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Top 15 Terminal Commands for Hidden Mac OS X Settings

macosxtips.co.uk — 15 one-line Terminal commands for changing hidden preferences in Mac OS X. Translucent Dock icons for hidden applications, Dashboard developer mode, login window info line, disable unexpectedly quit notice, screen saver as desktop, disable disk image verification, double scroll arrows and more.

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  • magicmarc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14Transparent Dock icons for hidden apps, pretty nice idea.
    • rasterbator, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Yes, the transparent dock is cool. If you like these sort of tweaks, go to macupdate.com and download Onyx. It does some of these and more.
    • GeekedAtBirth, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Yeah, and the suck effect is cool too.
      http://silvermac.com/2006/minimising-windows-osx/
      It replaces the Genie of Scale effect.
    • drlha, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Yes transparent icons for hidden apps is a great idea, in fact I've had this enabled so long I forget it wasn't the default. It should be.
    • weareglass, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Yeah same, the translucent hidden icons thing is the best of all these tweaks and it's an oldie but a goodie. Some of them I hadn't seen before though like the save as default change, which is very nice. Seems like there used to be a lot more of these but most of them didn't do that much, guess they're probably still out there somewhere. I think there was one that would change the arrow below the current application from black to blue that was kind of useful.
  • hubbert, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Nifty Tricks!
  • gotomattex, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2im excited to put widgets on my desktop. sounds cool
    • ajchavar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9when you just need a widget outside of dashboard for a bit, you can open dashboard, hit the plus to access all of you widgets grab the widget you want and don't let go, then hit f12 or f8 (whatever is you dashboard key) and the widget will open and always stay on top of your main windows. to get rid of it, simply enter dashboard once more, and it will "join" dashboard again.
    • zongamin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Cheers ajchavar, I had used a trial of Amnesty to try and do this but it expired.
  • lansuggs, on 10/12/2007, -2/+22Forget terminal, do it easily:
    http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/onyx.html
    • JeremyBanks, on 10/12/2007, -7/+20Copy, paste, is easier than downloading anything.
    • VhaidraU, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Yeah OnyX or Tinker Tool will do these for you if you do not want to tinker with the command line.
    • zebesian, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@JeremyBanks
      Onyx is more than just a tweaking program, it is probably the best maintenence software for Mac OS. Plus, it is legally free. Every one should have this if they use Mac OS.
  • Twist05, on 10/12/2007, -110/+6MAC IS GAY
    • hopesfall, on 10/12/2007, -3/+26Welcome to Digg. Blocked.
    • metalhead3767, on 10/12/2007, -1/+49You just about walked into a church and screamed jesus sucks.
    • haxorjoe, on 10/12/2007, -3/+60I don't think Media Access Control address are gay. I think it's very useful for securing your wireless network a little more. To each his own, I guess.
    • surfing, on 10/12/2007, -12/+5not that there's anything wrong with that...
    • MacParrot, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12Too bad your mom wasn't
  • selphishnerd, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9These are really great tips...why wouldn't Apple include them as default? Especially the Dashboard one. Maybe they're saving them to be new features in Leopard. Just kidding.
  • vcleniuk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Oooooo Shiney :)
  • halik, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4awesome tips, especially the itunes one.
  • adinb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7FAQ time here, but is there any way to enable showing hidden files, *except* for the desktop? (so I don't see all the .* files on my desktop, but without having to basically hide my entire desktop)
    • astrosmash, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You'd think there'd be a 'Show Hidden Files' option in the Folder View Options.

      There probably is, actually, if you know the .DS_Folder file format.
  • macuser9214, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2But the Dashboard widgets go on top of all windows.. How do you keep them behind the windows?
  • JonnyTrombone, on 10/12/2007, -17/+1Now, if only the GUI were actually mod-able. (No, running a recolored GUI on top of the old one is not a real modification.)
  • PDelahanty, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1So what's the hidden command for me to increase my iBook G4's volume to a level that I'd be capable of actually hearing in a crowded room? My friends' non-iBook computers are all so much louder. (Yes, I've used the sound preferences. Duh.)
    • hagis, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1there is a jack on the side.. just plug in headphones...

      you think the Volume on a iBook is bad.. try a MacBook..
    • inkswamp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'm assuming you're running 10.4.9? From what I've heard, that update boosts the volume.
    • ChillyWilly5280, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2There are tricks for QuickTime, and QuickTime based apps such as iTunes. You can boost the volume a little more, but not a lot. I don't remember off the top of my head but try Google.
    • daza, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2No offense to any Mac owners, but you really shouldn't need an update for your sound to be loud enough - especially on a product that's been out for this long.
    • mscman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Hold down shift in QuickTime based apps while pressing the UP arrow key. This'll let you go above 100%.

      @daza: Since the volume is controlled by software, Apple set a volume limit so as not to let users blow the speakers. I don't know why nobody has found a workaround for this yet on non-QT apps, but you learn to live with it.

      10.4.9 did help a little with this problem, but I personally haven't noticed a huge difference. Get a good set of external speakers or use headphones. After all, the Macbooks DO support optical out...

      That way you can take it all the way up to 11.
  • bjeanes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Addendum to the tip about the backgrounded screensaver:

    If you use screen to run the command, like such:
    screen -d -m /System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background

    you can close the terminal window and have the screen saver continue in the background. It makes the tip a little more practical. To quit the backgrounded screensaver, just open Terminal again and type:
    killall ScreenSaverEngine
    • p_o_b, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Thanks, I was wondering how to make it permanent.
    • h3xley, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1or you could just put an & on the end, as in /System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background &
    • bjeanes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2er ... you *could* .... that would release the terminal for other commands but if you actually Quit Terminal, the screensaver will stop. And yes I even checked. using screen is the only way (I know of) to actually make it run without Terminal. and it works pretty well. I've had it on all day with the RSS Feed screensaver set to digg in the background of both my screens :-)
  • ryansac, on 10/12/2007, -29/+2rm -r* That's my favorite.
    • joshpar, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9while most people on digg realize how dangerous the above is... at least acknowledge in some way that it shouldn't be done.

      Or... if you insist, at least include:

      sudo rm -rf /*

      (see first part of comment... same as ryansac's, only more malicious, as in it will destroy your *nix computer)
    • MegaBabu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6you are really an idiot, a lot of unsuspecting mac users will type that, having no idea it deletes everything
    • joshpar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3which part of 'it will destroy your computer' do you think is confusing?
    • astrosmash, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Not as good as:

      del /s/q \
    • daza, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2At least "del" alludes to the fact that it may delete something. rm -r is outright sneaky.
    • mscman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Word of advice: if you don't know even the tiniest bit about working in terminal (i.e. rm, ls, mv, cd, etc...) then you probably shouldn't mess with it in the first place. At least read a HOWTO before you start delving around in sudo land. Until then, Onyx provides a lot of extra options that aren't configurable through the preferences pane.
  • inkswamp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"Displays useful system stats in the login window. Replace "SystemVersion" with one of the following for different stats:"

    Don't bother with that one. Just go to the login window and click on it the gray text under where it says "Mac OS X". The info rotates through all those items each time you click. No need to tweak any settings for access to that.
    • drakino, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The tip sets the default that the screen appears on, avoiding having to click through to see info there. It's actually quite handy if you use a network account to sign on, as it can tell you if it's available yet or not, avoiding any issues with home folder syncing.
  • pureeville, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You can turn off the scrollbar in Terminal.app to gain some screen real estate:

    defaults write com.apple.Terminal Scrollbar NO

    Scrolling using Page Up/Down keys will still work.
    • desistere, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Thank god. The scrollbar is a virtual McMansion worth of wasted space.
  • hadak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2ok, but seriously. how do i make my widgets go the ***** away now that they're on my desktop?
    • hadak, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2i just answered my own question: go to your dashboard, choose manage widgets, and uncheck (and recheck) the box.
    • vegasmacguy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Actually its easier just to click and drag it while pressing F12 (or whatever key you have assigned to dashboard) then let go to place it back into your dashboard.
  • DummyO, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Dugg for #3
  • jrowen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Another awesome utility I just discovered is CLIX. It has a GUI interface, but it also shows you exactly what the exact command line instructions are, in case you are interested in how do accomplish things with the command line interface.

    http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/unix_open_source/clix.html

    To quote Apple's description:

    About CLIX
    CLIX ("command line interface for OS X") is a Cocoa application which makes it easier to harness the power of UNIX.

    The CLIX package includes a starter database file with close to 1,500 system commands for investigating your system status, for cleaning out junk files, for getting at esoteric secret settings in your most used applications and more, for hardening your system against malicious attacks, and more.
  • 5plic3r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1For those of you with the developer tools installed, you can use Property List Editor instead of "defaults write ...".
  • alabut, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Ok, this is semi-unrelated but completely pissing me off - I keep dugg this story and it won't show up in my profile page, wtf? Anyone else have this problem?

    http://digg.com/users/alabut/news/dugg

    I can set it to my #1 story and it shows up but as soon as I remove that, it disappears right off of my profile page again even though it says this story is dugg when I actually go to the detail page or view the apple category in list mode. I had to google this stupid thing up to find it again, so annoying!
  • brainxs, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0Good. Things like this happen everywhere.
  •  

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