With the ability to store and encrypt any password on Macintosh systems, the Keychain can be a mixed blessing. It’s easy for users to save time and effort with a single sign-on system for email, website, and file sharing access. It’s equally easy to lose track of passwords that, thanks to a secure and convenient alternative, people seldom type themselves. Most users know the pain of an important but forgotten password. Next time it happens, there’s a painless way to save their day.

It’s ten o’clock at night when you get the call: The art department’s having an issue on the XServe. On Mac OS X, you could use Apple Remote Desktop to access the machine, but Apple doesn’t offer administration tools for Windows. How can you control a Mac remotely when you aren’t using a Mac yourself?

In the past, changing the size of a Macintosh volume has been a significant undertaking, requiring third-party tools, offline reformatting, or both. This tended to complicate storage management, and made it difficult to handle unexpected demand.

Hidden files in Mac OS X keep essential operating system data safe from casual tampering. The technique leaves the Finder uncluttered and easy to navigate, and diminishes the chance of accidental damage. But hidden files also the contain preferences for command line tools, serial numbers for commercial products, access controls for HTML directories, and the entire Unix subsystem that keeps your Macintoshes running. They’re often useful for troubleshooting, and the ability to temporarily access them can be an invaluable tool for administrators.