Here’s a little-known secret that very few people know — even though Apple has done nothing to keep it a secret. One $29.99 purchase of Lion gets you an unlimited license to download it on as many Macs as you like. And it’s super simple to do, too.
Mac App Store
Corporate logic would dictate that one install of an operating system would equate to one purchase. But that’s not true of Lion, Apple’s latest iteration of its popular OS X operation system. With Lion, one purchase equals as many installations as you please — on as many computers as you like.
Say you’ve already downloaded and installed Lion on your primary Mac, but you want to put it on a second machine. Maybe it’s your spouse’s Mac, or a parent or child, or even a friend, for that matter. Heck, it can be your boss at work if you want to suck up. Or just a total stranger on the street. You can give anyone you want a free download of Lion. Whether they use an iMac or a MacBook, it doesn’t matter. And it won’t cost you one extra cent. You just have to get brief access to their computer. Here’s what to do.
- On the second (or third, or fourth, etc.) Mac you want to install Lion on, open the Mac App Store.
- Go to the “Store” drop-down menu, and click on “Sign Out.” Then go back to the same menu and click “Sign In.”
- Here’s the key point. When the drop-down menu appears, sign in to this computer using the Apple ID that you used to download your original purchase of Lion.
Click on the “Purchased” tab at the top of the App Store. You’ll be presented with a list of every app you’ve ever downloaded for your Mac. Find “OS X Lion” on this list. It should look like this:
- To the far right of Lion should be a button that says “Install.” Click it. You’ll probably get another drop-down menu asking for your password again. Just put it in and your download will begin immediately.
- Once the download is complete (which will take a while — it’s 4GB in size after all!) and the installation is done, remember to go back to the Mac App Store and sign out, so the user of this computer can sign back in with their Apple ID.
