By Sam Oliver

Published: 09:25 AM EST (06:25 AM PST)

Coinciding with today's release of Apple's latest operating system upgrade, Snow Leopard, support documents, printer drivers, and a list of incompatible software have been made available to ease the transition.

The new official support documents on Apple's Web site provide info on Finder and the desktop, printing, and known incompatible software.

Incompatible software

By default, Snow Leopard disables some software that is known to be incompatible with the new operating system. Upon installation, the OS will move the problematic applications to a folder named "Incompatible Software" on the user's hard drive. In addition, Snow Leopard prevents users from opening that software.

The following applications are moved to the "Incompatible Software" folder by default upon installation:

• Parallels Desktop, ver. 2.5 and earlier
  
• McAfee VirusScan, ver. 8.6
  
• Norton AntiVirus ver. 11.0
  
• Internet Cleanup 5 ver. 5.0.4
  
• Application Enhancer ver. 2.0.1 and earlier
  
• Unsanity
  
• AT&T Laptop Connect Card ver. 1.0.4, 1.0.5, 1.10.0
  
• launch2net ver, 2.13.0
  
• iWOW plug-in for iTunes ver. 2.0
  
• Missing Sync for Palm Sony CLIE Driver ver. 6.0.4
  
• TonePort UX8 Driver ver. 4.1.0
  
• ioHD Driver ver. 6.0.3
  
• Silicon Image SiI3132 Drivers ver. 1.5.16.0

In addition, the following software is restricted from opening within Snow Leopard:

• Parallels Desktop ver. 3.0
  
• VirusBarrier X4 ver. 10.4.4 and earlier
  
• SPSS 17 ver. 17.1
  
• Director MX 2004 ver. 10.2
  
• EyeTV ver. 3.0.0 to 3.1.0
  
• Ratatouille ver. 1.1
  
• Aperture ver. 2.1.1 and earlier
  
• Keynote ver. 2.0.2 and earlier
  
• AirPort Admin Utility for Graphite and Snow ver. 4.2.5

New printer drivers

Apple states that printing with Snow Leopard is "easier and better than ever." The following new features have been added to the operating system's printing capabilities:

• Apple's Software Update will automatically provide you with third-party printer software and updates.
  
• "Nearby Printers" is a list of available printers that will appear right inside your printer dialog box. Adding a nearby printer is just a selection away.
  
• You can simply connect a USB printer and the print queue will be automatically created.
  
• You can create a PDF document from any application and have an automated workflow process it.

Apple's support downloads page has a list of driver downloads for a number of different printers. Made available this week were drivers for Xerox, Lexmark, Canon, FujiXerox, Epson, HP, Lanier, Gestetner, Gutenprint, Ricoh, Brother, Samsung, NRG, Infotec, and Savin.

More help with Snow Leopard, including downloads, manuals and tutorials, is available at the official Mac OS X 10.6 support page.