Update Mac to stay in the know

Q. I have been using my MacBook Pro connected to an external monitor while working from home and I am not getting notifications from my calendar when I have appointments coming up even though they are enabled. What can I do to fix this?

A. Apple devices have what I consider some overly aggressive Do Not Disturb options that are designed to cut down on distractions in certain circumstances.

In your case, the Mac has decided that since you are using an external monitor you must be presenting and is therefore blocking the notifications.

To change this, open System Preferences and click on Notifications.

Look for the section labeled Do Not Disturb and uncheck the box next to where it says When mirroring to TVs and projectors. This setting also applies to external monitors.

Q. I have a computer which I primarily use for email, web searching, Quicken, etc. I turn it off every night, so it gets rebooted once a day. My problem is that speed wise it seems to be really bogged down. I have given up even sitting down at it until about 30-45 minutes after turning it on because it takes that long before it becomes usable. Is there anything I can do to improve performance that doesn’t involve reloading the system?

A. I have two tips that may make your life much better in the short term while you try to track these things down.

The first tip is keeping your computer running. There is no real need to shut down your computer each night.

The next tip is to disable a service known as SysMain.

To disable it, click on Search, type services and hit Enter.

Look for SysMain and double click it. Click on Stop and also set it to disabled.