Just got a 20-inch Intel iMac

Hi,
I just got a 20-inch Intel iMac and have couple of questions before I even open the box. I'm a PC to Mac changeover guy and I'm pretty new to to the Macintosh platform. I would appreciate your inputs to keep my system flying.
To begin with, I know that I have to upgrade my RAM to either 1.5GB or 2GB and also know Crucial is the way to go.
Apart from that, I have these questions:
1. What do I first check for after opening the box? (Dead pixels for example and etc..etc..etc..) and how do I do that?
2. Absolutely reqd tools and utilities to keep the system running at peak.
3. Absolutely reqd apps.
4. BootCamp (ofcourse) and is there a Mac OS X video conf. software that can use iSight and also can talk to PC users with any camera? Also, with BootCamp can I have multiple Windows partitions (for example having a partition for scratch disk when doing video editing)?
5.How do I make Apple DVD Player to read a DVD image (ISOs) that are lying on the hard drive? Can this also work when FrontRow is used? I have lot of personal DVDs that I bought and would like to view them from the hard drive instead of running it from the slot.
6. How do I map the Mac Keyboard to work in Windows when running on XP? Is there a Windows software that runs as a service to make it happen?
Anything else I have to do?
Rgds.

The Mac is safely nestled in a lot of styrofoam padding inside the box, so I doubt a ding on the outside can do much damage.
I like to use Onyx for running my routine maintenance. It is a great little app and it's free;
Onyx
I use Monolingual to remove language resources that build up over time as you install more 3rd party apps and Apple updates/upgrades. Also free;
Monolingual
AppZapper is great for removing apps you want to trash, especially if they did not come with an uninstaller. It can hunt down those pesky little files that sometimes hang around. US$12.95 with updates for life;
AppZapper
This is a great website for maintaining your Mac and troubleshooting problems. Dr. Smoke is an Apple Discussions contributor.
The X Lab
Just an idea for you. There is an entire Apple Discussion forum dedicated to Boot Camp and Windows XP.
Whereas, not everyone here with an Intel iMac has installed, tried to install or has experience with BC & XP, everyone there has or at least has an interest.
The Forum is at the bottom of the main Apple Discussions page under Windows Compatible Technology.
Here is a link;
Forum: Boot Camp Public Beta
I'm sure now that I have made a few suggestions that others will come out of the woodwork with their pet apps as well!

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--

Just as an update...
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All I can say is BRILLIANT!!. What a stunning machine. I had a 20 inch that I bought just 3 weeks back, but I managed to get rid of it to buy this new one.
Now that I have it on my desk at home I can really appreciate the extra 4 inches, it seems like a lot more than that.
As the Apple retail store is a 1-hour drive for me I insisted on taking it out of the box and booting it up in the store to check it out before the drive home. It was just as well that I did as there was a single stuck (black) pixel in bottom right hand corner. This would not bother most people, but I do a lot of Photoshop work and I can only imagine that I would be constantly trying to airbrush a speck out of a picture, only to discover that it was a stuck/dead pixel.
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Anyone who has a 20 inch, get rid of it and buy a 24 inch straight away. They are just awesome.
Even the staff at the Apple retail store were standing around me in absolute awe as I was checking mine out and filling in my personal details, as they did not have a demo unit on display at this time.
Other people were standing around too, a little crowd gathered; I felt like an Apple God for a moment there
The edges are not dark like somebody else mentioned, mine is nice and bright edge-to-edge. In fact is is brighter than my old (3 week old) iMac 20 inch as I have to reduce the brightness on this new 24 inch monster a little bit more to get a nice brightness that I'm used too.
I put in an extra 2 Gig of ram (2 x 1 GB sticks from my old 3-week old iMac 20 inch model), but bought the standard 24 inch model with standard graphics card. Didn't see the point in better graphics card as I don't do gaming, just inDesign and Photoshop on this machine.
This screen is also 1920x1200 so it is TRUE HD for playback of future 1920x1080i or 1920x1080p Bluray or HD DVDs, nice. If you think about it, if you popped to a local store and bought a HD-Ready TV with this resolution it would cost you a lot more than the price of the 24 inch iMac so it's like getting a HD TV with a computer thrown in for free, only cheaper
Had it turned on now for about 3 hours and have been spinning the hard drive a lot as I transfer a lot of old files from external Firewire HD and it is warm near the vents on back/top, nothing excessive though.
The fan is ever so slightly louder than old 20 inch, but again, negligible.
Well I'm off to play some more and test some DVDs etc.
In the meantime they are fantastic machines and I highly recommend them to everyone.
Buy one today, I don't care how, just get one!!!

Hey guys, didn't mean to scare anyone with that dead-pixel thing. I've had about 7 Macs over the past 5 years (since moving over from the muddy waters of Windows) and I've NEVER had a single problem. To be honest I was amazed the first 24 inch iMac I pulled out of the box actually had a stuck pixel and so were the staff. One of them tried to 'massage' it away, to no avail. It was hardly noticeable; I'm just a fussy git.
I doubt any of you guys will take delivery of one with a dead/stuck pixel, this is very rare as Apple only use grade-A LCD panels that have a high quality-control-production-line.
Anyway, howwow, you really must get a 24 inch; here's why.
I had 20 inch and spend a lot of time laying out an A4 magazine in Adobe InDesign. I thought my 20 inch Intel Imac was great until I got the 24. Now I can have a full two-page spread across the screen zoomed in 25% bigger than actual size and still have room for my pallets down the left and right hand side. With my old 20 inch iMac I had to collapse or hide certain pallets away or they were over the top of my page on the top/right hand side, which was a pain.
Another advantage of 24 over 20 is that it is much easier copying files from external to internal hard drives and vice-versa, especially when in Column view as you can have 5 columns on each window; plenty. On my 20 inch I could not get anywhere near this and had to move windows around the desktop to get them into the best space; not anymore.
Two of my friends came (almost literally) to see me last night and when they stepped into my study room and clocked the massive 24 inch iMac they both almost creamed their jeans right then and there. They were speechless; they are both windows PC users, or should I say were. The 24 inches was more than enough to convince them; well, they were both ladies They are heading for Apple retail store as I type this to buy one each. Now we all know how bloody hard it is trying to convert Windows users to Mac, the 24 inch iMac has no problem doing that.
I had a large high-def Quicktime movie playing, 6 smaller Quicktime movies playing, a DVD playing with Photobooth open and a bunch of other things, when I hit the exposé button to reveal them all at once it is just amazing on this large screen.
I've also noticed that running Adobe Photoshop and InDesign on this latest 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Due with 2 GB of RAM is a lot faster than my older (3 week old) iMac 20 inch Intel Core Due machine, that extra '2' really pushes Rosetta programmes along the rails a lot faster; it's sort of turbo charged now. This is great for me as I view InDesign stuff in OverView mode (higher res, but slower).
This new machine takes just 31 seconds to boot from a cold start by pressing the power button on the back. Fast or what. Ever watch a Windows user switch on their machine and go have a cuppa coffee whilst they wait
The graphics (and I only have bog-standard card it came with) are brilliant. Pin sharp and I've set up a custom colour calibration for the screen because of Photoshop and InDesign and it is stunning.
Only slight drawback is if you sit too close and are a fast typer, it's like watching tennis as your head looks from right to left as you type across the screen

I just restored my 24 inch imac and it seems to be running MUCH slower than before. Any Ideas why? thanks in advance for your help!

I have erased and restored my 24 inch Intel iMac. I have upgraded to the last version of X os. My system is running WAY slower than it was before. Even opening windows seems to lag and the spinning wheel come up for everything. Every task is slow, even typing this! lol
Here are my specs:
Model Name:          iMac
Model Identifier:          iMac8,1
Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:          2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors:          1
Total Number Of Cores:          2
L2 Cache:          6 MB
Memory:          4 GB
Bus Speed:          1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version:          IM81.00C1.B00
SMC Version (system):          1.30f1
Any ideas would be helpful. Is this a hardware issue?
Thanks!

Matt:
Thanks for the update. It is good to know that the maintenance procedures helped. Regular maintenance and a good backup are key to computer security. Gulliver's article has a suggested schedule. Dr. Smoke's FAQ on Backup and Recovery has excellent information and advice. I part company with him on his insistence on Retrospect, which I have found to be difficult to use. SuperDuper has been shown the best backup software in these tests.
If you usually leave your computer on or asleep, it is good practice to shut down and start up in Safe Mode occausionally. I do it about once weekly.
Good luck.
cornelius
Message was edited by: cornelius

IMAC 20 INCH INTEL WHITE USB PORTS DONT WORK

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Message was edited by: s281er238

Hi Enialreve,
Thanks for posting and welcome to the Lenovo Community,
I’d like to help you with the issue that you’re facing and I need to confirm you that all the steps that you’ve done is absolutely correct,
And as I can see that you’ve followed all the steps that we can do inside the operating system,
And I’d like to advise you that we can try to perform a recovery to get the machine back to the initial state and am sorry to ask you to take a backup from the data you need as the recovery will get the machine back as a new machine and all the Data on C: partition will be lost,
Kindly turn off the machine and connect the charger and the battery and then press on the One key recovery button which is the small one with the curve arrow,
And then the system will be booting to the recovery,
For more information about the recovery check the below link:
One Key Recovery
Hope the information helps. Let us know.
Regards
Soha
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Just got a 20-inch Intel iMac

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