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8 useful tweaks you can easily make to your Mac’s operating system

Tuesday, August 7, 2012 · 5:23 pm · 32 Comments

“Using Terminal… you can use Unix commands to trick out your Mac in a number of ways that aren’t normally possible,” Dylan Love reports for The Business Insider.

“We found a collection of cool Unix tweaks shared by Belgian web developer Mathias Bynens,” Love reports. “Here are our favorites that you can copy and paste into Terminal.”

8 useful tweaks you can easily make to your Mac’s OS:
• Hide the useless Time Machine and Volume icons in the menu bar
• Always show the scrollbars
• Save screenshots to the Desktop by default
• Show all filename extensions in the Finder
• Allow text selection in Quick Look
• Disable the warning when changing a file extension
• Open links in the background when clicking in the Twitter app
• Stop Time Machine from prompting to use new hard drives as backup volumes

Read more in the full article here.

Categories: News

Tags: hot to, mac, Mathias Bynens, OS X, OS X Mountain Lion, Terminal, tips

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Comment Feed

32 Comments

Matt Boblett

Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 5:46 pm · Reply

For the menu bar icons, I highly recommend Bartender (MacBartender.com). It lets you hide menu icons until you want them to appear, even giving you control over if the Notification Center icon is displayed on the menu bar or just the Bartender icon. Even in Beta it works very well for me.
- Ballmer's left nut
  
  Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 6:07 pm · Reply
  
  Not sure why you would want to futz around with the menu bar icons, unless you’re packing a rinky dink MBA 11″.
  - Derek Currie
    
    Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 6:54 pm · Reply
    
    On my 13″ MacBook, I’ve often got so many running apps with menu bar icons that I hacked the name of the NoMenuBar app to just ‘No’ in order to gain some more visible space. For daily use as an obsessive power user, I require running ALL the apps running in my menu bar. That’s after pruning them down considerably.
    
    Apple originally didn’t want ANY non-Apple Mac OS X apps to add menubar icons. Hacks were required to add them. Eventually Apple gave up. Now there are more than enough apps that add menu bar icons to fill a 50″ display, if you’re crazy enough to install and run them all.
    
    I’ve been wishing for an app to deal with menu bar icons for many years.
    - Ballmer's left nut
      
      Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 7:47 pm · Reply
      
      Oftentimes a menu bar icon duplicates the function of the app appearing in the Dock (Evernote), or can be access via the Finder (Dropbox).
      
      If you find space a premium, prune your menu bar icons or get a bigger screen.
      
      I run at least 10 menu bar icons at the top of my screen and have yet to run out of space. I have both the 13″ & 15″ MBP and a 21″ iMac.
      - Derek Currie
        
        Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 7:49 pm · Reply
        
        Yeah. Like I said, you don’t understand. You also didn’t read what I wrote.
        
        Ballmer's left nut
        
        Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 7:50 pm · Reply
        
        I don’t find space a constraint because I manage my menu bar icons, unlike a disorganized person like you.
        
        Derek Currie
        
        Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 7:55 pm · Reply
        
        Again, you didn’t bother to read what I wrote. So lazy Mr. Fake Ballmer! No wonder you accumulate fat deposits, IN YOUR HEAD.
        
        Just playing with you. Now get along home. Big Brother Bill is calling for you.
        
        Ballmer's left nut
        
        Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 7:58 pm ·
        
        You wrote nonsense to the effect that you like running all of the apps all of the time together with their associated menu bar icons. I am telling you that is redundant and stupid because there are other means of accessing the same app without resorting to the menu bar icon. All it requires is an organized head, which you clearly lack.
        
        Derek Currie
        
        Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 8:03 pm ·
        
        I wrote simple and logical information. I am telling you to stop pretending you know everything and have to enforce it upon everyone just because you have control issues. Check your blood pressure. Not good.
        
        Ballmer's left nut
        
        Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 8:13 pm ·
        
        If you had answered the top half of my question without resorting to name calling in the second half of the question, no one would tell you to take a hike. But you did, so take a hike.
        
        Derek Currie
        
        Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 8:14 pm ·
        
        Look at me! I can reply to your messages!
        
        payshunz
        
        Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 8:20 pm ·
        
        now children……
Perry

Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 6:01 pm · Reply

Almost all of these options are settings in System Preferences and do not require Terminal. Am I missing something here?
- chrish1961
  
  Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 7:10 pm · Reply
  
  Nope. It’s a silly article. The only thing that doesn’t have a GUI setting (as far as I know) is the ability to select text in QuickLook.
- Tessellator
  
  Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 7:14 pm · Reply
  
  And some of the items in the menubar have more than one function. For instance: option click the volume icon in the menu bar to quickly switch between multiple audio inputs and outputs. (This shortcut in particular, I find extremely useful and use many times a day.)
  - canada
    
    Wednesday, August 8, 2012 - 3:07 am · Reply
    
    Thanks
  - FTB
    
    Wednesday, August 8, 2012 - 3:35 am · Reply
    
    you know, I found that out a few weeks ago myself on my MBP.
    on accident..
    
    Time saver.
- FTB
  
  Wednesday, August 8, 2012 - 1:32 am · Reply
  
  the “business” guys are idiots?
  
  there are a few of the “tweaks” that do need Terminal though. but the majority do not… I mean come on, System Prefs can do most of them…
  
  And he links to a posting of a ton of “tweaks” via terminal, only posts a few on the linked page.
  
  the guy uses a terminal command to require a password when the screensaver quits….
  I think the guy who wrote all the commands, has no clue what system preferences are.
  He probably used a command line to remove it…
Jim

Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 6:05 pm · Reply

Terminal users tend to forget that there are graphical equivalents:
1) Time Machine system preference has a checkbox “Show Time Machine status in menu bar”
2) Sound system preferences has a checkbox “Show volume in menu bar”
3) Finder preferences (Advanced) has a checkbox “Show all filename extensions”
4) My screen captures go to the desktop already, and I don’t have anything in my defaults like he prescribed.
- Jim
  
  Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 6:07 pm · Reply
  
  5) System Preferences, General: Show scroll bars: always (one of three options)
  
  My point would really be that sending folks off to Terminal — and away from the safety of a full-blown QA effort around GUI controls — is not very responsible behavior for someone who is trying to show people how smart he is.
- Jim
  
  Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 6:09 pm · Reply
  
  And if you can’t be bothered to use the System Preferences panes as they were designed, you can also just hold down the command key while you drag an icon off the menu bar.
- Ballmer's left nut
  
  Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 6:11 pm · Reply
  
  Why bother showing/hiding icons on the menu bar when there are acres of space to display any number of icons you want populating the screen.
  
  The more the merrier for me. More is always better, just like bigger is always better.
  - Derek Currie
    
    Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 6:59 pm · Reply
    
    See my reply to you above. You clearly don’t comprehend the utility of menu bar icons. Stick to playing with Windows Mr. Fake Ballmer.
    - Ballmer's left nut
      
      Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 7:49 pm · Reply
      
      You are obviously talking out the back of your ass.
      - Derek Currie
        
        Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 7:53 pm · Reply
        
        I feel so violated by your insult Mr. Fake Ballmer!
        
        Right. Thanks for letting us know that reality resides within your own head. We’ll keep that in mind.
        
        Ballmer's left nut
        
        Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 7:55 pm · Reply
        
        If you can’t take a bit of friendly advice, don’t dish out crap in the first place.
        
        Derek Currie
        
        Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 8:01 pm · Reply
        
        You’re making me laugh. I’m making you mad. It’s too easy. You could always attempt to do better. It’s not that hard.
        
        Cubert
        
        Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 10:25 pm ·
        
        Children…..children…..children…..
Mac Daddy

Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 6:23 pm · Reply

Ah, yes. Somebody answered a question that nobody asked.
botvinnik

Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 6:29 pm · Reply

dumb.
JBTipton

Wednesday, August 8, 2012 - 12:07 pm · Reply

Yes you DO need terminal to get rid of the annoying Time Machine dialog box that appears whenever you connect an external drive. There’s no way to do this with System Preferences.
mccfr

Wednesday, August 8, 2012 - 1:56 pm · Reply

Or just install Secrets and do all of that and more.
http://blacktree-secrets.googlecode.com/files/Secrets_1.0.6.zip