Cow Computing

In this post, i would like to share a couple of hidden terminal command on mac to help unlocking some useful feature. To use these feature, simply type the command as if it’s shown on the terminal, andd there you go.

1. Using current Screensaver as the Wallpaper. This can be gorgeous, however, depending on which screensaver you pick, it might take up some CPU & memory. (*To stop it, simple press “Ctrl+C”)

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

2. Enable hidden files/folders be shown on Finder. This is very useful in particular when you want to locate some important hidden files like “.ssh” or “.bash_rc”.

   // Change TRUE to FALSE to disable the effect
   defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
   
   // Restart the finder to take effect
   killall Finder

3. Enable the highlight effect on Stack (Highlight the icon when mouse hover)

   // Change yes to no to cancel the effect
   defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilte-stack -boolean yes
   
   // Restart the Dock to take effect
   killall Dock

4. Allow dashboard widgets to be dragged and run on Desktop

   // Change YES to NO to cancel the effect
   defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES

5. Enable debug menu for Safari. I use it alot when doing web development (tho i prefer firefox with firebug)

   // Change 1 to 0 to cancel the effect
   defaults write com.apple.safari IncludeDebugMenu 1

6. Disable the annoying crash report dialog.

   Change none to prompt to cancel the effect
   defaults write com.apple.CrashReporter DialogType none

There are more useful commands around, and above are just some useful ones which i have been using.