Extensions (System Preferences)

The Extensions pane of the System Preferences in macOS was developed by Apple to allow users to manage system extensions and kexts installed on their Mac.
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==History==
The Extensions preference pane adds functionality to macOS similar to the Extensions Manager from classic Mac OS.Road to Mac OS X Leopard: System Preferences by Prince McLean, AppleInsider. 2007-10-24.The untold history of macOS System Preferences by Arun Venkatesan. 2020-09-17. For earlier versions of Mac OS X, developers previously created kernel extensions (kexts) to directly modify the system's kernel, but this was deemed a security risk without a straighforward graphical user interface to manage them. The Extensions preference pane was introduced in OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) in 2014 to help manage these extensions. Apple then introduced system extensions in macOS Catalina (10.15) in 2019 as a more secure alternative to kexts that would only operate in . Starting in macOS 10.15.4, the continued use of kernel extensions would trigger a warning to the user.Apple deprecating macOS kernel extensions (KEXTs) is a great win for security, by Catalin Cimpanu, ZDNet. 2020-02-07. Support for kexts would start to be phased out in macOS Big Sur except for Apple-approved enterprise developers.Enterprise management of legacy system extensions in macOS Big Sur, Apple Support. 2020-12-08. Any legacy kexts still installed would require user approval to be loaded upon every startup.Kernel extensions in macOS, Apple Support. 2020-12-14.
==References==
==External links==
*About system extensions and macOS at Apple Support
**Change Extensions preferences on Mac
**Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac (2017-08-17)
**System Extensions at Apple Developer
Category:2014 introductions