We can help you take it far beyond what the System Preferences allow. So here are some amazing terminal commands that one must know!
1. Disable Lion / Mountain Lion Pop-Up Accent Window
If you like foreign accents, this amazing pop-up accent window that comes up when you long-press a letter key is quite useful.
However, for people who want to write lots of repetitive letters, it could be quite frustrating. For disabling the same, you can do the following:
In the Terminal app, copy and paste the command in a single line:
defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false
After that, hit return and then log out. Then, log in back again to see if the changes have been made. If you want to undo the changes, then substitute false for true in the above.
2. Change the default backup period in Time Machine
Time Machine backs up every hour when you have connected it by default. However, you can change the backup time through Terminal. To do the same, enter this command:
sudo defaults write /System/Library/Launch Daemons/com.apple.backupd-auto StartInterval -int 1800
This helps time machine backup every 30 minutes. To replace it, you can change 1800 with the interval time in terms of seconds. Since you are using a sudo command, ensure that you have typed it correctly before clicking Enter. You will be required to enter your system password in this case as well.
3. Drag Dashboard Visits Onto The Desktop
Yes, Dashboard exists on MacBook. However, widgets are hidden away inside the operating system. For dragging new dashboard widgets into the desktop, enter this command:
defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES
You must log out and then log in again, drag a widget to the desktop, click and press down on it, and then press F12 that dismisses it from the Dashboard.
It will also allow you to drop it onto the screen. You will now see your widgets floating above open applications. To disable the feature mentioned above, substitute YES with NO in the above comments.
However, you have to log out and then log in back again to see if the changes have been made or not. This is a step you cannot ignore in this regard.
4. Opening Terminal On MacBook
Terminal is a Mac application that we often forget about. However, it doesn't look like other applications on your MacBook.
Users are quite confused when it comes to opening the Terminal. You can do it by using Finder. Firstly, open Finder on your Mac system. After that, select Applications on the left-hand side of the app window. In the sub-menu section, go down until you see "Utilities" and click on it. In the next sub-menu, click on Terminal.
You can also open Terminal through Spotlight. For this alternative way, press Command + Space Bar on your system Keyboard. Type in "Terminal" and when you see Terminal in the Spotlight search section, click to open the application.
You can also open Terminal from the Launchpad, which you can know here. Know the quickest way to open Terminal on your Mac computer. There are various alternatives as well about which you can learn from this link.
5. Show Hidden Files And Folders
This is quite an easy and useful command used in conjunction with the Mac command line.
To reveal hidden files and folders in the Mac operating system,
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE killall Finder
After that, you can edit and delete files that were not accessible before.
If you want to hide the files again, replace TRUE with FALSE in the above command.
6. Duplicate files between folders
Instead of dragging and dropping or copying files between folders, please use the Ditto terminal command on Mac.
Ditto [original folder] [new folder]
If you have files in different locations but with the same name, you can type -v after Ditto to display every item’s file path using the verbose mode of Mac Terminal.
Top Terminal Commands To Know Today
So these are a few terminal commands that we wanted you to know as a Mac computer owner. Make your life easier and your work more fun by learning these amazing commands on your Macbooks or iMac computers.
