Apple is preparing for macOS 10.13 High Sierra, the newest version of its Mac operating system, which is supported on the Mac mini, iMac, Mac Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro. There are a few big features coming our way and lots of under-the-hood fixes as well. We have all the info you need about what it is and when it's coming right here.

How to Unhide and Make Library Folder Visible in macOS Sierra By Mahesh Makvana December 13, 2016 The Library folder for the users on a Mac is always hidden as Apple just doesn’t want you to access it as it thinks you don’t need access to it. Due to the new Mac operating system update (High Sierra), Wineskin stopped working, but fortunately the Wineskin community has found a first.

What's new with macOS High Sierra?

Sept. 12, 2017: macOS High Sierra public launch available Sept. 25

Apple spent the better part of two hours talking about its latest line of iPhone 8 and 8 Plus and the iPhone X at its fall event. This is no surprise considering it's dubbed the iPhone event. Though Apple also mentioned the new Apple Watch, and upcoming features in watchOS 4, not a peep was mentioned about macOS High Sierra. Does this mean Apple is planning a special event just for macOS? Probably not. It just didn't merit any special attention this time around.

The good news is that Apple quietly added a release date for High Sierra on its website. The final version will be available September 25, the same day that the new iPhone and Apple Watch line will be available in stores.

August 23, 2017: Flagship creative apps will need to be updated to work with macOS High Sierra

Apple has published a new support document that details the compatibility of the company's professional apps with macOS High Sierra. Final Cut Pro X, Motion, Compressor, Logic Pro X, and MainStage will all need to be updated to their most recent versions in order to run on High Sierra:

• Final Cut Pro X 10.3.4 or later
• Motion 5.3.2 or later
• Compressor 4.3.2 or later
• Logic Pro X 10.3.1 or later
• MainStage 3.3 or later

Earlier versions of all of these applications are incompatible with the new operating system.

What, why, when, and how to get macOS 10.13 High Sierra

What is macOS 10.13 High Sierra?

macOS High Sierra is Apple's newest version of the desktop operating system. This is its second version under the new nomenclature, macOS. Last year, Apple made the switch from OS X to macOS, much to our surprise (not really).

Why High Sierra?

High Sierra is technically a minor update to macOS Sierra, though the new features are pretty amazing. So the idea is that Apple went higher with its already great Sierra operating system.

When can I get my hands on it?

macOS 10.13 High Sierra is available as a beta for developers and as a public beta right now. If you're not a developer, and don't want to risk testing the public beta, you'll be able to download it for free this fall.

If you plan on downloading the developer or public beta, be smart about it: If you only have a single Mac, make sure you create a partition to run beta software, or install on a secondary Mac you don't rely on for everyday use.

The final version, the public version that is no longer in beta, will be available September 25 as a free update in the Mac App Store.

How do I upgrade to macOS 10.13 High Sierra?

Apple makes it really easy to upgrade to new versions of its operating system across all devices. If you're unsure how to get the latest software upgrade, we have you covered with a comprehensive guide.

My Mac is old, can I upgrade to macOS High Sierra?

The latest Mac operating system will run on the following devices:

• iMac (Late 2009 & later)
• MacBook Air (2010 or newer)
• MacBook (Late 2009 or newer)
• Mac mini (2010 or newer)
• MacBook Pro (2010 or newer)
• Mac Pro (2010 or newer)

Will there be any features that won't work on my older Mac that is listed as compatible with macOS High Sierra?

Similar to El Capitan and Sierra, if your Mac was built prior to 2012, you won't be able to take advantage of the Metal Graphics framework and many of the Continuity features, but the rest of macOS High Sierra should be just fine.

How much is this new software going to cost me?

Nothing! Apple stopped charging for software upgrades quite a few years back. macOS High Sierra is a free update for all iMac, Mac mini, and Mac laptop computers that are compatible.

OK, so what are the new features coming to macOS High Sierra?

The short answer is HEVC support, APFS support, better graphics, VR support, and some fantastic app improvements. The long answer is below. Read on for details.

What the heck is HEVC?

HEVC stands for High Efficiency Video Coding. It's also known as H.265. It's a new standard for video compression that is about 40% better than the current H.264 standard. It compresses 4K video much faster and more efficiently and improves video bit-stream. It also uses less bandwidth so you can stream higher quality video in places where your internet speeds are lower. Video file sizes are much smaller, and so take up less storage space on your Mac.

Heroes of might and magic 2 online. Basically, HEVC is way better than H.264 for video compression and you're going to love how fast you can stream 4K movies without any lag.

Why is Apple File System such a big deal?

Every computer uses some form of file system. Imagine your Mac has a filing cabinet that a little guy goes to every time you open a file or search for something. Let's call him 'Apple.'

Apple's current file system, Hierarchical File System Plus (HFS+), works great, but he came up with his organization system more than 30 years ago. Even though he updated it about 20 years ago, he didn't actually clear everything out and start fresh. He just made some changes so he could file stuff faster and find stuff easier.

Fast-forward to today, where Apple has designed a new way to organize and keep track of everything in your Mac. He got a new filing cabinet, better locks, and even added filing cabinets for your iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. He also got those file folders that can be adjusted wider so he can fit more files in each one, and changed the paper weight of current files so they are thinner and more of them can fit into a folder.

What this means for you is that you'll be able to access and load your files much faster, encryption will be much stronger, duplicating files will happen in a blink of an eye (even large video files), and you'll have protection from crashes thanks to metadata copying.

Basically, it's going to make your Mac feel brand new again, and if your Mac already is brand new, it's going to make it feel like you just installed a turbo engine.

So, better graphics?

That's correct. Apple has suped up the Metal graphics processor by adding machine learning, external GPU support, and virtual reality.

Metal 2 focuses on GPU support over CPU, so things will load and process faster — up to 10 times faster, according to Apple. This is great news for game developers and might (hope, hope) open the door for more PC games to make their way to Mac in the future.

macOS High Sierra will support external GPUs, too. So even your baseline MacBook will be able to support heavy graphics programs in the future.

Wait .. Did you say VR support?

Oh, yeah. The Metal 2 framework will make it possible for developers to create virtual reality games and macOS High Sierra will make playing virtual reality games on Mac a reality.

The iMac with 5K Retina display and the iMac Pro will natively support VR. Plus, thanks to macOS High Sierra, you'll be able to add an external GPU seamlessly and play VR games. Valve has even decided to add SteamVR to the Mac.

What about the apps? Did Apple update any apps?

It sure did. Apple added some nice improvements to Photos, Safari, and Mail. There are also some pretty sweet additions to Notes, FaceTime, Siri, and iCloud. Read on to find out more.

Photos

Photos has a few redesign features, a couple of great new filters, some cool editing tools, and looping Live Photos.

• Expanded sidebar - The sidebar is now always on to make searching for your photos a lot easier. The photo Import view shows all of your past imports in chronological order, similar to your standard Photos collection.

• Better organization - You can filter photos by different criteria. There is a selection counter that will let you drag and drop multiple images into an album or import them to your desktop.

• Better editing tools - You'll be able to adjust the contrast and color options for your photos just a little bit better with Curves for fine-tuning and Selective Color for saturation. Oh, and there are more photo filters now.

• More Memories categories- You'll get more automatically generated Memories based on different criteria. For example, you'll get beautiful slideshows from your first anniversary, or scroll through pics of your pets.

• Live Photos Extreme - Live Photos have been super charged with editable Loops, Bounce, Long Exposure (my favorite), trim, and mute. You can even select a key photo for each Live Photo, which will be the single non-moving image people will see before they touch the photo to watch it move.

• Better third-party app support- Third-party apps are better integrated with Photos in macOS High Sierra. You can select a photo, open it in a third-party app, and make your edits. Those changes will automatically be saved in Photos. You won't have to re-save new edits. App extension support has also gotten bigger with more apps.

• Bigger faces - The People album has larger thumbnail images for faces and group pictures better. If you're signed into iCloud Photo Library, your People changes will update across all of your connected devices.

Safari

Safari's biggest update is with Intelligent Tracking Prevention. It uses machine learning to find cookie trackers and stop them from following you from one website to another. So, you won't be as likely to see an add on one website for a product you just looked at on another website.

Safari in macOS High Sierra also implements an autoplay auto-block tool. Basically, if you visit a website that has an add or video that is set up to automatically blast you with noise, it won't play automatically on Safari. Blocked!

Speaking of blocked, Safari in macOS High Sierra lets you personalize what your browsing experience looks like with each website you visit. You can enable Reader View, content blockers, page zoom, and auto-play blocking. It's in the same section that used to house Reader View.

Oh, and Safari is even faster than ever before. Zoom, zoom!

Mail

When you search in Mail in macOS High Sierra, the most relevant results will appear as 'Top Hits' so you can find what you're looking for faster.

You can also use split-view when composing mail. Productivity increased!

Siri improvements

Apple gave Siri a boost in macOS High Sierra with a more expressive voice. It has better tone and talks more realistic. Personally, I like it when Siri tells a joke in a super robotic voice. I think it's funnier.

Siri is also able to learn about your music interests by connecting to Apple Music. You can ask to 'play something to help me relax' or 'make me a party playlist' and it will play songs based on your previous Apple Music activity. In macOS High Sierra, Siri also knows a lot more about the music you're listening to.

Sharing in iCloud

When you save a file in iCloud Drive, you can share it with others, just like you do in the Notes app. Using the Share tool, you can send people an invitation to edit and everyone that's using the supported app can collaborate in real time.

Apple has also added iCloud Family Sharing, which means you can invite family members to share your iCloud storage instead of everyone having their own account. iCloud Family storage plans include 200GB or 2TB of storage, so you can load up all of your photos, videos, and more.

Search for flight info with Spotlight

When you enter your flight number into Spotlight, it will search your system for all the information you need to get there on time, including arrival and departure times, terminals, gates, delays, and airport maps.

In macOS High Sierra, Spotlight also supports constellation information, celebrity facts, and lots of Wikipedia results for those really elusive bits of knowledge.

Notes

If you use a particular not a lot, you'll be able to pin it to the top of your list so it doesn't get lost in the mix every time you update another note. Keep it at the top and it'll stay there, right were you left it.

Notes also gets tables in macOS High Sierra. It's sort of like a mini spreadsheet for keeping track of things like expenses, party invitees, and wedding plans.

FaceTime Live Photos

Have you every had a moment when you're FaceTiming with your family when someone does something so cute or so funny that you wish you could have captured it? Well, now you can. In macOS High Sierra, you'll be able to take Live Photos of the FaceTime window, and this is on the Mac, which will automatically save to the Photos app. And, before you think about taking a Live Photo without your dad knowing, you'll both get a notification when one is taken.

Messages in iCloud

That's right. Your chats, those ones you don't want to delete because they hold a special place in your heart, will no longer disappear if you download a fresh copy of an operating system. All of your Messages will be stored (encrypted on both ends) in iCloud. So, when you start using a new device, your chats with mom from a year ago will still be there.

The bottom line

Though macOS High Sierra doesn't seem like much on the surface, the under-the-hood improvements are huge. With advanced file systems, better graphics and video compression, and support for VR, your Mac is really finding its stride.

If you have any questions or comments, please put them in the comments and we'll try to answer them as best we can, as we learn more about macOS High Sierra.

macOS Catalina

Main

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Tooltip shadows stay after tooltips disappeared

This issue appears on some video cards with Compiz enabled. The workaround is in disabling fade animation for wine tooltips. To do this:

1. install Compiz configuration tool. In most distributions it is in package named compizconfig-settings-manager.
2. After you install it, run it (executable file named ccsm).
3. Then go to Animations, open Close animations tab and double-click line that starts with Fade.
4. Click plus sign in pop-up window,
5. In new window select Window Class as Type, enter Wine as Value, select And as Relation and check Invert.
6. Click Add button and you're done.

Black blocks in interface and text on Intel video cards

If you use Intel graphics and experience blacked out text and interface items in Watchtower Library, (that is, experience bug 24998), you can fix it with following steps:

1. Run wine regedit
2. Open HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Wine/X11 Driver. Create it if it does not exist
3. Create new String value (using context menu on right part of interface) named ClientSideWithRender and set its value to N
4. Close (restart) all wine applications

Broken fonts

If you see squares instead of text in Watchtower Library on the first run, go to settings (press f2) and change font settings, choosing any font you like. If you see broken characters in interface, you may need to install MS truetype core fonts for web package. To do this

I came across this post in my search for a USB C card reader and I have a solution. Cf card reader usb 3.0. I too have a 5D MK4 and a MacBook Pro so I understand the USB-C struggle.Im not a fan of dongles and adapters INTO USB-C as it’s just one more thing I can possibly forget and be absolutely screwed!I purchased a Lexar Professional compact flash/sd reader from BH Photo, I chose this because it supports the fastest protocols for both compact flash and sd card (UHS II as well).

• Install msttcorefonts package using your packaging system. If it fails:
• Install it using winetricks (this will affect your wine installation only, fonts won't be available for non-wine applications):

Problems with XFCE, LXDE, Enlightment and others

XFCE and some other DE ignore path parameter for desktop and menu launchers. As result, Watchtower Library prior to 2011 does not start when you click these. The simple solution is to change 'Command' parameter in launcher to

Watchtower Library for Mac OSX 10.7.3 'Lion'

There are some initial issues with using the Watchtower Library in Mac. The first issue is

Installing WINE

Simple solution: watchtowerlibraryformac.info

Or, you could follow the guide in the WINE wiki about installing Macports (MacOSX Installation). It is recommended that once you have installed MacPorts you need to configure it (How to install & configure Macports)

Do not install WINE but rather install wine-devel sudo ports install wine-devel for the latest WINE version.

You should also update X11, the default version is 2.3.2 which doesn't display all of the images in the Watchtower Library. The website XQuartz MacOS Forge contains the latest XQuartz (2.6.2). Once XQuartz has been updated you can run the Watchtower Library out-of-the-box with no issues.

To set up an application to run the Watchtower Library from the dock, go to Applications -> Utilities -> AppleScript Editor

Once in the editor copy & paste the following script:

Click on run to make sure it works and then click on compile if successful and then save the script as an application filetype (Leave startup screen unchecked). Once saved as an application drag it into the dock.

Missing DLL File Errors

WINE in Mac doesn't seem to look for the DLL files in the same way it normally does. The DLL files it is referring to (Such as uresearch21u.dll) are located in the 'MEPS Platform 2.3' folder in the Watc­htower directory. However WINE searches for them in the /drive_c/windows/system32 directory. Just copy and paste the contents of the 'MEPS Platform 2.3' folder to the 'system32' folder to resolve the issue.

Broken 'Fetch from clipboard' function

If you copy multiline-text and a reference happens to be divided between two lines, the results can be a bit odd. This seems to be by design; wtlib seems to read the clipboard contents line by line. For example, if an article reads:

hechos recientes son más que los de antes' (Rev. 2:
19, 20).

Then wtlib will extract Revelation chapter 2, the entire chapter. This is due to wtlib reading just one line at a time. Now, in linux you can install xclip and run this command after having copied, say for example an entire article:

xclip -o tr 'n' ' ' xclip -selection clipboard -i

The command translates newlines to spaces. If you do that before going Edit - Fetch from clipboard in wtlib, the correct references are extracted :D (Just Rev. 2:19, 20 in the example above).

You could even stick the command in a script and launch that from a button on your panel, or something.

I don't know how to do this in windows, but could be AutoIt would be a start..