InsanelyMac Forum > (Almost) Hidden Secrets of OS X

Full Version: (Almost) Hidden Secrets of OS X

InsanelyMac Forum > Apple World > OS X > OS X (10.0 - 10.4)

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ninjastance

Feb 19 2007, 04:53 AM

QUOTE(R. Bear Helms @ Feb 11 2006, 03:23 AM)

Ctrl+F2 when the mouse isn't working. You can use arrow keys to navigate the menu bar and press return when you highlight the item you wanted.

Ctrl+F8 AFTER having pressed Ctrl+F2, it selects the right side of the menu bar. Why you can't get at it otherwise is a bit obtuse for me.

Unless you have discovered what key on a PC keyboard maps to "eject," the following aren't too helpful for you: Cmd+Ctrl+Eject = Reboot; Cmd+Alt+Ctrl+Eject = shutdown.

The "sleep" key on some PC keyboards will bring up a special dialog box on OS X by which you can select to sleep, restart, or shutdown (and cancel).

Cmd+Alt+Esc will force quit an app. If you do not see the force quit dialog, try choosing that from the Apple menu. If this still doesn't work, see if you can activate another application first by clicking a window or clicking an app in the dock that has a black arrow pointing up at it (this is a running/loaded indicator).

THANKS SOOOOOO MUCH FOR THIS INFO!!!! SOOOOO USEFUL!

shadowdesign

Feb 25 2007, 05:01 AM

I'm trying to find out what will the equivalent to volum up and volume down keys, would be in a normal keyboard of a x86 xDU (i have a dell).. i did it by mistake while playing mario in the zsnes.. but i still can't figure it out.. any ideas?

Zandig

Feb 26 2007, 05:30 AM

QUOTE(aitikin @ Dec 23 2005, 03:22 AM)

My personal favorite as just a nice trick (although I haven't confirmed it in OSX86 yet) is to hold the Command Option and Control keys and hit 8. It will invert the colors on the screen.

Does this work for anyone with OSX86 ? I have JaS 10.4.8 running and it doesn't work for me.

aniphreak

Mar 8 2007, 04:57 PM

yes it worked for me...

syrus

Mar 11 2007, 11:38 PM

QUOTE

QUOTE(aitikin @ Dec 23 2005, 03:22 AM) *
My personal favorite as just a nice trick (although I haven't confirmed it in OSX86 yet) is to hold the Command Option and Control keys and hit 8. It will invert the colors on the screen.

Does this work for anyone with OSX86 ? I have JaS 10.4.8 running and it doesn't work for me.

you must press ctrl+cmd+opt key + 8 then it works fine for me

Tari

Mar 19 2007, 07:47 PM

Hi!

Here is one cool secret setting

In almost every application which have a button like picture below

Click to view attachment

you can press Option+Command and click on that button... Customize window will apear.

Click to view attachment

Now you can just Drag&Drop icons you like into the menu

Cheers!

junkshow

Mar 25 2007, 07:09 AM

QUOTE(Arez @ Jul 23 2006, 09:15 PM)

So is there a way to turn on my mac with the remote?

No, but you can put it to sleep by holding the play/pause button.

Zulu.Walker

Mar 25 2007, 07:35 AM

QUOTE(macgirl @ Dec 4 2005, 07:40 AM)

Maybe these are not new, and are commonly known, but for the new on OSX86...

Make any App Icon Transparent in Dock when it is hidden
In Terminal type defaults write com.apple.dock showhidden -bool true
then type killall Dock

After my 10.4.9 update my dock icons weren't behaving as well as they were in 10.4.8, this solved my "issue" with the icons not turning transparent when the app is hidden.

Glad I ran through this once more, I didn't even notice I had this problem after the 10.4.9 update.

St0nehead

Mar 25 2007, 07:23 PM

How to boot from USB-Flash drive on intel-based MacBook ? ...and from ieee1394 connected HDD ( if it possible ) ?
------------------------------------------

Kaspers

Mar 25 2007, 08:02 PM

Want to know where Microsoft stole their cursor bitmap ?
Press CTRL+ALT+CMD+8

idividebyzero

Apr 30 2007, 11:32 PM

In Safari you can select different directories on a website (designated by /'s) by holding down command and clicking the title bar.

alaa833

May 2 2007, 07:43 PM

Well I try to put widget on desktop but that doesn't work.
Is it possible with osx86 version ?

eidolon

May 4 2007, 08:23 AM

QUOTE(thunder.scripts @ Jan 9 2006, 07:00 AM)

Holding F12 ejects removable media, just checked

omg I ALMOST KNOCKED OVER MY BONG

jsmith81

May 5 2007, 08:47 AM

Here's one I just stumbled upon, whilst holding down the control key move your scroll wheel on you mouse and watch the screen zoom in and out
Enjoy

May 5 2007, 02:16 PM

QUOTE(alaa833 @ May 2 2007, 07:43 PM)

Well I try to put widget on desktop but that doesn't work.
Is it possible with osx86 version ?

osx is the same on intel or ppc, you're doing something wrong.

John the Geek

May 5 2007, 04:59 PM

QUOTE(alaa833 @ May 2 2007, 03:43 PM)

Well I try to put widget on desktop but that doesn't work.
Is it possible with osx86 version ?

QUOTE(sg @ May 5 2007, 10:16 AM)

osx is the same on intel or ppc, you're doing something wrong.

You can do this on both as long as you enable it. You can't drag them to the desktop by default, you have to do the following:

- Open a terminal

- Type defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES

- Reboot to get Dashboard to load the new settings.

Then activate Dashboard by pressing F12 Begin dragging the widget. Press F12 again, before letting up on the mouse button.

- Drop the widget wherever you want it.

Str4nger

May 10 2007, 05:39 AM

When you hold Command and clic the button at the right side of Finder folders you can switch across some premade customizations for the window, I think they are five but there's one not working, or I can realize what it affects.

HotBreeze

May 12 2007, 03:05 PM

QUOTE(colonels1020 @ May 2 2006, 11:18 PM)

I'm surprised that nobody put in OS X's hidden Tetris and Text Adventure

To play OS X's hidden tetris, you:

1. Open the finder
2. Open Applications
3. Open Utilities
4. Open Terminal
5. type "emacs"; click enter
6. Press ESC + X at the same time
7. Type "tetris"
8. Play Tetris! Use the arrow keys to move and rotate the blocks, and press the space to make the blocks fall.

To play the Text adventure, you just type Just type "emacs -batch -l dunnet" (without quotes) into the terminal and it will bring up and old school text based game.

I think the OS X developer's were REALLY bored when they made it.

interesting that dunnet is a game included on emacs code ;D

Welcome to dunnet (2.01), by Ron Schnell (ronnie@driver-aces.com).
Here is some useful information (read carefully because there are one
or more clues in here):
- If you have a key that can open a door, you do not need to explicitly
open it. You may just use 'in' or walk in the direction of the door.

- If you have a lamp, it is always lit.

- You will not get any points until you manage to get treasures to a certain
place. Simply finding the treasures is not good enough. There is more
than one way to get a treasure to the special place. It is also
important that the objects get to the special place *unharmed* and
*untarnished*. You can tell if you have successfully transported the
object by looking at your score, as it changes immediately. Note that
an object can become harmed even after you have received points for it.
If this happens, your score will decrease, and in many cases you can never
get credit for it again.

- You can save your game with the 'save' command, and use restore it
with the 'restore' command.

- There are no limits on lengths of object names.

- Directions are: north,south,east,west,northeast,southeast,northwest,
southwest,up,down,in,out.

- These can be abbreviated: n,s,e,w,ne,se,nw,sw,u,d,in,out.

- If you go down a hole in the floor without an aid such as a ladder,
you probably won't be able to get back up the way you came, if at all.

- To run this game in batch mode (no emacs window), use:
emacs -batch -l dunnet
NOTE: This game *should* be run in batch mode!

If you have questions or comments, please contact ronnie@driver-aces.com
My home page is http://www.driver-aces.com/ronnie.html

four!

May 17 2007, 11:24 PM

I like the slow motion effects but is there a way to slow them down globally? I'd like them to be a bit slower than normal.

joshua_rules

May 28 2007, 08:59 PM

QUOTE(St0nehead @ Mar 25 2007, 09:23 PM)

How to boot from USB-Flash drive on intel-based MacBook ? ...and from ieee1394 connected HDD ( if it possible ) ?
------------------------------------------

Just hold "Alt" at startup. The Efi will scan for any bootable device like Firewire and netboot drives.

Joshua.

iChild

Jul 12 2007, 05:47 AM

QUOTE(macgirl @ Dec 3 2005, 11:40 PM)

Maybe these are not new, and are commonly known, but for the new on OSX86

Make the Safari Debug Menu appear:
Quit Safari then in Terminal type
defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu 1

Make any App Icon Transparent in Dock when it is hidden
In Terminal type defaults write com.apple.dock showhidden -bool true
then type killall Dock

I like the second one!
Is there a way to undo it?

UZi706

Jul 31 2007, 05:57 AM

Open finder, go to Applications, hit command+A, now hit command+down arrow.

BTW, don't really do this unless you have about a half hour and a lot of patients. use this as a practical joke

failurbydesign

Aug 9 2007, 09:30 PM

QUOTE(guyin916 @ Jan 4 2006, 07:38 AM)

does the "hold F12" work in osx86? suppose to eject the CD/DVD out of primary optical drive.. at least on the ppc platform it does :-) also, force eject of all removable media that support eject by holding left mouse button on bootup (cannot be usb mouse via hub as far as i know)..

also, if anyone was successful in hacking "front row" into osx86, command+esc :-)

HELL YES..i love it...just what i was loooooooking for

Cubric

Aug 23 2007, 12:29 PM

How do i disable spotlight and remove it from my menu bar? i remember it was posted in a thread somewhere but i couldnt find it.

ebony

Aug 25 2007, 11:15 AM

QUOTE(UZi706 @ Jul 31 2007, 05:57 AM)

Open finder, go to Applications, hit command+A, now hit command+down arrow.
BTW, don't really do this unless you have about a half hour and a lot of patients. use this as a practical joke

Sigh. Curiosity really did kill the cat. I never knew the Dock could shrink to that size...

Cubric

Aug 26 2007, 06:38 AM

I need info on where the picture is saved after doing a screen capture because its not on my desktop and it usually is on my other ibook.

mousy

Sep 14 2007, 05:57 PM

how do you paste without a mouse?

ChickenFlu

Sep 15 2007, 09:31 AM

use command+C to copy and command+v to paste.

Felipe Viegas

Nov 15 2007, 03:04 PM

UZi706....

I do will kill you...

CyberEclipse

Dec 29 2007, 05:21 AM

QUOTE(UZi706 @ Jul 30 2007, 10:54 PM)

Open finder, go to Applications, hit command+A, now hit command+down arrow.
BTW, don't really do this unless you have about a half hour and a lot of patients. use this as a practical joke

sonofabitch

Searay_X

Dec 30 2007, 06:19 AM

QUOTE

A little known QuarkXpress feature: hold command option shift delete with an object selected. An alien wanders on screen, and zaps your item with a raygun, and it disappears in a tacky orange gradient effect. I'm serious. It works in 3.3. I dunno if it's still there, i've defected to InDesign.

Works in 6.0 as well!

Searay_X

Dec 30 2007, 04:09 PM

QUOTE(aitikin @ Dec 22 2005, 10:19 PM)

My personal favorite as just a nice trick (although I haven't confirmed it in OSX86 yet) is to hold the Command Option and Control keys and hit 8. It will invert the colors on the screen.

Works on osx86 10.4.9 (possibly others I would assume) using the windows "Ctrl", "Windows Key" and "alt" on a windows keyboard anyway...

Regards,

Searay

Georgiles

Jun 11 2008, 07:51 PM

Annoying Hidden Files

if you have files showing on the desktop like .ds_store you hide them like this:

Open TERMINAL and type:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
killall Finder

if you want to see them again change FALSE with TRUE

mrfajita

Aug 5 2008, 03:57 AM

http://alum.hampshire.edu/~bjk02/presButan/index.htm

lets you use enter/return to open files in Finder and delete/backspace to delete files in finder

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