What is "wheel" security permission? What happens if you reset "everyone"?

"Wheel" is a special type of group (it's not a permission.) It is a Unix group specifically intended for only those users who have rights to su as root.

You should not make any changes to pre-existing users and groups or their respective privileges. Removing or altering the "wheel" group may lead to system malfunctions and your inability as an admin user to obtain temporary root status using sudo.

It's apparent that you do not know what you are doing hence the reason for you're asking, so my suggestion is that you do not change anything until you know exactly the consequences of doing so. In particular you should never make any changes inside the /System/Library/ folder, and you should be extremely careful about any changes in the /Library/ folder. In general stay away from all the system folders unless you know what you are doing. Also, do not move, rename, or delete any system folders.

To learn more about the insides of OS X I suggest buying some books on Unix and Unix in OS X.

All admin users are part of the wheel group, so if you're an admin user you belong to the group. However, the wheel group is not necessarily a group to which all files/folders belong. There are specific system files and folders that have wheel's group privileges. That means if you are in the wheel group then you have the privileges of that group assigned to the file or folder. That file or folder is in effect accessible to all who belong to the wheel group.

The only way a downloaded file would obtain wheel rights is if you downloaded it into a folder that already belonged to the wheel group. If that be the case then you are downloading into a system folder which is not what you should do. Downloads should go to the default folder which is the /Home/Downloads/ folder. That folder is owned by you and has read/write privileges. There is no group membership, and Everyone has No Access.

I'm not sure why you believe that commercial software developers put spyware in their programs to track you. That's a bit paranoid. But, if you believe that's true then why are you downloading anything? In fact, why are you even on the Internet which is riskier than downloading software? Downloading a program doesn't mean it comes with any permissions. All files on your computer get permissions from the user and/or the folders into which the files are placed. Otherwise the software comes with an installer and the permissions are then determined by the installer. The permissions assigned by the installer are usually determined by where things are stored on the computer and the default permissions in those locations.

Again, I suggest you buy a book or two so you can become better educated about the whole area of file permissions. Or do a Google search on the subject.

The group wheel as in *"Big Wheel"* implies members of this group have lots of power. They are the Big Cheese, Top Banana, etc...

I thought Linux (which Mac is based on???)

Mac OS X is based on the Carnege Mellon University MACH micro-kernel with the FreeBSD Unix system APIs and most of the FreeBSD commands and utilities. Add in a mix of other Open Source Unix projects to round out the mix.

So not exactly Linux. But it is safe to say that the Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X (the Unix side), Solaris, HP-UX, AIX all leave a similar taste in your mouth 🙂

offered a lot of Free downloads to enhance the confusing, yet enthralling Experience of Not being a PC user...hahhah... Yeah a Big Wheel.... ..

On the Unix side of Mac OS X, there are tons of Open Source projects that may be installed. The easiest way to get these are via
<http://www.macports.org/>
<http://www.finkproject.org/>

And on the Mac OS X GUI side there are a ton as well.
<http://www.VersionTracker.com/macosx/>
<http://www.MacUpdate.com/>

I forgot to ask too...why does "staff" or "everyone" appear in the Sharing & Permissions on some apps? and does it hurt to just make "everyone" a "no access", if you keep permissions for admin?

Do not do that, otherwise, you will be back here asking why your Mac stopped working.

Many files are owned by root, and you get your execute and read access via "everyone".

Really, as has been mentioned before. You are better off leaving the permissions set as they are.

If you wish to change the permissions on 1 or 2 files, and you have a valid reason for doing that, then have fun (keep notes, and be ready to restore the original permissions if it doesn't work as expected).

However, making global permission changes generally results in the user performing an Archive & Install, or a "Nuke and Pave" (1).

(1)Nuke and Pave" - erase disk and install everything from scratch <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuke andpave>