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How to Exclude Hard Drives and Folders from Spotlight Index in Mac OS X

Dec 30, 2011 - 13 Comments
Exclude drives and folders from Spotlight index

Spotlight is a wonderful feature of Mac OS X that lets you quickly find literally anything on a Mac by search, that includes files, apps, folders, emails, you name it, and Spotlight will find it, but sometimes you don’t want everything to be indexed. Whether that’s an external backup drive, a scratch disk, a directory … Read More

Manage Clipboard History in Mac OS X with ClipMenu

Dec 30, 2011 - 9 Comments
Clipboard History menu with ClipMenu

ClipMenu is an awesome free clipboard history manager for Mac OS X that keeps track of nearly anything copied into the clipboard, ranging from plain and rich text, URLs, images, even files.

How to Move Apps Out of the Applications Folder in Mac OS X

Dec 29, 2011 - 13 Comments
Move Applications out of the Applications folder in OS X Lion

Have you noticed when you try and move an application out of the /Applications folder in modern versions of Mac OS X, you will end up creating an alias of the app instead? What if you want to move an application out of the Applications folder of MacOS, and put the app somewhere else?

How to Check Wireless Signal Strength and Optimize WiFi Networks in Mac OS X

Dec 28, 2011 - 47 Comments
Monitor wireless signal strength

Wi-Fi Diagnostics is an incredibly useful utility to troubleshoot and optimize any wireless network and the signal strength of computers that are connecting to it. This utility first came bundled in Mac OS X Lion and works with all wireless routers and not only the Apple branded ones, meaning you can improve the performance of … Read More

Show Folder History in Mac OS X with Back & Forward Buttons in Finder

Dec 27, 2011 - Leave a Comment
Use Finder's back buttons as history browser

The Back and Forward buttons in Mac OS X Finder work much like their respective buttons in Safari or another browser, meaning not only do they go page or forward within the file system, but now Finder windows also track folder browsing history. After you’ve visited several folders, click and hold on the Back button … Read More

Create a Keyboard Shortcut to Go to User Library Folder in Mac OS X

Dec 23, 2011 - 7 Comments
Create a Keyboard Shortcut for Library Access in OS X Lion

Want to quickly get to the User Library folder on Mac? A keyboard shortcut is one of the best ways to do that, particularly if you find yourself frequently accessing that folder. Using keyboard shortcuts are often the fastest way to navigate around the filesystem in Mac OS X, but new versions of MacOS and … Read More

Open a New Terminal From the Current Finder Directory With Go2Shell

Dec 21, 2011 - Leave a Comment
Go2Shell

Go2Shell is a free Finder toolbar add-on that creates a new Terminal window from the current directory of any desktop folder in Mac OS X with a click of a button. This is similar to the services option that can be added to the right-click contextual menu, but Go2Shell is faster due to resting in … Read More

Mac OS X 10.7.3 Build 11D36 Released to Developers

Dec 20, 2011 - 3 Comments
Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3 11D36

A new developer build of Mac OS X 10.7.3 has been released by Apple as build 11D36. This is the third developer version of OS X 10.7.3 and is available for registered Mac Developers to download through the dev center with no known issues. Listing no known issues could suggest public availability in the near … Read More

Batch Resize Pictures in Mac OS X Using Automator

Dec 20, 2011 - 32 Comments
Batch Resize Images in Mac OS X

Need to resize a ton of pictures on a Mac? Instead of downloading a third party application or using Preview, you can use Automator to handle the entire operation, even renaming the images to indicate they have been resized to a new resolution. Automator is included in every Mac OS X installation’s /Applications/ folder and … Read More

Swipe Up to Zoom in on App Windows in Mission Control on Mac

Dec 20, 2011 - 6 Comments
Two finger upward swipe in Mission Control shows app windows

If you have a lot of app windows open in Mission Control, and you are grouping items in Mission Control by application, you can use a neat little trick to zoom into any Mission Control thumbnail on the Mac.

Growl Fork Brings Growl Notifications to Mac OS X Lion for Free

Dec 19, 2011 - 20 Comments
Growl Fork

Growl is a popular notification system for Mac OS X that throws up those fading pop-up windows in the upper right corner of the screen. It’s a nice add on to OS X, and tons of other applications use Growl as their notification system. Then Mac OS X 10.7 came out, and Growl went from … Read More

How to Print Screen in Boot Camp

Dec 19, 2011 - 9 Comments
Mac Keyboard

Macs don’t have a “Print Screen” button like their Windows PC keyboard counterparts, but taking screenshots from a Mac that is booted into Windows by way of Boot Camp is easy with a few keyboard shortcuts. The secret is remembering which keys to press, and beyond that the process of printing screen captures in Boot … Read More

Mount a DMG from the Command Line in Mac OS X

Dec 17, 2011 - 17 Comments
Mount a DMG from the Command Line in Mac OS X

A helpful command line tool called hdiutil is included in Mac OS X that allows disk image files (.dmg extension) to be mounted directly from the Terminal, without the need of using the GUI. Using hdiutil for such a task is helpful for scripting or remote connections through SSH.

Benchmark SSD & Hard Drive Performance with Disk Speed Test for Mac OS X

Dec 16, 2011 - 49 Comments
Mac SSD and Hard Drive benchmark test tool

Want to compare hard disk performance or see just how big of a speed difference that SSD upgrade had? Grab the free Disk Speed Test tool from the Mac App Store, it’s a quick and simple way to measure drive performance. The app works by creating large blocks of temporary data that are written to … Read More

Change the Desktop Wallpaper Automatically in Mac OS X

Dec 15, 2011 - 15 Comments
Change desktop picture wallpaper randomly in Mac OS X

Can’t decide which wallpaper to use as your desktop background? Me neither. Fortunately there’s a setting in Mac OS X that causes the desktop picture to change itself automatically at a user selected time interval, ranging from every 5 seconds to once a day or upon system wake. Essentially this means your wallpaper will change … Read More

MacBook Pro with 2880×1800 Retina Display Rumored for Release in 2012

Dec 14, 2011 - 16 Comments
MacBook Pro with Retina Display rumored for 2012

Apple is rumored to be working towards releasing retina display equipped MacBook Pro’s in the second quarter of 2012, according to a new report from the Taiwanese trade publication Digitimes. Citing upstream component sources, the displays are said to be 2880×1800 pixels and become yet another competitive advantage for Apple’s portable lineup: While the prevailing … Read More

Open Files from Quick Look in Default App or Other Applications on Mac

Dec 14, 2011 - 3 Comments
Open a File with Another Application from Quick Look

Did you know you can launch a file directly into its default app, right from a Quick Look preview on Mac? And you can open the files from Quick Look preview into other compatible Mac apps too.

Open the Mac App Store Updates Section from a URL

Dec 13, 2011 - 3 Comments
Mac App Store Updates

The next time you’re trying to tell someone how to update apps from the Mac App Store, why bother with a walkthrough when you can just send them a URL? Yup, you can send someone directly to the Mac App Store’s “Updates” portion just by using a link instead. This is a great trick for … Read More

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