I love tabbed windows and I use them everywhere I can, whether instant messaging in iChat to hoarding sites in Safari. Now you can get tabbed windows in Mac OS X’s Finder! TotalFinder is a really cool app that brings full tab functionality to the Mac desktop, allowing you to not only create tabs of Finder windows, but also the ability to drag and drop files into the tabs (and thus, the folder), and you can create a new tab by just dragging a directory to the tab bar!

This is one of the best desktop hacks I’ve ever seen on a Mac, and based on the improved usability I wouldn’t be surprised if we see tabbed Finder windows in later versions of Mac OS X.

TotalFinder is actually a SIMBL plugin, and is still under development. Technically in alpha mode, it worked well enough to be completely usable and it didn’t crash on me during testing. I’ve seen a few user reported bugs when using the split window tab mode, but I’m sure they’ll be ironed out quickly by the developer.

If you’re a fan of tabbed windows, don’t miss this.

TotalFinder Developer home
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[ BinaryAge via GraphicMac ]

You can change the Mac OS X login screen background picture using a few different methods. We have covered this tip before but it was based around a few Terminal commands that might not be easy to follow for the average Mac user without command line experience. With that in mind, here are ways to change the Mac login wallpaper:

Change the Mac Login Screen Background

This is the easiest way to change the Mac’s login window background picture, you simply copy a new background image file over the old one via the Finder.

* Change the image of the file you want to use as the new login background to ‘DefaultDesktop.jpg’ – note that it must be a JPG file!
* Hit Command+Shift+G to bring up the ‘Go To Folder’ window

* Type or paste in the following directory path: /System/Library/CoreServices/
* Within this directory, locate the file ‘DefaultDesktop.jpg’ and copy it somewhere else on your hard drive, so that you have a backup of the original.
* Now drag the new image file you want to use as the login background (also named DefaultDesktop.jpg) into the /System/Library/CoreServices/ folder
* You will be presented with a dialog box telling you the file cannot be modified without authentication, click on ‘Authenticate’ – you may need to enter your Admin password

* After authentication, the copy should go as intended, and your Mac login background is now changed! Reboot to see the difference:

The above screenshot is dated from our past article, but this method has been tested and works in Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6! You can further also customize the Mac login screen, by changing the Mac logo and whatnot.

iTunes 9 is great and has a lot of improvements, but changing the background color in Grid view from the nice easy-on-the-eyes dark to the bright retina torching white is not on my happy list. Now they made this different recently but Manish is still am not thrilled. Thankfully French designer Damien Erambert has come up with an easily installable hack to change the grid mode colors in iTunes 9 back to an attractive dark color scheme.

Developer home
Download now (intel only)

I love icons and customizing my Mac desktop, so I decided to share with you all my personal bookmark list of free mac icons. These are the sites I visit when I want to change my Mac appearance and all the icons that define the OS X desktop and dock. Of course if you’re on the other end of the spectrum and you hate icons you can hide all desktop icons in Mac OS X, but that’s not the purpose of this article. You are here for great icons, so if you too are an icon geek, look no further.

Artua: Free Mac Icons – the QuickTime X icons here are simply beautiful. The Mac OS Finder icon at the top of this article is from this set, highly recommended.

WeLoveIcons – as the name suggests, they love icons and it shows. Tons and tons of hand selected and beautiful icons, some are individual others are sets, covering a wide range of themes. If you like icons, bookmark this site.

InterfaceLift: Icons for Mac – very diverse sets of icons and literally thousands to choose from, icon overload!

IconDrawer: Free Icons – varying themes, I think the Black & Blue set of Mac OS X icons is particularly attractive. There’s 2 good sets of Holiday and Christmas themed icons too and we’re quickly approaching that season.

A2591: Container & Cargo Icons – several icon sets featuring various types of containers and cargo boxes, very unique.

YellowIcon: Star Wars icons & more – who doesn’t love Star Wars icons? Yellow Icon has a great set of Star Wars icons and many others, some free to download and others are paid.

HongKiat: iMac & MacBook icon sets – pretty much the definitive list of Mac hardware icons, covering the MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac Mini. If you want hardware icons look here first.

Apple.com: Icons & Screensavers – I’m a little disappointed that Apple still lumps the icons and screensavers together, but nonetheless they have a really excellent collection of icons. The staff picks are almost always great, be aware that some icon sets are considered shareware so not technically free.

If you want to change the wallpaper that sits in the background of your Mac’s login screen, from the Finder hit Command+Shift+G to open the ‘Go to Folder’ screen. Type /System/Library/CoreServices/ and click ‘Go’:

Next, find the image file called ‘DefaultDesktop.jpg’ – you should save a copy of this somewhere safe, or rename it to DefaultDesktop-backup.jpg or something of the sort, so that you can revert your changes.

After that file is safely backed up, add the new wallpaper image you want to use as the login background, naming it exactly the same as the previous file: DefaultDesktop.jpg

That’s all there is to it! Reboot and your login wallpaper is now whatever you set it to. This works to change the login background in Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6

It’s that time of year again, just 9 days before Christmas! You can get even more in the spirit by decking out your Mac, so here’s some resources to do just that. From making it snow on your Mac desktop, to virtual christmas lights, holiday music, and themed wallpaper, we’ve got you covered. Merry Christmas!

Mac Desktop Christmas Lights, Snow Screensaver, Desktop Christmas Tree!

Download 20 Free Christmas Songs from Apple

Free Holiday inspired wallpaper from LifeHacker

Secrets is a pretty nifty system preference panel add-on that lets you access all sorts of hidden ’secret’ preference options. Instead of typing a bunch of default write commands you can basically just click checkboxes or change dropdown options to easily enable some pretty cool stuff.

It’s pretty comprehensive, with a bunch of options for Safari, Dock, Finder, Xcode, and so much more. There’s really too much to list, so if you like tweaking with your Mac’s settings, install secrets to make your life easier.

Download now
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[ TUAW via Gizmodo ]

With a little bit of hacking and modification, you can add up to 24 additional visual effects to iChat video conferencing and Photo Booth! Read more »

We have discussed SnowFall just about every holiday season for the past few years because it’s really that great of a screensaver for the winter and holiday season. It is so great that Apple has featured it in their Apple Stores around the holidays on numerous occasions, so if it has Apple’s seal of approval, it has ours.

SnowFall is delightfully simple but absolutely beautiful with it’s 3d rotating snow flakes, you can customize the screen saver in regards to how many snowflakes are falling, how fast they are going, the background color, the background image, and whether you want stripes or no stripes on the background. Here are some screenshots showing the customization and diversity of the screensaver, but I assure you screenshots do this screen saver absolutely no justice, you just need to install it yourself to see how beautiful it really is.

Download SnowFall Now

Installing SnowFall ScreenSaver in Mac OS X:
* Drag the SnowFall.qtz file into ~/Library/Screen Savers/
* Launch System Preferences and under “Desktop & ScreenSavers” you’ll be able select SnowFall
* Adjust settings as you see fit
* Enjoy falling snow on your Mac screen saver!

I saw someone at a local coffee shop with a spiffy skull & crossbones style sticker stuck on their MacBook Pro, but in place of the skull was the usual Apple logo that naturally glows. I didn’t get a chance to ask them where they got it, but when I got home I searched around and finally found someone on Etsy selling the little apple crossbone stickers for $3. I picked one up but they seem to sell out quick, so check back or just contact the seller.

Etsy: LastFuse