@DaveHamilton asked the audience if they had any tips on how we do clean installs that we share, so here's mine.

I just did a video for ScreenCastsOnline on how to do a clean install and I showed my method. This is, of course, a paid-for service and I am slathered in conflict of interest by telling you about it. Free trial, blah blah blah.

https://screencastsonline.com/tutorials/macos/macos-clean-install

Part of what I explained was the prep I do ahead of time. I make a mind map of my apps in three categories:
Mission Critical
High Priority
Low Priority

Then for each of those, there’s a node for "Yet to Install" and “Installed”. As I go through installing apps, I know where to start (Mission Critical) and as I install apps, I move their node from Yet to Install too Installed.

For each app, I tell future me whether an app is from the Mac App Store or the URL if it’s from the developer’s site.

On the opposite side of the mind map, I create Mission Critical, High Priority and Low Priority tasks. They’re often associated with apps but not always. This is where I put screenshots of settings and such as your other listener described. Again on the task side, I have nodes for Complete and Still to Go in each category.

Finally I’m using this same mind map now to check each app for compatibility with macOS Catalina, using color-coded bubbles to tell me when I’ve confirmed an app is ready and the source of that information.

Here’s the high level:

You’ll notice the grey box - that’s new. That’s for apps I discovered I don’t really need to install after all. I’ve been reusing this mind map over the years so I don’t have to recreate it each year, so some things fall into that last bucket eventually.

For grins and giggles - here’s a png of the entire thing. And because I’m an obedient listener, I’m sending it in the original size!

Allison Sheridan
Podfeet Podcasts at https://podfeet.com
Technology geek podcasts with an EVER so slight Apple bias!
Follow me at @podfeet