Mac OS X

Gary April 25th, 2008

Customize hidden settings

These are my top preferred settings for Mac OS X, which can be changed using the defaults command line tool in Terminal.


Show Hidden Files

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder


Don’t create .DS_Store clutter on Network and Windows (non-native) volumes

defaults write com.apple.desktopservices \
  DSDontWriteNetworkStores true


Save and Print dialog boxes expanded by default

defaults write -g \
  NSNavPanelExpandedStateForSaveMode -bool TRUE
defaults write -g \
  PMPrintingExpandedStateForPrint -bool TRUE


Set default picture for Desktop and Login Screen

sudo defaults write \
  /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow \
  DesktopPicture "/Library/Desktop Pictures/Vacation Photo.jpg"


Screen captures in TIFF [or PNG] format

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type tif
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type png


Screen Sharing additional toolbar buttons

defaults write com.apple.ScreenSharing \
  'NSToolbar Configuration ControlToolbar' \
  -dict-add 'TB Item Identifiers' \
  '(Scale,Control,Share,Curtain,Capture,
    FullScreen,GetClipboard,SendClipboard,Quality)'

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