Getting the "About This Mac" dialog window to report the correct processor

[The Shaun 2]

If you're like me, you just can't leave stuff alone. Everything has to be tweaked and tuned. From my car to my computer, there's very little I leave "stock". I like for stuff to reflect me and I like to have fun doing things that make people go "how'd you do that?!" I actually started to write this tutorial as a way to make the "About This Mac" dialog report the correct processor and memory. As most of you already know, this dialog window is incredibly picky and rarely, if ever, displays the correct information. Core 2 Duo users don't have this problem.

 

For reasons beyond my comprehension, my "About This Mac" dialog always told me that my Pentium 4 ran at "3.07 GHz". This is only 10 MHz off, and it's only wrong because of the way OS X calculates the CPU speed. There's only one problem with that. I'm extremely anal retentive. I want things on my Hackintosh to work and operate just the way they would on a real Mac. Turns out you can force the dialog to report whatever you want it to! Take my 60 MHz i386 of doom for example:

 

 

Hacking the dialog is a piece of cake. I initially tried {censored} with the .nib file itself, but Interface Builder can't open it. Oh well, there's no need anyway! You can do it by editing a .strings file.

 

Navigate to: /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj

 

Open the AboutThisMac.strings file.

 

Find and edit this part of your file:

 

/* The format string used to generate the Processor text field in the About This Mac window */
/* when there is exactly one processor in the machine.  The localized string */
/* must include the 2-character sequence "%@" which will be replaced in the */
/* final UI with a description of the processor (e.g. "600 MHz PowerPC G3") */
//"ABOUT_BOX_SINGLE_PROCESSOR_FIELD_FORMAT" = "Processor: %@";
"ABOUT_BOX_SINGLE_PROCESSOR_FIELD_FORMAT" = "ChangeThisPartToWhateverYouWant";

 

Save the file to your desktop. Remember the .strings extension. Drag it back into the original folder. OS X will ask you to authorize. Give it your password. Voilà! Check out your new pimped (and maybe even correct) "About This Mac" window! There are tons of cool things you can do by messing around with some of the hidden files in OS X. Check out my personal new ATM dialog window:

 

 

Have fun!

[tops 0]

Very cool, an extended guide to editing the rest of the About This Mac window would be excellent, including how to rename From Mac OS X to Workstation as you did, and the logo manipulation.

[The Shaun 2]

Sure! I would have wrote it all last night, but I was tired.

 

Editing the Apple logo and the text under it is pretty easy. Originally I thought it was hard coded into the AboutThisMac.nib file, but it isn't. Turns out absolutely NOTHING is hard coded into that file. The logo and text is actually a .tif file located at:

 

/System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/Resources/MacOSX.tif

 

You'll also find a MacOSXServer.tif file. The system automatically chooses the correct image. You could of course simply delete (or move, and save in case something goes wrong) the MacOSX.tif file and rename MacOSXServer.tif. Tada! Instant OS X Server! Well. Not really, but you get what I'm saying. Change it to whatever you like. Put a picture of your dog on there. Put a custom logo up. Whatever!

 

Everything else in the About box that isn't edited via that picture or the AboutThisMac.strings file can be changed via one more file:

 

/System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist

 

You can edit this file to make up your own version number and copyright dates.

 

So there you go, there's the way to edit everything in your About This Mac dialog. Useless, but fun!

[tops 0]

Is there a specific compression/format of tif necessary to display custom images?

[The Shaun 2]

I just used the default settings in Photoshop, but told it not to save the layers.

[tops 0]

Cheers!

 

[thebeephaha 0]

 

Woo!

[womb 0]

can anyone please tell me how to change my processor value/title in a System Profile when I click "More info" on a "About this mac" panel? I got it to show the proper value with the help of this tutorial but system profile still shows incorrect processor type?

[womb 0]

anyone? please.... this is really frustrating and annoying, I'd really like to solve this stupid error.

 

or even better if I could just remove "more info" button :-)

[KellyKelly 0]

after I replaced the info my startup disk is gone....it only display processor and memory. how do i fix that?