control Strip while holding the Option key, the Sound panel of System Preferences will be opened. Have a look at our brief hands-on video to see it in action.

Of course, this same functionality is available on non-Touch Bar Macs, but with the versatility of the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar, we figured it was worth mentioning again. By using the Option key while pressing one of the Touch Bar’s Control Strip shortcuts, users can access System Preferences with ease. We’ve covered the usefulness of the Option (⌥) modifier key in macOS plenty of times in the past, but we’d like to remind you about its usefulness in the wake of the new Touch Bar-enabled MacBook Pro.

Mac system preferences