Top 15 Terminal Commands

You'll find the Terminal in the Utilities folder within the Applications folder. To carry out any of the following commands you will need to copy/paste or type in the line of text then hit enter. For the most part, applications will need restarting before changes take place. For most applications you can just quit and open them again, but for the Finder and the Dock it is easiest to just type “killall Finder” or “killall Dock” into Terminal after the command.

To reverse any of them, just repeat the command with NO at the end instead of YES, or vice versa.

1. Make hidden applications' dock icons translucent.

defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES

2. Normally the arrows next to artists and albums in your iTunes library search the iTunes store when you click them. 
This command changes them so that clicking will search your iTunes library instead.

defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks -bool YES

3. This allows you to drag widgets out of Dashboard onto the desktop. 
Requires the dock to be relaunched to take effect, so type "killall Dock" and press enter. Now, if you click and hold onto a widget in the dashboard and press F12 to return to the desktop, the widget won't disappear with the rest.

defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES

 

4. Force all mail to be displayed as plain text.

defaults write com.apple.mail PreferPlainText -bool YES

5. Set 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 YES

6. Display the currently chosen screen saver to be shown as the desktop background. 
Press Control-C or Command-. to stop.

/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background

7. Display useful system stats in the login window. 

defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow AdminHostInfo SystemVersion 

Replace "SystemVersion" with one of the following for different stats:

SystemBuild 
SerialNumber 
IPAddress 
DSStatus 
Time
HostName

8. To remove accounts from the login window 
Type this command with the short name of each account you wish to remove.

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow HiddenUsersList -array-add shortname1 shortname2 shortname3

9. Skip disk image verification. Potentially risky, use with disk images from trusted sources.

defaults write com.apple.frameworks.diskimages skip-verify -bool YES

10. Put double scroll arrows at both ends of scroll bar. 
Use Appearance pane in system preferences to reset.

defaults write "Apple Global Domain" AppleScrollBarVariant DoubleBoth

 

11. Disable the unexpectedly quit dialog that normally appears when an application crashes.
Replace "none" with "prompt" to enable again.

defaults write com.apple.CrashReporter DialogType none

12. Set the history limit in Safari to a certain number of items and and/or a certain age.

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitHistoryItemLimit 2000

and/or

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitHistoryAgeInDaysLimit 30

13. Show hidden files in the Finder.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool YES

14. Enable the debug menu in Safari.

defaults write com.apple.safari IncludeDebugMenu -bool YES

15. Deactivate Dashboard. 
Requires the dock to be relaunched to take effect, so type "killall Dock" and press enter.

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -bool YES

Terminal Snow Leopard Tips !

There are a huge amount of hidden settings for Mac OS X and its applications that aren't accessible from preferences dialog boxes or the System Preferences. Applications such as Tinkertool and Mac Pilot allow you to access some of these, but the real flexibility is from the Terminal. From here it is possible to edit any preferences file for any application on your Mac.
You'll find the Terminal in the Utilities folder within the Applications folder. 
To carry out any of the following commands you will need to copy/paste or type in the line of text then hit enter.

See You – Folder Previews in Quick Look
Save some precious time by seeing all the content of a folder. Hit the space bar and you can view all the files via a  translucent folder icon.

You need to type the following command:

defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableXRayFolders 1

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Auto Action – Autoplay Movies in QuickTime X
Apple sometimes messes up and QuickTime is a great example.

If you want to play your movies automatically and surely miss the preferences option then use this command:

defaults write com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX MGPlayMovieOnOpen 1

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Full Screen Action – QuickTime  In Full Screen When Switching Applications
Sometimes you want a sneak peek at all the action and when you do that, QuickTime will automatically exit full screen.

To rectify this, use the following magical words:

defaults write com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX MGFullScreenExitOnAppSwitch 0

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Always Use Protection – Snow Leopard’s Hidden Malware Protection

Bet you didn’t know this one. Apple has quietly incorporated  malware support that detects malicious software and its quite effective too. Read all the details here.

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Test Your Text – Enable Text Substitutions

If you want to globally enable text substitutions, use the three commands one after the other:

defaults write -g WebAutomaticTextReplacementEnabled -bool true

defaults write -g WebAutomaticDashSubstitutionEnabled -bool true

defaults write -g WebContinuousSpellCheckingEnabled -bool true

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Shortcut To Success – Access iTunes
Access iTunes by just hitting the (F8) “Play” button which is above the 8 and 9 keys.

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Round It Of – Get Rid of Rounded Corners in QuickTime
If you don’t care for the  rounded corners when playing movies in QuickTime, then don’t fret as you can get rid of them in seconds.

Just type:

defaults write com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX MGCinematicWindowDebugForceNoRoundedCorners 1

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Go To China Town – Draw Chinese Characters On The Trackpad
I can’t speak Mandarin but I just find this a super cool feature.
In Snow Leopard  you can draw the actual characters on your trackpad!

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Just Shoot Me- Record Videos Via QuickTime X
You don’t need to invest in some fancy software to shoot yourself as now you can record from your iSight camera.

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Stick Them Up – Keyboard  Shortcut For Sticky Notes
Assign a  a keyboard shortcut (System Preferences > Keyboard)  so that you create a  sticky note automatically when you select some text.

Hope you enjoyed this article and more importantly enjoying your Mac with Snow Leopard. Do tell us if you know more tricks or tips and don’t forget to write them in the comments section.

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