Apple Expert

The one-stop column for Genius advice

The power tripped at home when my imac was switched on and now I can’t get it to power back on again!

The important thing is not to panic and think about buying a new Mac. Remove the power cable from the back of your Mac and then press and hold the power button for five seconds. Once done, reconnect the power cable and try switching your Mac back on.

I’m worried that my Mac will get a virus. What is the best antivirus software that I can install?

To be honest, the likelihood of your Mac actually getting a virus is small compared to the system problems you may experience while running a third-party antivirus. To protect your Mac, your best bet is to enable Gatekeeper and the Firewall. Go to System Preferences>security & Privacy to enable them.

My Mac is optimised for macos Sierra, but I keep getting annoying banners to update. How can I disable these?

While we would always recommend updating your Mac to the latest available operating system, you can disable these banners in older versions of macos by opening the App Store and clicking on the ‘Updates’ tab. Right-click on the system update banner and then choose ‘Hide Update’ from the menu.