Some hidden Mac OS X settings

December 14th, 2007

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!


Just ran across this blog post which list 15 settings in Mac osx that can only be accessed from the terminal. Below are what I think are some of the more useful ones.

Note: The terminal is located in the Utility folder which is in the Applications folder.

1. defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES
Makes hidden applications’ dock icons translucent. NO to reverse.
Translucent dock icons hidden applications

This one is pretty useful because it makes it so you can easily tell which windows are buried and which ones are hidden.
6. /System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background
Displays the currently chosen screen saver to be shown as the desktop background. Press Control-C or Command-. to stop. More details here.

Haven’t tried this one yet, but sounds pretty awesome.

13. defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
Shows hidden files in the finder. Replace TRUE with FALSE to hide hidden files again

Always useful, especially when making .dmgs.

15. defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES
Deactivates Dashboard. Requires the dock to be relaunched to take effect, so type “killall Dock” and press enter. Replace YES with NO to enable again.

The dashboard is not something I use very often, and I’m sure it takes up a bunch of memory.

What are your favorites?

Buy Jason a cup of coffee.

Posted in Apple | No Comments »