Mac OS System Preferences Explained

When to Use?

This article contains information for each menu in system preferences, including the options/settings they contain, the information you may want to know about, and general troubleshooting steps.

NOTES:

• At the time of the last update, this document has been formatted based on the current layout from Mac OS Monterey. If you are not on this version, you may have different/renamed menus.
• Also, you may not have all the tabs below depending on the type of device & hardware you have (for example, you wouldn’t have a menu for “Touch ID” if your device doesn’t support it).

Procedure

Apple ID

• This menu contains information relating to your iCloud and Apple accounts. Neither of these are managed by GVSU IT

Family Sharing

• This menu contains information relating to apps shared with apple family accounts. If you do not have an apple family account, this menu will not apply to you.

General

• This menu contains generalized settings including (but not limited to):
  • Light/Dark Mode
  • Accent Colors
  • Default Web Browser

Desktop & Screen Saver

• This menu contains 2 menus, one for setting your desktop background (Desktop) and one for setting your screen saver settings

Dock & Menu Bar

1. This menu contains settings for changing/customizing the dock (the bottom row of apps) and the menu bar (the top bar of icons that changes depending on what app you are in). NOTE: This sub-menu contains more categories than what could fit in the picture.

Mission Control

• This menu allows you to create shortcuts that allow you to change how your device operates. It also allows you to set “Hot Corners” (shortcuts where you drag your mouse to the corner of the screen to allow certain actions to occur).

Siri

• This menu allows you to change how Siri sounds, how it triggers and has an option to delete your Siri and Dictation History

Spotlight

• This menu allows you to change what appears in spotlight searches (which can be triggered by pressing command + Space bar at the same time or by searching in the launchpad)

Language & Region

• This menu allows you to set your preferred language, region, temperature units, and more.

Notifications & Focus

• This menu allows you to change notification settings for various apps on your device. It also allows you to change Do Not Disturb Preferences and custom focus modes.
  • Some notification settings are not allowed to be modified, per campus policy. Additionally, we could not fit all of the menus in the picture below.

Internet Accounts

• This menu allows you to add your mail accounts so that they can be used in apple mail, calendar, messages, and other apps.
  • GVSU IT Officially recommends using the Outlook desktop application rather than using apple mail.

Passwords

• This menu is new to MacOS Monterey and allows you to view your active keychain(s). You can add and remove data from this menu, detect compromised passwords, and import/export selections.
  • This is different from the “Keychain Access” application

Wallet & Apple Pay

• This menu is removed from Macs imaged by the university although it would be available if your device is not managed by GVSU IT
   

Users & Groups

• This menu (would) allow you to create user accounts. This feature has been disabled from campus macs that are currently operating as expected. You can, however, change what apps open at startup by clicking on the “Login Items” tab.
• You can also change other device settings in “Login Options”, however, we would recommend not messing with these settings unless you know what you are doing.

Accessibility

• This menu allows you to turn on apple accessibility features to help with vision, hearing, physical motor, and learning/literacy disabilities.
  • There were too many categories of options to modify in this sub-menu. 

Screen Time

• This menu shows statistics about your device, including how long you have used the device (and which apps specifically). Additionally, you can change what content you can access on your device.

Extensions

• This menu allows you to customize extensions for your device, including settings inside of finder, photo editing apps, and more.

Security & Privacy

• This menu contains options to approve apps to run that have been flagged as by not a known developer, encrypt the device, modify firewall settings, and set app permissions.

Software Update

• This menu allows you to perform general operating system updates. We recommend keeping your device up to date with current updates that are approved by GVSU IT.

Network

• This document allows you to add, remove, and change your Internet settings. You can see more information about how to fix problems with this menu in our Solving Internet Connection Issues on a Macintosh Computer article.

Bluetooth

• This menu allows you to connect Bluetooth devices to your device. This includes wireless mice, keyboards, trackpads, etc.

Sound

• This menu allows you to change alert sounds, select audio output devices, and select audio input devices.
  

Touch ID

• This menu allows you to record your fingerprint to be used instead of your password in certain circumstances, like when unlocking your device.
  • Touch ID is disabled when you try to login after logging in for the first time that session (after you restart or shut down).

Keyboard

• This menu allows you to modify the type of keyboard you are using, how certain functions work, abbreviations, Dictation mode, and shortcuts.

Trackpad

• This menu allows you to customize settings on your trackpad.

Mouse

• This menu allows you to customize settings on your mouse like enabling right (or secondary) click, scroll direction, smart zoom, speed, and more.

Displays

• This menu allows you to set where your display is in relation to the other displays. It also allows you to change the settings for the displays, like the resolution or color profile

Printers & Scanners

• This menu allows you to add, remove, and modify printers. Additionally, it allows you to change settings about said printers.

Battery or Energy Saver 

• This menu allows you to control power-saving measures, like when a display turns off due to inactivity, as well as scheduling startup & shutdown times. When viewing this menu on a MacBook, you can also see the usage history and modify how the device behaves when it is not directly connected to a power source.

Date & Time

• This menu allows you to set or modify the date and time as well as set your timezone.
  • By default, every device imaged by GVSU IT uses GVSU's Time Server

Sharing

• This menu allows you to change how your device is seen by other devices on its network.
  • There are some settings in this menu that are controlled by GVSU IT and do not allow for any modification.

Time Machine

• This menu controls the settings for the time machine.
  • GVSU IT has the automatic rollback of data via time machine disabled, however, you are still able to manually transfer any data from the time machine back to your device.

Startup Disk

• This menu allows you to select which disk your device boots up to when it turns on. We recommend not messing with these settings unless you know what you are doing.

Profiles

• This menu allows you to view all policies currently in effect from GVSU IT. These are automatically rolled out and managed by our administrators and do not allow for modification.