Matt Snow

Technology Generalist. Linux, Containers, Networking, Security.

OSX: Under the covers with "defaults write" tweaks

Mon 14 March 2011

I recently bought a new quad-core i7 MacBook Pro for personal/work use and needed to bring over some "useful" tweaks I've found over time.
These are some changes I always make to a new OSX Install. All commands are run via shell.

Prevent Creation of .DS_Store files on network shared filesystems.

defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true

Enable Time Machine to backup to network shared filesystems.(I don't use time machine but it's useful for those that do)

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

Sets expanded save dialogs as default (showing column/list view of folders rather than a drop down menu). Replace TRUE with FALSE to reverse.
defaults write -g NSNavPanelExpandedStateForSaveMode -bool TRUE

Permanentaly disable bouncing Dock icons
defaults write com.apple.dock no-bouncing -bool TRUE ; killall Dock

Hide user 'sysadmin' from the login screen (if you're in charge of systems without network login make sure to rename the sysadmin home directory and pre-pend with a dot)

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow Hide500Users -bool TRUE sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow HiddenUsersList -array sysadmin

Make the Dock not glassy/classy looking(YES or NO)
defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES; killall Dock

Disable automatic switching between spaces when using Command+Tab.

defaults write com.apple.Dock workspaces-auto-swoosh -bool NO; killall Dock

Change image format to JPEG (from PNG) of screenshots via the command+shift+3 & command+shift+4 shortcuts

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg; killall SystemUIServer

Change default location of captured screenshots using the above shortcut key sequences

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location /Users/[your username here]/Pictures/Screenshots/; killall SystemUIServer

That's all for now. I know there are some other more useful tweaks. Some of these are just annoyance fixes for me.

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