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How to Stop “Upgrade to MacOS Sonoma” Notifications on Macs

Feb 13, 2024 - 9 Comments
Stop the notifications to upgrade to macOS Sonoma

Are you tired of seeing the “Upgrade to macOS Sonoma” notifications on your Mac running Ventura or Monterey? If so, you can hide those notifications and stop the “Upgrade to macOS Sonoma” nagging on your Mac. It’s not unusual for Mac users to continue running older versions of system software, well after a new version … Read More

How to Speed Up Auto-Showing/Hiding Dock on MacOS

Feb 12, 2024 - 17 Comments
The Mac Finder icon

A subtle way that you can tweak MacOS to make it feel a little faster is to speed up the auto-hiding and auto-showing time of the Dock. This obviously only applies to Mac users who hide their Dock by default, and the emphasis needs to be on feel faster because while this is removing a … Read More

How to Get the Older Style MacOS Alert Dialog Back

May 12, 2022 - 1 Comment
Older Mac alert dialog window style

MacOS Monterey and MacOS Big Sur introduced a new style to the MacOS alert dialog boxes, which look more like something you’d see in iOS than MacOS. In the new design style for MacOS alert dialog windows, everything is centered with the app icon on the top and the alert messages below, whereas the older … Read More

How to Change or Remove Font Smoothing on MacOS Monterey & Big Sur

Apr 6, 2022 - 7 Comments
How to Change or Remove Font Smoothing on Mac

Are you noticing blurry text on your Mac’s display while navigating through the menu and across apps? More specifically, has this been an issue ever since you updated to macOS Monterey or Big Sur, and on a non-retina display? If so, chances are, font smoothing is enabled by default, and for some users they feel … Read More

How to Get Your Mac Dock to Show Running Apps Only

Feb 8, 2022 - 11 Comments
How to Get Your Mac’s Dock to Show Running Apps Only

The Default Dock on macOS shows off many of the apps that come bundled with your Mac out of the box. Many users customize it right away by adding apps they use on a regular basis, and removing those they don’t. However, some people may prefer to have a cleaner Dock, and to minimize the … Read More

Try a (Very Broken) Dark Mode on MacOS High Sierra

Jul 6, 2018 - 9 Comments
Try broken Dark Mode in macOS High Sierra

Mac OS has long had a dark menu and dark Dock option, and macOS Mojave 10.14 has a true Dark Mode theme that shifts the entire visual appearance to a pleasing dark interface scheme. But if you’re running macOS High Sierra 10.13.x, you can use a defaults command entered into the terminal to enable a … Read More

How to Show the Expanded Print Details Dialog in Mac OS by Default

Mar 19, 2018 - 17 Comments
How to show the expanded Print dialog always in Mac OS

Do you frequently access the detailed printing options when printing from a Mac? If so, you’ll really appreciate this trick to always show the expanded print dialog window and settings screen.

How to Change Launchpad Icon Grid Layout in Mac OS X

Mar 9, 2016 - 18 Comments
Change the Launchpad grid icon count in Mac OS X

Launchpad is the quick application launcher available from the Mac OS X Dock and a keystroke that looks quite a bit like the Homescreen of iOS. By default, the Launchpad app grid usually displays icons in 7 rows and 5 columns of apps, but with a little adjustment from the command line of OS X … Read More

How to Make Crash Reporter Appear as a Notification in Mac OS

Oct 13, 2015 - 16 Comments
Crash Reporter as a notification in Mac OS X

Advanced Mac users who are either in development or another field which experiences frequent app crashing may find the persistent Crash Reporter windows with the ‘App quit unexpectedly’ message to be a nuisance, interfering with their workflow in Mac OS X. While one longstanding option is to disable the Crash Reporter dialog completely in MacOS … Read More

How to Play a Power Charging Sound Effect in Mac OS X When a MacBook is Plugged in (Like iOS)

Apr 15, 2015 - 45 Comments

When you connect a power source to an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or MacBook, a familiar charging chime sound will trigger from the device, indicating that a cable is attached and the device is getting power. If you like hearing that auditory confirmation that a device is getting power, you can add the exact same … Read More

Enable Dark Menu Mode with a Keyboard Shortcut in Mac OS X

Oct 24, 2014 - 7 Comments
iMac

Dark Mode impacts the appearance of the Dock and Menu Bar in Mac OS X, turning both from their grey on white defaults to a higher contrast white text against black background dark alternative. The effect is sort of iOS-like, but it also makes a great addition to the Increase Contrast feature on a Mac … Read More

Keep Track of Defaults Write Commands Used in Mac OS X Automatically

Apr 3, 2013 - 11 Comments
used defaults write commands list

If you like to tweak Mac OS X with a lot of defaults write commands from the terminal, you already know how hard it can be to keep track of them. Sure you can query command history for specific command syntax, and you can always use grep to find executed defaults commands, but there’s a … Read More

Add Weather & Other Dashboard Widgets to the Desktop in Mac OS X

Jan 18, 2013 - 12 Comments
Turn off Dashboard as a space

A fun way to customize the Mac desktop is to add floating widgets for things like weather, ski conditions, stocks, and time. These widgets are actually from Dashboard, a largely forgotten feature of Mac OS X that can be made useful again by bringing them more to the forefront of your desktop experience. This is … Read More

Stop the Help Viewer Window from Hovering Over Everything Else in Mac OS X

Dec 13, 2012 - 9 Comments
Disable Help window floating above other windows

The Help Menu in OS X is an underused but great resource when trying to learn about new Mac apps, and it can even function as a keyboard-based action launcherto quickly access app features. If you’re using the Help Viewer to actually read help documentation though, you may have noticed that the windows default behavior … Read More

10 of the Best Defaults Write Commands to Improve Mac OS X

Oct 9, 2012 - 29 Comments
Mac Terminal icon

Most Mac OS X preferences are managed through easily accessible control panels, but going behind the scenes with defaults write commands can lead to some genuinely useful tweaks that can only be made through the command line. This list represents a compilation of some of the best defaults write commands out there, and even if … Read More

How to Disable “Go To Folder” in Mac OS X

Aug 31, 2012 - 9 Comments
Disable Go To Folder in Mac OS X

The Go To Folder command is one of the most useful features in the OS X Finder, letting you quickly navigate deep into directory structures without having to click around. But it can also be used to access folders you may not want users to get to, be it /System/ directories or the Library folders. … Read More

Return Safari 6 Delete Key Functionality to Go Back a Page

Aug 5, 2012 - 17 Comments
Return Safari 6 delete key behavior to go back a page

Safari 6 changed the longstanding behavior of the Delete key, which used to navigate back a page when pressed but now does nothing. Instead, navigating web pages forward and backward is done through Command [ and Command ]. If you’d like to return the back-a-page navigation behavior to the Delete key within Safari, you can … Read More

How to Disable Versions Auto-Save in Mac OS X

Jul 11, 2012 - 26 Comments
Diable Auto Save and Versions in Mac OS X

Tired of Auto-Save continuously saving files in the background? Does Versions annoy you with it’s saved states of your work in each apps? For the vast majority of users, Auto-Save and Versions are excellent features in Mac OS X, but some advanced users are annoyed with the features that came in Lion (and are here … Read More

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