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Comments

$\"Gravatar\"$ be forewarned that these commands are tweaks that won't be covered by apple support.
www.alternapop.com | Homepage | 03.21.07 - 1:26 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Excellent article, I believe the transparency for hidden applications and using widgets on the desktop are the only ones I would possibly use though.

The only problem I saw on face value with putting widgets on the desktop is that they stay above the dock and everything Finder.
Andrew Philip Lardi | Homepage | 03.21.07 - 2:43 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Safari debug tip has never worked for me with v2 (2.0.4). Maybe it's because I don't have com.apple.safari....
scottyb | 03.21.07 - 3:23 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ These are great! Any more?
Rob | 03.21.07 - 3:40 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Anyone know how to change Mail.app's scroll/select behavior?

I'd like to be able to shift-arrow-up to select up, but be able to shft-arrow-down to unselect the last selected message. Ala Thunderbird and every other app. Thanks!
ryan | 03.21.07 - 3:40 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ How about shell commands/unix?
-
http://www.WindowsVistaUserGuide.com
Windows Vista | Homepage | 03.21.07 - 3:51 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Those are great tips. I don't like having to open Onyx just to show hidden files so I can upload a .htaccess then change it back. Is there a way to make that into a clickable script?
Brandon Hopkins | Homepage | 03.21.07 - 4:10 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ I had one problem with placing the widgets on the desktop...once you reverse the command, the widgets don't automatically go away. You have to open the Dashboard, click the \"+\", then click \"Manage\" and de-select the widgets you placed on the Desktop to take them off the Desktop. Just thought this might help.
Michael | 03.21.07 - 4:27 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ They mentioned the killall Dock thing...
if you hold shift and collapse a window it goes slowly into the dock. if you do a killall Dock command in the terminal while it's collapsing, the window freezes in it's squished state, while still allowing you to scroll in it and click links (although the links will be in their original location).
SleepingInsomniac | Homepage | 03.21.07 - 4:42 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Now, if only some clever Macdev would hack together a nice GUI, or even a PreferencePane, that would just soak up some awesomeness.

The screensaver running as backdrop sounds really neat, which I may give a whirl, but imagine it would just chew up cycles..

I came across this:
http://www.hawkwings.net/2005/10...ails-dock-icon/

Which let me change my Mail.app icon. Neat!
WTL | Homepage | 03.21.07 - 5:20 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ @Brandon Hopkins

http://automatorworld.com/downlo...idden-files.zip

Automator Script for showing/hiding hidden folders
Michael Beck | Homepage | 03.21.07 - 5:46 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ number 9 is missing the defaults write command. good list.
muller | Homepage | 03.21.07 - 8:03 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ @Michael

Try holding the Option key before moving a widget.
Changing the defaults really isn't necessary for the widget-on-the-desktop feature.
Robert | Homepage | 03.21.07 - 10:53 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ One issue I came across was when choosing to display hidden files, the icons on my desktop which were individual files became faded. Volumes shone through full-strength. A minor price to pay for displaying \" . \" files in the finder, though!
Tom | 03.21.07 - 9:51 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Is it possible to make the icons in the dock translucent, as in tip #1, when I minimize an app in the dock rather than when i hide it?
Arnoz | Homepage | 03.22.07 - 3:52 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ \"Is it possible to make the icons in the dock translucent, as in tip #1, when I minimize an app in the dock rather than when i hide it?\"

Not that I know of. The problem is you are minimizing one window rather than the whole app, so they are treated as two seperate things (even if there is only one window open for that app).

There may be a trick to do it that I'm not aware of, but it certainly won't be as easy as typing one line into the Terminal.
Matt | Homepage | 03.22.07 - 7:06 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ One time, a while ago, I did the translucent icons in the dock thing and it caused the dock to give me problems.

An alternate to Onyx is TinkerTool

If you deactivate the Widgets on desktop thing, you can easily close the widgets by holding option when you mouse over the widget. Thus creating a small X to close it with. See here for more details.

Thanks for writing up the article!
MacTipper
My Mac Blog
MacTipper | Homepage | 03.23.07 - 2:42 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ #9 \"Skip disk image verification\" is a terrible idea! For the couple seconds save, you installing risk corrupted data.
Chris Peterson | Homepage | 03.23.07 - 11:03 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ I tried using #5. Opened the terminal and cut and pasted the command. Pressed enter. Adobe Acrobat still gives me short-form save boxes. Just to be sure I closed and restarted Acrobat. No change. I restarted the computer. Same deal. What might I be doing wrong?
Ben Alpers | 03.24.07 - 4:09 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ @Chris Peterson

Admittedly skipping verification is potentially risky, however I have never had it fail. That implies that up to now I could have skipped it every time and never had a problem.

Despite that, you are correct in saying that there is a risk, and people disabling the verification should be aware of that.
Matt | Homepage | 03.24.07 - 12:48 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Ben Alpers:

That's because the hint is wrong. Setting the value \"NSNavPanelExpandedStateForSaveMode\" only affects applications that use \"NSNavPanel\" - i.e., Cocoa applications. Acrobat is a Carbon application that calls Nav Services directly, not with the Cocoa wrapper.

I don't know of a global preference key to change Nav Services for all Carbon applications, but then again, I use Default Folder X for full customization of both Cocoa and Carbon dialogs, so mine are always expanded. Great investment for power users from St. Clair Software.
Matt (not that one, another on | Homepage | 03.25.07 - 6:31 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Why mess with a great OS ? I hope none of you are Honda auto mechanics !
Rog | 03.26.07 - 4:09 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ @ michael

You can also just do the reverse of what you did to get it on the desktop, i.e. hold the widget and press the dashboard hotkey to place it back in dashboard.
Will | 03.27.07 - 1:06 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ That iTunes thing is awesome!!!!!!!
Yakov Hadash | Homepage | 04.01.07 - 8:08 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ What I would love to see is the ability to modify your files and folders from other windows other than the main finder window. I hate when I'm saving a file or opening a file from within an app and notice a file or folder is spelled wrong, or needs to be rearranged, etc.Then I have to make a mental note to come back to this point in Finder (which I never do).
Shahryar | 04.01.07 - 8:59 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ The article is quite informative.

The placement of 'Ads by Google', 'Ads by ActionAds', etc... - in the body of the article is annoying.

The random generation of 'Dynamic Context Loaded' links is misleading and pathetic.
barhar | 05.21.07 - 1:01 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ You can get the same effect as tip number two if you hold down control as you click on the arrow.

Note: I have only tested this is the Windows version of iTunes (My next computer is going to be a Mac.), but I would be surprised if didn't work on the Mac version.
Thomas | 05.29.07 - 12:45 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ You're right, except that on the Mac version you have to hold Option (Alt) instead of control.

Using control just brings up the contextual menu.
Matt | Homepage | 05.29.07 - 1:11 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ i tried the setting screensaver on desktop tip via the terminal but kept getting this message in terminal:

-bash: /System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/: is a directory

and then nothing more would happen!!
rlh | 06.30.07 - 9:44 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ If you copy and paste number 6, it puts a space after \"...Resources/\" as the command is split between two lines.

Try copy/pasting the first line and then the second line separately, or just type the command in.
Matt | Homepage | 06.30.07 - 10:51 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Matt,

Thanks for the info. Yup, it works.
rlh | 07.04.07 - 6:50 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ The terminal hack for turning a screen saver into wallpaper was a bit advanced for me. So after searching google I found a program that does exactly that, but with one click.

The program is called Wallsaver and its a free download from this website: http://www.nwwnetwork.net/softwa...p?app=wallsaver

The author (aparently from his blog) works for Apple, and it shows in how easy the application is to use and it even looks nice too!
Meeshaan | 09.13.07 - 7:55 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ How do you get finder to sort column view so that Folders are always on top?

That is the #1 reason why I can't put up with using finder. And probably the main reason why PathFinder has sales.
123 | 11.30.07 - 4:58 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Good advices - thanx.
Btw: \"If you post a comment on someone else's blog, and you include your own url, Google will pick this up as a link\" - free SEO $\"\"$
Soren | Homepage | 12.17.07 - 9:51 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ the screensaver command doesnt work
jhjkhkj | 01.10.08 - 11:07 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Someone asked about a clickable show/hide system files script.
Well you can download just that as an app from HERE

Ron
Ron Skingley | Homepage | 01.26.08 - 9:08 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ hey is there a terminal command to unlock all the prefernces? tht wuld be awesome
Shamrocker | 03.10.08 - 6:38 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ I tried number 3, and the widgets are showing up on top of all windows. Is this supposed to happen?
Adam | 03.27.08 - 7:11 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ does this work on leopard????

AW
Anthony | Homepage | 03.31.08 - 11:37 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Yes, everything should work in leopard
Julius | 04.11.08 - 6:27 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ I cant get the hidden icons one (the 1st ) to work any tips?
Tom | 04.28.08 - 6:23 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ hi
sandilyan | Homepage | 07.03.08 - 4:16 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Anyone know if there's a way to change the desktop background (as opposed to the login window background), and change the system preference settings like \"Centered\" vs \"Stretched\", along with the desktop background fill colour?

So far, the only thing I can do is overwrite whatever file is being used, and reboot the machine. This seems inelegant. $\"\"$

Thanks.
Paul | 07.21.08 - 3:51 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ cool, i always run maintenance commands, keeps the mac runnin' smooth:

sudo sh /etc/daily

sudo sh /etc/weekly

sudo sh /etc/monthly
BadDaddy | 07.23.08 - 8:26 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ for the dock one just hold down the left mouse button and press f4 to take/put back items
James | 07.27.08 - 12:28 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ I can't seem to make this work, can someone help me? I'm trying the dashboard one, please help.
john | 09.03.08 - 4:19 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Umm. what a bunch of duche! None this stuff works for me!!!
Anonymous | 09.16.08 - 5:33 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ @WTL
\"Now, if only some clever Macdev would hack together a nice GUI, or even a PreferencePane, that would just soak up some awesomeness.\"

Check out a Preference Pane called Secrets. Its basically a GUI that does these, and a whole ton more.

http://secrets.blacktree.com/
uxp | 09.19.08 - 3:21 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Terminal Commands:

telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl
(Star Wars Episode IV in almighty ASCII)
Dane | Homepage | 09.23.08 - 3:29 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ hey i was fiddling around with smackbook and i was wondering if you know how to get it to change songs in itunes when you smack the laptop. thanks!
scott | Homepage | 10.03.08 - 10:28 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ when i try to show hidden files using

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

terminal says that the defaults command is not found what does that mean/do i do? thanks
isabelle | 10.19.08 - 2:12 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ WOW! cool i love them! they all worked. Are there any more?
william | 10.28.08 - 2:32 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ I HAVE A PROBLEM AFTER TRYING THIS TERMINAL CODES IN MY FILES WHAT EVER I OPEN I WILL BE SEEN ALL HIDDEN FILES LIKE (.DS_STORE AND MANY MORE FILES )SO I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT TO DO,I HAVE TRIED ALL INVERSE COMMAND'S ALSO AFTER TRYING ACTUAL COMMANDS.BEFORE I HAVE PROBLEM OF HARDDISK IT'S ICON IS NOT SHOW BUT NOW I CAN SEE IT THANK U FOR IT,AND RECTIFY MY HIDDEN FILES PROBLEM.
UMESH | 11.11.08 - 12:24 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Cool! But, is there any way to hide files that an application cannot open from open/save dialogues?
Vincent van Veen | 11.20.08 - 11:22 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ um. i cannot get these to work. i copy and paste the code into the terminal window and no go. i copy and paste the code into the command window and no go. i paste the code in both places, respectively, with the \"killall dock\" command after and no go. any suggestions?
m | 12.11.08 - 12:54 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ 50 more Tricks
http://www.mactricksandtips.com/...l-commands.html
afshar | 01.16.09 - 11:45 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Does anyone know if you can tell terminal to make the dashboard widgets on your desktop to stay behind all open windows???
Connor | 04.27.09 - 3:13 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Hey I like that system stats one! Hadn't seen that. There another 40 here: http://www.leftcolumn.net/2009/0...minal-commands/
Joe | Homepage | 04.29.09 - 12:51 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ I like all tips. This post is great!
Coolzrock | Homepage | 05.09.09 - 10:45 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ it doesnt matter... Apple genius' wont b e able to tell, and even if they can, they cant say that you did that... its part of their policy... trust me, do what ever you want to you comp and they will take care of you
Apl Dood | 06.19.09 - 9:56 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ i downloaded a book. when i tried to open the file i was told i needed adobe, which i downloaded. since then then i am having trouble viewing and printing my e mail as well as text size issues. what to do?
dave | 06.28.09 - 3:45 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ i tried the widget on the desktop command but the widget seems to stay on top of all my windows not just my desktop
please help
freddy | 07.12.09 - 7:01 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Another GUI: http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs2...ish/deeper.html
Bj�rn Ingenhouz | 07.14.09 - 8:00 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ for the people who couldnt get the screensaver on your desktop to work you can use wallsaver

http://www.wallsaverapp.com/
wyatt | 07.21.09 - 4:18 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Hey guys this is a nice post. And has helped me a great deal with what i'm trying to do.

I am creating a post script that upon user login, will set various system preferences settings, that don't stick after creating an amended user template that mac uses for new accounts.

Things like bluetooth off, stop time machine from offer new disks, screen saver setups etc.

Now I have found the preference file for the time machine setting I just mentioned, and can use the defaults command to enabled it or not.

For the life of me I cannot find the preference file let alone the domain/key for the bluetooth setting that turns it off from the menu bar. I found blueutil which turns bluetooth on or off, which is great, but nothing for this simple setting. It can be easily turned off in sys prefsbluetooth, and once a user logs out then back in, the setting sticks, so there has to be a pref somewhere or a setting within one.

I've looked in the users Library/Preferences/ByHost folder and there is a com.apple.Bluetooth.########.plist there, where ###### is the mac address of the machine, someone told me, yet nothing in that pref file about the menu bar setting.

And cannot find any pref file for the menu bar. I cannot find anything in any of the sys prefs plists files either.

This is a long post I know. I have searched google to no avail and come across this post, and any help would be appreciated.

Cheers Chris.
Chris | 08.07.09 - 2:40 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Wow these are all really cool things I LOVE Mac OSX hacks LOL...
Mr Sir | Homepage | 09.02.09 - 7:38 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ is there a way to permanately hide the dock? so that it ONLY appears by using a hot key?
david | 09.17.09 - 8:00 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ how do I execute this instruction:

Terminal
Launch a new terminal window and copy and paste:
sudo /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit /etc/hosts

how do I launch a new terminal window

I lost my serial number and someone said I could install using the instructions in a text doc. I understand all but that.
jackhammer | 11.18.09 - 2:08 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ This is great stuff, as long as it doesn't crash my apple!

I have a question, very basic I'm sure. How do you type these in? The Mac Help examples work but for these commands here, where do I start?

I mean after, my name and the $ I have an odd looking cursor, which is where I type. I get that. But the commands you list here, how do I correctly type them in? What word do I start with?

Very Basic to many of you I'm sure. Thanks

Nice work folks!
Scott | 11.22.09 - 5:44 pm | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Just start with defaults write com.apple... etc.

For example you can just copy and paste

defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES

and then hit return. They shouldn't crash your Mac, but bear in mind this is quite an old article and some of them may just do nothing now. There are more recent articles for Leopard and Snow Leopard:

http://macosxtips.co.uk/index_fi...ow-leopard.html

http://macosxtips.co.uk/index_fi...in-leopard.html

Also, there is a category on the site for Terminal tips in general:

http://macosxtips.co.uk/index_fi...y-terminal.html
Matt | Homepage | 11.22.09 - 5:55 pm | #

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