Mac security - noob questions

Hi,
I recently got a Mac mini for home use. I am wondering how secure my files are if I give someone else an account on my computer.
Also, my housemate wants me to use a filer and keep my files stored there for backup purposes rather than on my computer itself.
Would he be able to access and open my files or is there some way that I could keep them from being opened?
Please help, I know nothing about Macs.

Hello Gira, welcome to discussions.
I am wondering how secure my files are if I give someone else an account on my computer.
If they need to use your computer, create another user account on your system for them... and limit their access. Don't give that user account admin privileges of any kind.
For added protection of your own files, you might want to consider using encrypted disk images.
wants me to use a filer and keep my files stored there for backup purposes rather than on my computer itself.
I'm not sure what this means... but it sounds like your housemate wants you to store files on a network server of some kind. If you have files that you don't want anyone to access... don't do this.
Would he be able to access and open my files or is there some way that I could keep them from being opened?
If the files aren't stored on your own computer, I'm sure there are ways for others to open and view your stuff. Your best protection is to keep your own files on your own computer, in a secured fashion. You can try filevault, or encrypted disk images.

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Switching to mac, basic noob questions

Hi, I'm new to this. I have some xmas and bday money and i need a laptop. I have two desktop PC's (one XP and one Vista) and have had PC's all my life. I feel like switching it up and giving macs a try, it would make my purchase more fun. I've done some research and i think i want the black macbook with 2 gigs of ram. Here are some questions i need answered before going much further.
1.) I notice that every 6 months new macbook models come out. I also noticed that the last three (at least) have been very similar in hardware. Is it common that the new macbook probably coming out in the summer will be unvieled at macworld? If there is a big difference i might wait, i don't want to get the last model in a product line. Id the difference is another slight processor speed increase i won't bother waiting. As far as i know this isn't available information yet, so i'm just looking for a 'usually they do/don't' type of response.
2.) Is the apple care support really all it's cracked up to be? I'm not about to let my purchase go to waste on me, but at the same time if the support is rarely needed i might not bother. I'm a student and don't have too much money to blow if it's usually a waste. I generally like getting the warrenty for my things, i'm just looking for a more experienced opinion.
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Hi Thomes08!
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
It sounds like you're in the process of making an excellent decision to go with a 2.2GHz "BlackBook" and up your RAM to 2.0GB. I think you'll be extremely pleased with your purchase.
1.) Unfortunately, these forums are not designed to be used as a means of product speculation. Matter of fact, it's against the Terms of Use (of these discussion pages) to speculate on upcoming product releases. We'll have to wait the 2-weeks for Mac World to see what comes out, there's no way to have any insight into the excitement that Steve's Keynote brings to technology.
2.) I'm a big fan of AppleCare, mostly because it ensures peace of mind over the reliability of my product for the 3-years that it'll serve as my primary machine. While, I've had multiple Macs last beyond 3-years, I also typically swap it out for the "latest and greatest." Especially with a portable and your student discount. The cost of APP for a MacBook is a relatively "no brainer" especially if you consider the cost (for parts & labor) of even the most basic repairs if the machine falls out of warranty.
3. I'm not entirely familiar with the logistics of the agreement that Apple has with Best Buy, so I'd rather not speculate. I do know that Apple also offers financing options through BML (Bill Me Later) and Juniper Bank, but I'm unfamiliar with the specifics of a split payment. Buying an Apple product through Best Buy still entitles you to all the same "benefits" of ownership, so there's no advantage (or disadvantage) to shop @ Best Buy.

Noob questions...windows emulation on mac OS 10.4

getting my ibook later this week and was wondering about windows emulation. i don't have an intel processor in my ibook (obviously), so what's your recommendation for a product that runs windows on a mac? and, total noob question, do i have to buy a copy of windows? i already have windows on my dell laptop.
thanks in advance for your help.

Hello,
so, do the new macbooks have some kind of software
pre-installed that runs windows? my friends who just
got a macbook tells me he can run windows programs if
he needs to.
The MacBooks have Intel processors in them. So, no emulation is necessary. They can directly install and run Windows if they want.
The reason you need a program like Virtual PC on an iBook is because it uses a PowerPC processor which Windows cannot communicate with. And, the PowerPC Mac's architecture is completely different.
So, that means you need a program like Virtual PC to completely emulate an entire PC computer. Basically, it is a program that simulates a real computer and then translates those Intel instructions into PowerPC instructions that your iBook can understand.
There is a severe performance penalty for all this translation. The iBook G4 will not perform like a regular Windows PC. It will be much slower, and you will need to be more patient. With a G4 iBook, you could reasonably expect your performance to be comparable to a 300 MHz PC running Windows XP.
With a 1.8 GHz iMac G5 and 2 GB of RAM, I was experiencing performance comparable to a 1.3 GHz Intel Celeron system with 256 MB of RAM (which I happened to have around for comparison).
But, for more intensive tasks, the performance was more comparable to a 500 MHz system.
Anyway, back to the Intel Macs. Those machine's only need a free Apple Utility "Boot Camp" to provide the drivers and create a Windows compatible boot partition:
http://www.apple.com/bootcamp/
And, then they need Windows XP Home or Pro. That's it.
With programs like Parallels, they can run Windows inside the Mac OS (or along side it) much like you would with Virtual PC:
http://www.parallels.com/en/products/workstation/mac/
i am trying to figure out where this might be useful
in the first place.
It is useful if you need to be able to run Windows software, but don't want to buy a PC. It's more convenient to have one machine that can do everything than it is to have a Mac and a separate PC.
Feel free to ask additional questions if you have them. Or, if you like, hit solved on the post if you feel everything is answered.
But, do let me know if I can answer any additional questions or need to re-state something clearer.

Malware " Mac Secure" attempted access to my Mac. I rebooted but now thunderbolt bridge in my preferences and I cannot clear it. Is this an attempt by malware to gain access?

I cannot remove thunderbolt bridge from preferences. Even after I rebooot it is still there . I have not clicked ok to co figure. I saw it after a malware attempt " Mac Security" . Is the the thunderbolt an attempt to access my system by malware?

Many thanks BobRz for prompt and brilliant suggestion!!!!!! It worked!!!!
Just a follow question, any idea on how to delete duplicate copies of files and music as I have tried to delete as many files as possible yet the start up disc remains full?
Thanks a lot!!!!

Mac security-browser, Java, Flash

Just now read an article about Mac security. The writer offered several tips, including—
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I cannot explain why, but my browsers started recognizing the Java plug-in when I went to the following web site by Oracle.
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New Version of Mac Security Available message??

I am having this message appear on all my Macs...New Version available. New Version of Mac Security has been downloaded and is ready to be installed. Please click "install now" to start installation. This message looks very questionable. Is it real? Should I be installing?
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If it's not a browser window, can you provide a screenshot? Press command-shift-4, then push the space bar, then click on the window. The screenshot of that window will appear on your desktop, and you can insert it in a post here using the camera icon in the post editor toolbar.

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Could someone please help me,
when i open my power book g4, an alternating Mac face and question mark appears, and no matter what I do it is still there.
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That's not quite what I was looking for.
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Thanks,
Jim

Technically your Mac can become part of a botnet if you installed something unawares of what it was.
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http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/04/evidence-suggests-first-zombie-mac-bot net-is-active.ars
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http://botnetchecker.com/
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Use OpenDNS or Google DNS instead, only take second to reconfigure the router.
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Hi,
I am simply using NetBeans 6.0.1 and the emulator QwertyDevice and the emulator platform WTK 2.5.2 for CLDC.
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Right clicking on it is not even an option, just hovering over it seems to induce a "nuclear" reset of the whole desktop and graphic card on the iMac.
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Was seen here :
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16447109#16447109
Thank you for stepping in. Good to know that people are still willing to help in this community.
Greetz to the UK from France

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I foreget my security answer questions. --app store

I foreget my security answer questions . --app store
I can not buy any thing without answeing this questions
Pls help me to repair this problem

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http://support.apple.com/kb/he37
Manage your Apple ID -
https://appleid.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/MyAppleId.woa/

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Hi all
This is another one of the extreme noob questions. I wrote a small program to read form a text file
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    try{
        FileReader inputFile = new FileReader("Test.txt"); //
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One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
without the *
The output I get is
Two
Four
Six
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Ayesha

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Corrected:
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Mac security - noob questions

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