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Change File Associations in Mac OS X

Oct 25, 2009 - 31 Comments

It really drives me nuts when files can be of the same kind but different type open different apps, I want to open all my images in Preview and all my video files in VLC. You can make Mac OS X open every file of a certain format type with a certain application by changing … Read More

MacBook Keyboard Backlight Controls – Adjust Backlit Illumination by Menu Bar Item & Function Keys

Oct 13, 2009 - 3 Comments

One of my favorite add-ons for MacBook and MacBook Pro’s with the keyboard backlight is this awesome app from Lab Tick that allows you to manually control the keyboard backlighting via a menubar item that drops down with a little slider, kind of like how the sound menu item works. Additionally, you can control the … Read More

How to Hide All Desktop Icons in Mac OS X

Sep 23, 2009 - 58 Comments
Desktop icons disabled in OS X

Want to hide all desktop icons on a Mac? Desktop icon clutter can really impact workflow by overwhelming you with files and just too much stuff to look at. Inevitably, it can be hard to avoid since a lot of apps download things to the Desktop by default, we save things there, screenshots go there, … Read More

Set Custom iTunes Genre Art

Sep 22, 2009 - 5 Comments

I have a million different genres in iTunes and not nearly enough album art, which is fine and dandy until you put iTunes 9 into genre ‘grid’ view and then suddenly you have a bunch of boring looking music note icons. Apparently how iTunes sets genre art is by looking for album art set in … Read More

The Snow Leopard Default Desktop Background Picture on Mac OS X

Sep 6, 2009 - Leave a Comment

Mac OS X Snow Leopard comes with a beautiful space themed default desktop picture. If you haven’t installed Snow Leopard yet but you want to share in the nice eye candy, try downloading some full resolution background pics! You can click on the thumbnail to the left to download the full version of the default … Read More

Customize your Mac Desktop with GeekTool

Aug 13, 2009 - 1 Comment

GeekTool is a fun system preference utility for Mac that allows you to really customize your desktop. You can dump log files, system status messages, graphs, CPU usage, and all sorts of things right onto your desktop background. Basically if you can run it in the Terminal, you can have it appear on your desktop. … Read More

How to Rearrange the Menu Bar Icons in the Mac OS X Menu Bar

Aug 11, 2009 - 7 Comments
Finder

The Mac menu bar contains icons for things like the status indicators and toggles of various apps, including a clock, date, time, battery, wi-fi status, sound and volume levels, displays, Time Machine backup status, user account, Spotlight, a Notifications toggle, and much more. There’s a lot of data and status details in those menu bar … Read More

Virtually Scale Window Size to Increase or Decrease Desktop Screen Workspace

Aug 8, 2009 - 5 Comments

This is a particularly handy trick for when you have limited screen real estate and want to fit more of a windows display on screen. A perfect example of this are the Hackintosh owners out there that are working with small netbook screen resolutions and some windows just don’t display properly, or won’t even fit … Read More

View PDF’s inside Firefox with the Firefox-Mac-PDF browser extension

Aug 6, 2009 - 1 Comment

I like Safari but find myself in Firefox nearly always because of a multitude of reasons. One thing I’ve long missed though is the ability to view PDF’s within the browser within Firefox, which Safari does wonderfully. If you’re tired of Firefox launching the Preview app (or even worse if you’re settings are different: Acrobat), … Read More

Easily Change the Mac OS X Boot up Image with BootXChanger

Aug 5, 2009 - 2 Comments

I’ve been bored with the standard Mac OS X boot up screen and it’s grey Apple logo, and a few times I have scoured around trying to change it manually to no avail. Today though, I stumbled into a post on my friends blog that makes changing the Mac OS X boot image a snap … Read More

Creating a Hackintosh: Installing Mac OS X on Netbooks from the Dell Mini 9, MSI Wind, Lenovo S10, and more

Apr 26, 2009 - 25 Comments

Creating your own cheap Mac Hackintosh out of a PC Netbook is pretty popular right now, so I compiled a list of various how-to guides mostly for myself but figured I would share it with our readers as well. The guides rank from reasonably easy (Dell Mini 9) to an arduous hack, and it’s technically … Read More

Separate Backgrounds in OS X Spaces

Feb 20, 2009 - 10 Comments

Update: Different wallpapers for different spaces is now a feature of Mac OS X Lion, here’s how to use it. Spaces. Personally, it is my favorite addition to Apple’s Leopard operating system. I have become very accustomed to working with Spaces and have long desired the ability to set a different background for each virtual … Read More

WallSaverApp Turns a Screensaver into the Desktop Background of Mac OS X

Feb 20, 2009 - 1 Comment

Wallsaver is a freeware utility that allows you to easily take a screensaver and make it your desktop background, creating a nifty interactive effect that’s pleasant to look at. Aimed at older versions of OS X however, it’s not going to be for anyone, and furthermore, the Wallsaver app is basically a front-end to the … Read More

Highlight Stack Items on Hover in Mac OS X Dock

Jan 7, 2008 - 28 Comments
A mouse hover effect in Dock Stack of OS X

A little known hidden trick allows for a nice cursor hover effect to follow your mouse as it goes over an application, folder, or item within an opened Dock stack of Mac OS X. This makes navigating within Dock folder items a whole lot easier on the Mac and only takes a moment to turn … Read More

Make Finder Desktop Icon Sizes Huge

Jan 2, 2008 - 16 Comments

The Mac OS X desktop is attractive, highly functional, and very customizable, but by default the maximum icon size is 128×128 as adjusted through the normal Mac icon size settings. While 128 x 128 pixels is pretty large, if you have a huge monitor, or you’re visually impaired, you may want larger icons so that … Read More

Change the Mac OS X Dock from 3D to 2D in Leopard & Snow Leopard

Dec 24, 2007 - 8 Comments

The appearance of the new Dock changed in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard which has caused somewhat of an uproar in the Mac community, some of whom even claim it looks like it belongs in Windows Vista. That change stuck around in later versions of OS X as well. If you’re totally insulted by the … Read More

Mac OS X Christmas & Holiday desktop app fun

Dec 2, 2007 - 8 Comments

It’s that time of the year again Mac users! The holiday season is now here in full force, and part of the fun is customizing your Mac to be with the season. Here’s our three favorite apps so you can deck out your Mac desktop in the holiday spirit. Snowfall – a beautiful falling snow … Read More

Show Full Directory Path in Mac OS X Finder Window Title Bars

Dec 2, 2007 - 32 Comments
Show the full path in Finder title bars

Have you ever wished you could see the complete file system path in the titlebar of a Finder file system window? Well you can use a secret setting in Mac OS X to display the path in the titlebars of windows. The geekier Mac users amongst us and those familiar with the unix world should … Read More

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