System Preferences

By Smitty Weygant

- 2 minutes read - 323 words

Customization of Mac OS System Preferences

  • Appearance
    • Dark Mode
    • Show Scroll Bars -> “Always”
      • Ugly, but better for web development
  • Dock
    • Remove most applications from Dock
    • Automatic Hide
    • Smaller Dock
    • “Show recent applications in Dock” -> off
    • “Show indicators for open applications” -> on
  • Display - Nightshift
  • Security - Touch ID
  • Notifications - Off, except for Calendar
  • Siri
  • Trackpad
    • Tap to Click
    • Point & Click -> Look up & data detectors off
    • More Gestures -> Notification Centre off
  • Keyboard
    • Text
      • disable “Capitalise word automatically”
      • disable “Add full stop with double-space”
      • disable “Use smart quotes and dashes”
      • use " for double quotes
      • use ’ for single quotes
    • Keyboard -> Mission Control -> disable all
    • Press FN to -> “Do Nothing”
    • Keyboard Shortcuts -> Spotlight -> CMD + Space disable
      • We will be using Raycast instead
  • Mission Control
    • Hot Corners: disable all
  • Finder
    • General
      • New Finder windows show: [Downloads]
      • Show these items on the desktop: disable all
    • Sidebar:
      • activate all Favorites
      • move Library to Favorites
    • Show only:
      • Desktop
      • Downloads
      • Documents
      • [User]
      • Library
    • Tags
      • disable all
    • Advanced
      • Show all Filename Extensions
      • Remove Items from Bin after 30 Days
      • View -> Show Preview (e.g. image files)
  • Sharing
    • “Change computer name”
      • Also terminal:
        • sudo scutil --set ComputerName “newname”
        • sudo scutil --set LocalHostName “newname”
        • sudo scutil --set HostName “newname”
    • “Make sure all file sharing is disabled”
  • Security and Privacy
    • Turn on FileVault
    • Add Browser to “Screen Recording”
  • Storage
    • Remove Garage Band & Sound Library
    • Remove iMovie
  • Trackpad
    • Speed: Max
  • Accessibility
    • Scroll Speed: Max

MacOS Applications

  • iMessage
    • sync iCloud for iMessages just for the sake of syncing, then disable iCloud again
    • sync contacts on iCloud
    • iPhone: activate message forwarding to new Mac
  • Pages
    • show word count
  • Apple Mail
    • set up all email accounts with Fastmail as provider of choice
    • show most recent message at top
    • undo send delay set to off
  • Notes
    • New notes start with: Body
    • Settings -> Disable: Group notes by date
  • Quick Time Player
    • save to Desktop