# Does anything ever go wrong with a Mac? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 4, 2011, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anything-ever-go-wrong-with-a-mac/573498 "2011-03-04T17:50:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anything-ever-go-wrong-with-a-mac/573498/122 "2011-05-30T10:15:53Z")
> [@Dog80](#): > > Don’t know about mice but my niece’s brand new Macbook has a single button touchpad. Arguably because Apple wants you to use gestures to do all sorts of things with the touchpad. Additionally, that pad can be configured so that each side works as a different button, or that a two-finger click is the equivalent of the right button or … But anyway, it isn’t a mouse. Macs haven’t had single-button mice for years and years and years, but you still hear jokes made about it now. Every single Mac I have uses an MS Basic Optical mouse. Just plug it in and off you go, pretty much the same as you do with a PC. Which will also work with your niece’s MacBook. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anything-ever-go-wrong-with-a-mac/573498/123 "2011-05-30T16:59:02Z")
Brand new Macbooks don’t have a button, per se, at all on the touchpad. Rather, the pad itself is the button. Or more precisely, the buttons. Press down on the left side of the pad, and you get a left click. Press down on the right side, and you get a right click. Admittedly, it doesn’t have any way of doing a middle-click, which is a bit annoying, but it’s seldom that you actually _need_ that, and it’ll recognize a middle-click on a separate mouse just fine (besides, do PC laptops generally have a middle-click on the built-in pointing device, either?). ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anything-ever-go-wrong-with-a-mac/573498/124 "2011-05-30T17:06:39Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Brand new Macbooks don’t have a button, per se, at all on the touchpad. Rather, the pad itself is the button. Or more precisely, the buttons. Press down on the left side of the pad, and you get a left click. Press down on the right side, and you get a right click. Admittedly, it doesn’t have any way of doing a middle-click, which is a bit annoying, but it’s seldom that you actually _need_ that, and it’ll recognize a middle-click on a separate mouse just fine (besides, do PC laptops generally have a middle-click on the built-in pointing device, either?). On most (if not all) laptops running windows that I’ve used, clicking both clicker-buttons is a middle-click. I want to say it’s the same for computer mice. I want to say you get the same effect at least on Ubuntu. ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anything-ever-go-wrong-with-a-mac/573498/125 "2011-05-30T17:42:10Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Brand new Macbooks don’t have a button, per se, at all on the touchpad. Rather, the pad itself is the button. Or more precisely, the buttons. Press down on the left side of the pad, and you get a left click. Press down on the right side, and you get a right click. Admittedly, it doesn’t have any way of doing a middle-click, which is a bit annoying, but it’s seldom that you actually _need_ that, and it’ll recognize a middle-click on a separate mouse just fine (besides, do PC laptops generally have a middle-click on the built-in pointing device, either?). I think that by default, single-finger click is left button, two fingers is right, and either 3 fingers is middle, or I have the settings in BetterTouchTool confused with what the actual settings are. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anything-ever-go-wrong-with-a-mac/573498/126 "2011-05-30T20:47:50Z")
I received my new 27" iMac a couple of weeks ago. It came with a Magic Mouse. I hate it just as much as the previous mighty mouse. Even when configured to right-click, they _won’t_ properly right click. I should mention that I use them left-handed, and I don’t swap buttons (i.e., left is still left, and right is still right). So I’m still back to my ancient Logitech USB mouse (it’s been a tank!). I also ordered with it a Magic Trackpad. Right-clicking is still touch and go, but I love using it so much that I’m getting used to the sometimes-right-click. Oh, the original OP four questions back? Does anything ever go wrong with a Mac? Yeah, and I’m pissed about it. The new iMac arrived with a defective optical drive. It reads and passes bad data to the OS, and unless the OS is doing its own checksumming, the problem doesn’t get caught. I picked it up from service today, and it has the same bloody problem. I suspect they probably didn’t really change the drive. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anything-ever-go-wrong-with-a-mac/573498/127 "2011-05-30T21:18:45Z")
> [@](#): > > I think that by default, single-finger click is left button, two fingers is right, and either 3 fingers is middle, or I have the settings in BetterTouchTool confused with what the actual settings are. Must be a BTT thing… I just tried that and it doesn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anything-ever-go-wrong-with-a-mac/573498/128 "2011-05-30T23:46:25Z")
Macs get infected with spyware and malware. There have been at least four new infections detected in the last month: [Remove Mac Defender (Uninstall Guide)](http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-mac-defender) > [@](#): > > \*\*Mac Defender \*\*is a fake rogue anti-spyware program that for the Mac OS operating system. This infection is spread through the use of advertisements on web sites that pretend to be fake online scanners. When these fake scans are finished, it will state that your computer is infected and then automatically download the Mac Defender program onto your computer. Once the program has finished downloading, the installer will start and prompt you to install the program. > > Once the program is installed it will be configured to start up automatically when you login to your Mac. Once running it will pretend to scan your computer and then state that there are numerous files on your computer that are infected. If you attempt to clean these fake infections, though, the program will state that you must first purchase a license before it will allow you to do so. After the scan the Control Center screen for Mac Defender will be updated to state that your computer is infected and at Risk. Regardless of the information presented by this program, you should not purchase this program as all of this information is false. > > Unfortunately, when Mac Defender is installed on your computer it will also be added to your accounts Login Items so that the program is launched every time you login to your Mac. As there is no Dock icon for this application, it is also not easily closed and will instead require you to terminate its process through the Activity Monitor before you are able to remove the application from your computer. The others are similar: [Remove Mac Protector (Uninstall Guide)](http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-mac-protector) [Remove Mac Guard or MacGuard (Uninstall Guide)](http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-mac-guard) [Remove Mac Security or MacSecurity (Uninstall Guide)](http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-mac-security) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anything-ever-go-wrong-with-a-mac/573498/129 "2011-05-31T01:13:16Z")
Of course, the only way those can get a foothold at all is by people deliberately downloading and running them, despite the warnings from the OS that it’s a program downloaded from the Internet and might not be safe, and that they shouldn’t give their administrator password unless they trust the program. At that level, there’s nothing you can do to make an OS secure. And of course, those programs also only manage to get users to do that by telling them that it’s a security package. If a user were convinced (incorrectly, but understandably) that it was impossible for a Mac to get infected, they’d actually end being safe from those. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anything-ever-go-wrong-with-a-mac/573498/130 "2011-05-31T01:22:41Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Of course, the only way those can get a foothold at all is by people deliberately downloading and running them, despite the warnings from the OS that it’s a program downloaded from the Internet and might not be safe, and that they shouldn’t give their administrator password unless they trust the program. Not so. The latest MacGuard variant [does not require an administrator password to install](http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Mac-Defender-variant-doesn-t-require-admin-password-1250910.html). ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anything-ever-go-wrong-with-a-mac/573498/131 "2011-05-31T01:43:08Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Must be a BTT thing… I just tried that and it doesn’t work. You’re right - the two fingers is a native setting, and the three-finger click requires an additional program. (now that I’m at home and can work on it) ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anything-ever-go-wrong-with-a-mac/573498/132 "2011-05-31T01:43:40Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Not so. The latest MacGuard variant [does not require an administrator password to install](http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Mac-Defender-variant-doesn-t-require-admin-password-1250910.html). Which limits the damage you can do to the system as it is not running with admin rights. But seriously, all operating systems are vulnerable to this as the security that is failing is not anything on the OS level, but failure at the user level. When it comes down to it, if the user runs stuff that isn’t from a trusted source Then there is little the OS creator can do. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anything-ever-go-wrong-with-a-mac/573498.md?page=6)