Its easy to think that Mac UI is not customizable but behold-it is!

However, these options are not available via the System Preferences but you can change them from the Terminal. Note the inconsistencies in the boolean values: YES/NO, true/false, 1/0…I’d have expected better from Apple!

Some of the more often looked for settings are shown below. But I’ve started working on a small utility called maclets that is a compilation of settings I find myself frequently using. Once sourced it can be used as:

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$ toggle <service> <on/off>

Disable icon in Applicaiton Switcher: add this to the app’s Info.plist

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<key>LSUIElement</key>
<string>1</string>

Switch off(YES)/on(NO) Dashboard

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$ defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES; killall Dock

Show(true)/hide(false) desktop icons

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$ defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false; killall Finder

Disable(false)/enable(true) character picker on long key press in Lion in favor of key repeat (this was a really annoying change)

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$ defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false 

Disable(true)/enable(false) Ping sidebar

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$ defaults write com.apple.iTunes disablePingSidebar -bool true

Disable(true)/enable(true) Ping stuff in iTunes

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$ defaults write com.apple.iTunes disablePing -bool true