Speed up Mac OS X for Free
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One of the reasons why I fell in love with the PC back in the day, was because I could tweak it. I loved playing with configuration. I love to mess around and discover speed tweaks that are turned off by default. I was talking with Jeff the other day, and he mentioned that he would be using Safari on his Mac, if only he could enable a single window mode (which is NOT a visible configuration option). I am completely with him there. The only reason I don’t use Firefox as my default browser is due to a GUI that just isn’t “there” yet for me, as well as a few speed issues.
So as I’m talking to Jeff, I mentioned Secrets, which is a database of hidden settings for Mac OS X. When installed, it will scan your system and look at everything you use. It will then recommend what you need to enable in order to make your experience a better one. Think of it as a “TweakUI” that continues to grow as more of these tweaks are added to the central database. All these different things are pulled in from across the Internet and added on a regular basis.
That’s the great thing about OS X. You can tweak certain things. All the tweaks that are surfaced inside the Secrets preference pane are usually only able to be toggled on the command line. This application surfaces them all into a GUI. It’s free, and it’s easy. This is definitely one of the best freeware apps for Mac OS X I’ve come across. Here are just a few of the tweaks you can apply:
- Grab File type for screen captures
- Every App Scroll bar type
- Safari Use circular progress indicator
- Dock Dock Appearance, minimize effect and pinning
- Xcode Organization name
- Safari Enable debug menu
- Dashboardlauncher Drag widgets out of dashboard
- Finder Show stripes in list views
- GlobalPreferences Login window desktop picture
- Finder Show hidden files
- iTunes Arrows link to library instead of store
- Terminal Make focus follow mouse
- Frontrowlauncher Enable high definition movie trailers
- Safari Show Link URL in Tool Tip
As always, do your homework. Make sure you know what it is you’re toggling, and that you make a good backup prior to making any changes.
What other tweaks and tips do you have? If they’re really good ones, I’ll definitely pass them along to the rest of the world.
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22 Comments
Borat
June 19th, 2008
at 12:16am
i don’t use OSX or own a mac but i plan to soon so i will keep this in mind. i do wonder if tweaks can mess up your computer preformance though
Headphoneguy
June 19th, 2008
at 4:23am
Any idea how to do this on safari for windows? its been bugging me too
Thanks in advance if anyone answers ;)
*Goes off to check the apple support forums again*
Chris M
June 19th, 2008
at 6:42am
Safari does do tabs.
Ian Ragsdale
June 19th, 2008
at 7:25am
Are you kidding about the tabs in Safari? Open the preference and look at the “Tabs” pane.
B
June 19th, 2008
at 7:37am
I’m trying, but I really can’t figure out what you are referring to by this:
“if only he could have multiple tabs open in one window”
It almost sounds like an oxymoron.
Brian
June 19th, 2008
at 8:50am
Safari does have many options for Tabs
look in the Safari Menu, then preferences.
Check the Tabs tab.
MonkeyBrains
June 19th, 2008
at 11:19am
Safari DOES have tabbed browsing…it may not be enabled at install, but a quick look at Safari Preferences, under the tab labeled “Tabs” of all things.
You can even drag a tab to pull it out of the main window making it a stand alone window, or if you have multiple windows open, go to the “Window” menu and select “Merge All Windows” and Safari will collect all open windows into one.
cananito
June 19th, 2008
at 2:15pm
I wonder why OS’s don’t have just like an option to set like everything to the best performance. But well, aswome to have software like that.
I currently use windows (I rather use mac), and I have been tweaking arround a bit, tweaks are always useful.
John Koetsier
June 19th, 2008
at 8:41pm
Did I read this right:
> I was talking with Jeff the other day, and he mentioned
>that he would be using Safari on his Mac, if only he
>could have multiple tabs open in one window, as he
>does in Firefox
You must be joking. Safari has had this ability since the beginning …
Reid Sprague
June 20th, 2008
at 4:29am
Dear Chris,
Another great tip! Just want to say that you are one of the reasons that I now run Windows, Mac OS, and two flavors of Linux - love the way you just use it and have fun with it and forget the stupid politics. Life’s too short!
Keep up the good work,
Reid
Digital Zen
June 21st, 2008
at 1:23am
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Chris Ham
June 21st, 2008
at 11:39am
thanks for the information chris. I’m gonna try it too! :)
Windows Vista Information Blog
June 21st, 2008
at 2:41pm
are turned off by default. I was talking with Jeff the other day, and he mentioned that he would be using Safari on his Mac, if only he could enable a single window mode (which is NOT a visible configuration option). I am completely with him there…>>. In a modern context, I think I should remember author’s message. This whole issue discussed here will be welcomed by wondering readers, not permissive, not undisciplined. (more…)
Yahoo Warez
June 21st, 2008
at 2:41pm
are turned off by default. I was talking with Jeff the other day, and he mentioned that he would be using Safari on his Mac, if only he could enable a single window mode (which is NOT a visible configuration option). I am completely with him there…>>. In a modern context, I think I should remember author’s message. This whole issue discussed here will be welcomed by wondering readers, not permissive, not undisciplined. (more…) Yahoo Warez
WorldPeace
June 21st, 2008
at 9:12pm
Tweaking what can I say, Its a bad habit and addicting well it has been in the past lol,
Trying to get the best out of Os or a program Is fun, I think Expessiaclly if you can get you hands dirty a little and really get to see whats going on inside the program or OS.
I have used tweaking software and never really seen big results. None the less I have spent tons of time tweaking little things here and there over all Its just fun to look whats going inside the program/Os.
WorldPeace
June 21st, 2008
at 9:13pm
Tweaking what can I say, Its a bad habit and addicting well it has been in the past lol, Trying to get the best out of Os or a program Is fun, I think Expessiaclly if you can get you hands dirty a little and really get to see whats going on inside the program or OS. I have used tweaking software and never really seen big results. None the less I have spent tons of time tweaking little things here and there over all Its just fun to look whats going inside the program/Os.
Matt Smith
June 21st, 2008
at 9:14pm
Interesting. Sounds kind of like TinkerTool for OS X. I was watching the live stream when Chris did the video, and at the time the website was down. Haven’t checked lately, but I should give it another shot.
WorldPeace
June 21st, 2008
at 9:20pm
Tweaking what can I say, Its a bad habit and addicting well it has been in the past lol, Trying to get the best out of Os or a program Is fun, I think Expessiaclly if you can get you hands dirty a little and really get to see whats going on inside the program or OS. I have used tweaking software and never really seen big results. None the less I have spent tons of time tweaking little things here and there over all Its just fun to look whats going inside the program/Os.
norb
July 9th, 2008
at 5:54am
I use imac 6, and all i can say it is FURSTRATING, apps not responding for ages, everything is crashing all the time, while all soft is legal, dreamweaver use made something like nightmare, all i can see all day long is that bloody colored circle which means computer is working :( , nothing helps, MAC OSX is one of the worst GUI i ever met, it’s so sloooooooooow, so inconvinient i couldn’t even imagine before i started to use mac in conclusion i have tried many tweaks and fixes all usless, and there is no other way for me just get back to linux or pc :(((( mac sux
sipai
August 19th, 2008
at 7:25pm
sounds like a sweet program. it works only with leopard machines, though. is there anything like this for tiger?
MightySandwich
September 3rd, 2008
at 4:03pm
I used Onyx to enable single-window mode in Safari. It is available for both Leopard, Tiger, Panther, and even Jaguar. And single-window mode and simply enabling tabbed browsing in Preferences are not the same thing. Even with tabs enabled, if you click a link opens a new window, you will have to ‘Merge All Windows’ to keep everything together. With single-window mode enabled, however, even links that normally open a new window will instead be forced to open in a new tab.
Secret Seeker
November 4th, 2008
at 8:37am
Hey Chris, good video. You forgot to mention what you set beamsynch settings to. Was it Auto/Forced/or disabled. Also I’m a little leery about enabling these features but would love to if they really improved speed. What else have you noticed besides scrolling speed? (Which from what I’ve read earlier on different sites that disabling beam synch would improve this). Correct me if I’m wrong and please elaborate a little.
Thanks Chris.