Setting the Start-up Macintosh Operating System

On January 7, 2002, Apple Computer, Inc. announced that all new Macintosh systems will henceforth ship with Mac OS X version 10.1 or above as the default operating system at start-up. Mac OS 9.2 is still included in all Macintosh systems currently on sale, but needs to be specifically selected by making a configuration change.

While Information Systems & Computing (ISC) provides full support for Mac OS 9.x, the current default University recommendation for a Macintosh operating system is Mac OS X versions 10.1.4 and above.

For those individuals who wish to use Mac OS 9.x as their operating system, follow the steps below to change the default start-up operating system to Mac OS 9.x.

Setting Mac OS 9 as the start-up Operating System From Within Mac OS X

1. From the Apple menu, select the "System Preferences..." option. The System Preferences window appears.
2. Click the Startup Disk icon in the System section. The window changes to show the currently available operating system folders.
3. Click the Mac OS 9.x folder.
4. Click "Restart".
5. Click "Save and Restart." The computer will reboot into Mac OS 9 and continue to do so until the startup disk is changed (see next section).

Setting Mac OS X as the start-up Operating System From Within Mac OS 9

1. From the Apple menu, select the "Control Panels" and then the "Startup Disk" option. The Startup Disk window appears.
2. Click the triangle on the left to expand the list of available operating system folders.
3. Click the folder icon identified as Mac OS X in the Versions column.
4. Click "Restart". The computer will reboot into Mac OS X and continue to do so until the startup disk is changed (see previous section).

Mac OS X Resource Page