Last updated on May 13, 2021

Show Hidden Folders in Finder

MacOS Sierra introduced a quick keyboard shortcut to show/hide hidden (dot) files.

When in finder just type:

 CMD + SHIFT + .

Enable Full Word Backspace in Terminal

I use the Option + delete keyboard combo to delete full words all throughout MacOS. By default Terminal doesn’t honor the full word backspace. Enabling it is really simple:

  1. Go to Terminal > Preferences > Profiles > Keyboard
  2. Check “Use option key as meta key”

Sudo with Touch ID

Typing your sudo password is a lot of work! Utilize the touchID Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) to run those commands quickly!

cd /etc/pam.d
sudo chmod +w sudo
sudo vim sudo

Add a new first entry to include the PAM module pam_tid.so (like so):

# sudo: auth account password session
auth       sufficient     pam_tid.so
auth       sufficient     pam_smartcard.so
auth       required       pam_opendirectory.so
account    required       pam_permit.so
password   required       pam_deny.so
session    required       pam_permit.so

If you’re using iTerm, you’ll need to disable this option in:

Preferences => Advanced => Allow sessions to survive logging out and back in

1

Restart your terminal and run a sudo command!

2

*Actually* Disable App Relaunch On Restart

Apps relaunching on a reboot drives me crazy. I don’t want this “feature” ever, not on a crash, not when rebooting from a script, and definitely not when I reboot myself. I found this tip on Stackoverflow that restricts the permission on the file used to restore.

  • Mark file as owned by root (or else MacOS will just regenerate the file)
sudo chown root ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.loginwindow*
  • Steal all permissions
sudo chmod 000 ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.loginwindow*

To restore, just rm that file so macOS can regenerate it.

Disable Bluetooth auto-connect

I have Sony WH-1000XM3 wireless headphones that I love, EXCEPT for the fact that they can only pair with one device. The headphones often auto-connect to my Macbook, even if it’s closed and sleeping. If i’m trying to pair the headphone to my phone, this can get very annoying as the only way to unpair is to login to my Macbook and disconnect from there.

I disable Bluetooth auto-connecting across the board with this terminal command:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist DontPageAudioDevices 1

Drag a window by clicking anywhere

Natively

I wanted the linux alt-drag functionality, and luckily in MacOS similar functionality is hidden behind a flag. I found this tip here.

defaults write -g NSWindowShouldDragOnGesture -bool true

After rebooting, hold down ctrl+cmd and click a window to drag. This pairs nicely with a window manager like Magnet.

Utility: Hummingbird

If you want a little more functionality there is a GitHub Projectby dmarcotte called called easy-move-resize. I have new favorite resize utility called Hummingbird.

VSCode Tweaks

Vim Extension: Press and hold movement keys (H,J,K,L)

If you use the Vim extension in VSCode, you’ll notice that when a movement key is held down it will only trigger once instead of holding like you’d expect.

defaults write com.microsoft.VSCode ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false

Execute this in your terminal and restart VSCode to fix it.

First Hour Installs

Below is a list of the software (off the top of my head) that I immediately install on a fresh Mac.

Favorite Utilites

  • Itsycal
  • SpotStatus
  • Brew
  • OhMyZsh
  • CopyClip
  • Amethyst Magnet
  • TunnelBlick Wireguard
  • BetterTouchTool
  • Arq
  • GnuPG
  • jq
  • Gifski
  • pcregrep (grep across lines)
  • Rocket
  • Amphetamine
  • HomeControl (menu bar HomeKit controls)

Misc Tweaks

Favorite Apps

Dot Files

I back up my dotfiles and configuration settings. Notably some vim, vscode keybindings, and git settings. These are easy to restore with a symlink.