fun with defaults write in Mac OS X.

Apple HOWTOs

Ever since yesterday’s defaults write question and then post, I have been doing some fun research on what else is possible with defaults write
Note:Most of these changes require you to restart the finder after entering these into Terminal.app killall Finder.

  • change your screenshot file format: defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleScreenShotFormat JPEG or TIFF or PNG or PICT
  • Disable outlines around icon names on the desktop: defaults write NSGlobalDomain Desktop.HasDarkBackground 0
  • Show trash on the desktop: defaults write com.apple.finder Desktop.HasTrash 1
  • Configure AFP to exclusively use SSH
  • Create a login hook
  • Finally…when someone is driving you completely insane and it is time to show them not to mess with tech support…defaults write com.apple.Finder AllowCutForItems true This neat trick takes everything you cut but not paste. Everything you cut goes into the trash and not to the clipboard. April Fools!

As you can see, there are endless cool things you can do with defaults write. Check out the defaults man pages!
[tags]defaults write, Finder, Mac OS X[/tags]

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