MacMembraneThere are peels everywhere…

It might sound strange, but I thoroughly enjoy reinstalling OS X. The process may be time consuming, but my fetish for status bars, the awesome first launch movie and most importantly the prospect of a fresh Mac running to Apple’s specs makes it a pleasurable process. As far as system defaults are concerned, I’m happy with 99 percent of Apple’s choices. Here’s my checklist for dealing with that other 1 percent.

Check For OS Updates

Not so much a tweak as a precondition for tweaks, if you’re installing from a disk that isn’t brand new, chances are there’s been an update to OS X since you got it. The latest updates often contain important security fixes for applications, but they also occasionally add features to the OS.

How To Do It: That Apple icon at the far left side of the menu bar isn’t there just for looks (although it is pretty). It’s a system menu wherein you’ll find a number of important options. Among them is ‘Software Update.’ Select it from the menu to find out whether or not you’re up to date. If not, a dedicated update application will lead you through an easy process to get you there.

Install Quicksilver

For me this is a no-brainer, but without Quicksilver installed my Mac feels almost foreign. In short, Quicksilver lets you navigate your file system and launch apps and documents with a keystroke. Quicksilver is to my Mac as oxygen is to my body. It’s the only install on my initial checklist, but it makes completing the remainder of this checklist much quicker. High priority.

How To Do It: Head over to blacktree.com and download the application. Unzip it and run the installer. The default shortcut is Option + Space, but I like to swap with Spotlight for Command + Space access to Quicksilver.

Set the ‘Select Search Field’ in Safari to Command + K

I need a two finger shortcut for selecting the Google search box in Safari. The default Command + Option + F is a bit too clumsy. I take my cue from Firefox and go with Command + K.

How To Do It: Go to the Keyboard and Mouse pane in System Preferences. Select the Keyboard Shortcut tab and click the little ‘+’ button near the bottom of the pane. Select Safari from the application menu and type in ‘Google Search…’ exactly as it appears in Safari’s Edit menu. This will override the default shortcut.

Put the Applications Folder in the Dock

Despite my near complete reliance on Quicksilver, I still do use the mouse from time to time, especially to launch an application whose name I’ve forgotten. I keep my Applications folder in the Dock for times like this.

How To Do It: Simply drag your Apps folder from the top level of your HD into the Dock. Once you’ve done so, right click on it and select Sort by Name, Display as Folder and View Content as List. Set up like this, a click will open any app, but a Command click will reveal the app in a new Finder window.

Set Up Hot Corners

Top left – Sleep Display. Top right – Application Windows. Bottom left – All Windows. Bottom right – Desktop. If you use the mouse it’s amazing how quickly you can accomplish work with this setup.

How To Do It: Go into the Exposé and Spaces Preference pane in System preferences and click on the Exposé tab. It’s pretty self explanatory from here, but a a side note you can also set custom mouse buttons to invoke Exposé’s window management features.

Customize Toolbars

I pull Open in Dashboard and Add Bookmark from Safari. The first is accessible from the File menu, while the second with a simple Command + D. Preview also stands a bit of customization.

How To Do It: Open up the app that you’d like to customize and right (Control) click on the toolbar. Select Customize from the contextual menu. I remove everything which can be accessed by an easy keyboard shortcut. As you can see from the screenshot, I also set all but a few application windows to Icon Only display mode.

Disable Automatic Opening of ‘Safe Files’ in Safari

I’ve never gotten a virus on my Mac and I don’t intend to do so. This simple tweak (which really should be the default, Apple!) secures your Mac against any files which would automatically execute their evil on download.

How To Do It: Jump into Safari’s preferences and, under the General tab, uncheck the ‘Open “safe” files after download’ box. Small tweak but good piece of mind.

Speed Up the Mouse and Trackpad and Enable 2 Finger Scrolling

I love a super fast tracking speed, and I’m lost when I use a Windows laptop and can’t scroll with two fingers on the trackpad. I’m not sure if two finger scrolling is the default on new Macs now, but when I had my first MacBook, it wasn’t.

How To Do It: Go into Mouse and Trackpad settings in System Prefs and crank up all the dials. Next, click the appropriate checkboxes in the pane to get the most out of your trackpad (which boxes appear will vary depending on the Mac your on).

If you really want to speed up the trackpad and mouse, install MouseZoom and up the speed to “Insanely Fast.” Once you get used to it, I guarantee you won’t go back.

Move the Dock to the Side, Enable Hiding and Kill Magnification

There’s more horizontal screen space on all new Macs. A dock on the side just makes sense. And the aesthetic effect of Dock magnification is ruined for me as soon as it gets in the way, which occurs the moment I move my mouse anywhere near the Dock. I’ll add that radically change and rearrange Apple’s default Dock apps, but that’s something pretty specialized so I won’t go into exactly what I keep there.

How To Do It: Go into the Dock’s System Preference pane and uncheck Magnification. Dial down the size of the Dock, choose a Dock position (I’m a fan of the Left hand side, but your opinion may differ) and make any other mods you like. Unlike many, I’m quite fond of the Dock – as long as it’s set up the right way.

Hide the Macintosh Hard Drive on the Desktop

By default, a shortcut to the root level of your file system will appear on the Desktop on a clean install of OS X. Considering that the same is accessible from the Finder’s icon in the Dock, such a shortcut is superfluous and just takes up space on an already crowded workspace. It’s easy to hide your Macintosh HD.

How To Do It: Open the Finder and bring up its preferences (Command + ,). Uncheck Hard disks from the menu and your shortcut disappears. If you want new Finder windows to open up your root HD level, you can easily set that in the dropdown menu directly below the checklist.

Remove Unwanted Printer Drivers

Apple is obsessed with plug and play. Hook up almost any printer in existence and OS X will automatically recognize it with zero configuration. But this convenience comes at a steep price: HD space. Delete the printer drivers that you’ll never use and regain up to 3 GBs of hard drive space back.

How To Do It: Some will tell you that it’s a bad idea to mess with files in your root level Library, and generally I agree. However, here I think you can make an exception. Find the folder called ‘Printers’ in Your HD/Library. Find the folder for your brand of printer and delete the others.

As said, it’s good to exercise caution when modifying the contents of files in your root Library. To make sure I don’t mess anything up, I first burn my Printer driver folder to a DVD in case I need to install a new printer in the future. Right click on the folder and select ‘Compress “Printers”‘ then drop the resulting .zip file into a Burn Folder and back it up. It’s a safe way to regain some space for your movies, music and pics.

Although I consider removing unwanted printer drivers completely safe, I want to emphasize that you are deleting files from an important directory. Again, back it up and you’ll be fine.

So there it is – a rough guide to how I get my Mac just how I like it after a reinstall. I hope you’ve found a trick or two you didn’t know about.

What about applications? Here’s the first 10 apps to install on a fresh Mac and here’s the second 10. If you’re looking for something you haven’t heard of, try Lesser Know Mac Freeware – 10 Apps and Utilities. If you’ve got a few bucks to burn, these 10 shareware apps are worth considering.

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