macOS

Table of contents
  1. macOS
    1. Resources

Resources

https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/macutil

System Settings

Apple Account

  • Sign in with Apple account
  • Sign-in & Security
    • Setup recovery key (WDJ9-Y7CX-MMGL-BSPD-N6E3-648D-CWEC).
  • Payment & Shipping
    • Add “Shipping Address”
  • iCloud
    • Enable “Advanced Data Protection”
  • Enable “Contact Key Verification”

Network

  • Enable Firewall
    • Turn on “Enable Stealth mode” under Options

Battery

  • Turn off “Slightly dim the display on battery”
  • Turn on “Prevent automatic sleeping on power adapter when the display is off”

General

  • About
    • Storage Settings -> Empty Trash automatically
  • Software updater
    • Automatic Updates -> Enable all the options
  • Storage
    • Delete unnecessary apps (can also be found in Finder -> Applications)
  • AirDrop & Handoff
    • Turn off “Airplay Receiver”
    • Set password for Airplay
  • AutoFill & Passwords
    • Turn on “Delete After Use” verification codes
  • Language & Region
    • Temperature - Celsius
    • Measurement system - Metric
    • First day of week - Monday
    • Date format - 2025-8-19

Accessibility

  • Zoom
    • Enable “Use trackpad gesture to zoom”
  • Display
    • Enable “Reduce transparency”
    • Text size “20 pt”
    • Disable “Shake mouse pointer to locate”

Appearance

  • Accent color “Green”
  • Sidebar icon size “Medium”
  • Show scroll bars “When scrolling”
  • Click in the scroll bar to “Jump to the spot that’s clicked”

Control Center

  • Bluetooth - Show in menu bar
  • Display - Always show in menu bar
  • Sound - Always show in menu bar
  • Battery - Show percentage
  • Keyboard brightness - Show in menu bar
  • Clock - Display the time with seconds
  • Spotlight - Don’t show in menu bar
  • Automatically hide and show the menu bar - Never

Desktop & Dock

  • Double click a window’s title bar to - fill
  • Automatically hide and show the dock - turn on

Display

  • Advanced
    • Turn on “Automatically reconnect to any nearby Mac or iPad”

Screen saver

  • Shuffle Landscape - Continuously

Apple Intelligence & Siri

  • Disable

Spotlight

  • Turn off “Help Apple Improve Search”
  • Uncheck “Websites” in Search Results

Notifications

  • Show previews “Never”https://code.visualstudio.com/docs
  • Turn off all “Application notifications” except “Wallet”

Sound

  • Alert sound “Submerge”
  • Alert volume “Level 3”
  • Turn off “Play sound on startup”

Focus

  • Delete schedules from “Do Not Disturb”

Screen Time

  • Enable “Screen distance”

Lock Screen

  • Start screen saver when inactive - Never
  • Turn display off on battery when inactive - For 10 minutes
  • Turn display off on power adapter when inactive - For 10 minutes
  • Require password after screen saver begins or display is turned off - Immediately

Privacy & Security

  • Enable FileVault
  • Turn off “Apple Intelligence Report”

Game Center

  • Turn off

iCloud

  • Turn on Advanced Data Protection

Trackpad

  • Point and Click
    • Tracking Speed - 5
    • Click - Light
    • Force Click and haptic feedback - Off
    • Look up & data detectors - On
    • Secondary click - Click or tap with two fingers
    • Tap to click - On
  • More gestures
    • Swipe between pages - Scroll left or right with two fingers
    • Swipe between full-screen applications - Swipe left or right with fingers
    • Notification Center - off
    • Mission Control - Swipe up with three fingers
    • Auto Expose - Off
    • Launchpad - On (Pinch with thumb and three fingers)
    • Show desktop - On (Spread with thumb and three fingers)

Keyboard

  • Key repeat rate - Max value
  • Turn keyboard backlight off after inactivity - After 1 minute
  • Press globe key to - Do nothing
  • Remove all text replacements under “Text Input”
  • Keyboard shortcuts
    • Modifier Keys
      • Caps Lock - Escape
      • Globe key - Command

In terminal

  • Run “defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false” to enable repeating keys on long press.
  • Run “defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool true” to disable border when taking window screenshots

Open screenshot app

  • Options - Set save location to kushaj -> Pictures -> Screenshots

Open Finder

  • Settings (from top-left)
    • General
      • New Finder Windows show - kushaj
    • Tags
      • Hide all tags
    • Sidebar
      • Show recents, desktop downloads, kushaj, icloud, locations, applications
    • Advanced
      • Check “Show all filename extensions”
      • Uncheck “Show warning before changing an extension”
  • Select “Show items as icons, …”

Remove unnecessary apps from the bottom dock. These are left

  • Finder

Set the view options on the desktop

Open App Store and goto accounts, and accept is prompted to setup your account.

Enable state manager

Download chrome

Download vscode

  • disable telemetry
  • move to applications folder
  • run the “add to path” script using Ctrl-Shift-P

Download homebrew

  • “xcode-select –install” to install xcode command line tools from terminal
  • Get latest “.pkg” from https://github.com/Homebrew/brew/releases
  • After installing add eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)" to .zprofile

defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 0; defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -int 0;killall Dock - to hide animatio of opening/closing dock.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/snap/id418073146?mt=12 to use win + number key to open items from dock

Setup word

  • https://massgrave.dev/office_for_mac

Setup github ssh key

create ~/github repo and put frontend-docs and personal-backup repo.

brew install scroll-reverser -> to set the scroll for trackpad and mouse independent of each other

brew install asdf asdf plugin add ruby https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf-ruby.git brew install libyaml add in ~/.zshrc the path export PATH="${ASDF_DATA_DIR:-$HOME/.asdf}/shims:$PATH" asdf install ruby 3.4.1 goto frontend-docs repo and run bundle install

Setup oh-my-zsh sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)" setup powerlevel10k from github readme https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k setup zsh-syntax-highlighting plugin https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting setup zsh-autosuggestions plugin https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions

Download rectangle app

Download “LM Studio”

Things to setup

  • Cleanshot X (NHQVHJZH-JLJXSDSK-RCQSXCLC-YVJQCPFP)
  • https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/
  • https://github.com/exelban/stats