TinkerTool
Features
TinkerTool is an application that gives you access to additional preference settings Apple has built into Mac OS X. This allows to activate hidden features in the operating system and in some of the applications delivered with the system.
Because TinkerTool only gives you access to features already built into Mac OS X, its feature set varies greatly between different operating system versions. Please refer to the following table:
| Preference Setting | 10.6 | 10.7 |
|---|---|---|
| Enable the Finder to show hidden and system files | x | x |
| Disable sound effects of the Finder | x | x |
| Prevent the Finder from using the Desktop background | x | x |
| Enable the “Quit” menu item of the Finder | x | x |
| Let the Finder display the UNIX path of the current selection as window title | x | x |
| Disable the animation effect when opening files in the Finder | x | |
| Disable the animation effect when opening information panels or Desktop icons | x | x |
| Disable the animation effect when selecting information categories | x | x |
| Disable the creation of hidden Finder .DS_Store files on network volumes | x | x |
| Let Quick Look inspect folders by showing them with transparent covers | x | |
| Block the feature “connect to server” in the Finder | x | x |
| Block the iDisk features in the Finder | x | x |
| Block the eject feature in the Finder | x | x |
| Block the features for disk burning in the Finder | x | x |
| Block the feature “go to folder” in the Finder | x | x |
| Block the restart option in the Finder | x | x |
| Block the shutdown option in the Finder | x | x |
| Use transparent Dock icons to show hidden applications | x | x |
| Disable the three-dimensional glass effect of the Dock | x | x |
| Use the spring-loading feature of the Finder also in the Dock | x | |
| Disable the Dock Exposé feature (returning to context menus on click-and-hold) | x | |
| Restrict the Dock not to allow manual changes of its size | x | x |
| Restrict the Dock not to allow changes of its contents | x | x |
| When using grid view for stacks, let the Dock display a marker for the current selection | x | x |
| Add a stack for Recent Items | x | x |
| Enable a larger, grid-like display for stacks in list view mode | x | x |
| Let the Dock hide all others when switching to or launching an application | x | x |
| Place the Dock at the beginning or end of any screen border | x | x |
| Set the Dock minimization effect to a “suck in” animation | x | x |
| Set the Dock minimization effect to a “linear” animation | x | x |
| Place both scroll arrow buttons of any scroll bar at both ends of the bar | x | |
| Re-enable the key repeat feature | x | |
| Re-enable the keyboard shortcut for “Don't save” in save sheets | x | |
| Set the file format for the creation of Desktop screenshots | x | x |
| Disable the shadow when taking window screenshots | x | x |
| Set the destination folder for Desktop screenshots | x | x |
| Accelerate the animation of opening and closing sheets | x | x |
| Disable the animation when opening windows | x | |
| Disable the animation effect when opening a reply window in Apple Mail | x | |
| Set expanded Save dialogs as default when using new applications | x | x |
| Set expanded Print dialogs as default when using new applications | x | |
| Limit the number of items shown in the “File > Open Recent” submenu of native Mac OS X applications | x | x |
| Disable drag-and-drop of text in Cocoa applications or set the delay time when switching from selection mode to drag mode | x | x |
| Set the delay before applications will display help tags (“tooltips”) | x | x |
| Control to which computer the remote access feature is sending system key shortcuts (no longer necessary in Lion) | x | |
| Disable the feature to keep help windows always in the foreground | x | x |
| Control how Mac OS X handles application crashes | x | x |
| Control the display of warnings when uncaught exceptions occur in applications | x | |
| Enable the Mac OS X Menu Extra to open optical disk drives | x | x |
| Disable Dashboard | x | x |
| Enable the developer mode of Dashboard | x | x |
| Enable the diagnostic menu of the Address Book | x | x |
| Automatically activate Terminal windows by pointing at them with the mouse cursor | x | x |
| Enable extended options for converting disk images | x | x |
| Avoid Dictionary entries in search results of Spotlight | x | x |
| Disable the calculator feature of Spotlight | x | x |
| Disable the immediate inline-display of attachments in Apple Mail | x | x |
| Force Apple Mail to copy plain e-mail adresses to the pasteboard (omitting names) | x | x |
| Let Apple Mail prefer the plain text alternative when displaying messages | x | x |
| Disable the wrap around function when switching from the last or first space in Spaces | x | |
| The Exposé feature “Application Windows” should include windows from all Spaces | x | |
| Disable the dialog which asks for Time Machine backup disks when new drives are connected | x | x |
| Show all system user groups in the Accounts pane of System Preferences | x | x |
| Disable the quarantine security warning when opening downloaded objects | x | x |
| Set nine categories of default fonts used in Cocoa applications | x | x |
| Set higher font-smoothing limits than usually offered | x | x |
| Control the style and degree of font smoothing (optimized for CRT or LCD) | x | x |
| Reorder login items or deactivate them temporarily | x | x |
| Disable native PDF display support in Safari (only for Safari 4 or 5.0x) | x | |
| Disable the database of web-site icons in Safari (only for Safari 4 or 5.0x) | x | |
| Disable warnings when closing unsubmitted forms | x | x |
| Redirect links opening new windows into foreground tabs (no longer necessary in Safari 5 or later) | x | |
| Disable all RSS features of Safari (only for Safari 4 or 5.0x) | x | |
| Disable DNS prefetching in Safari 4 or 5.0x (for better compatibility with old routers) | x | |
| Disable storage of preview images for web pages (only for Safari 5 or later) | x | x |
| Enable text labels for icons in the Safari toolbar | x | x |
| Set the number of visible entries in the main history menu of Safari | x | x |
| Set the number of history items visible in the menu of Safari Back/Forward buttons (only for Safari 4 or 5.0x) | x | |
| Allow ratings with half stars in iTunes | x | x |
| Add a master playlist for the entire media library in iTunes | x | x |
| Load excerpts of tracks completely before playing them when browsing the iTunes Store | x | x |
| Disable display of links to the iTunes Store in iTunes (no longer necessary with iTunes 10.4 or later) | x | x |
| Reverse the meaning of the option key when clicking links in iTunes (not with iTunes 10.4 or later) | x | x |
| Enable playing songs while importing or converting in iTunes (not with iTunes 10.4 or later) | x | x |
| Create file names without track numbers when importing music in iTunes (not with iTunes 10.2 or later) | x | |
| Force iTunes 10 to use a standard window with title bar and horizontal buttons (no longer necessary with iTunes 10.4 or later) | x | x |
| Disable the Ping / iTunes Store pull-down menus in iTunes 10 | x | x |
| Disable display of controls when cursor re-enters player window of QuickTime X | x | x |
| Keep player controls always visible in QuickTime X | x | x |
| Don't use rounded window corners for player of QuickTime X | x | |
| Disable title bar QuickTime X player | x | x |
| Don't auto-play movies when opening player of QuickTime X | x | x |
| Show close captioning and subtitles after launching player of QuickTime X | x | x |
| Maintain full-screen mode of QuickTime X when switching to other applications (no longer necessary in Lion) | x | |
| Allow multiple concurrent recordings with QuickTime X | x | |
| When trimming movies, use option key to switch between video and audio tracks (player of QuickTime X) | x | |
| When trimming movies, use option key to highlight silent ranges in the audio track (player of QuickTime X) | x | |
| Control the Resume setting individually per application whether programs should restore windows when quitting and re-opening | x |
(x) denotes feature support.
All options referring to iTunes support all versions of iTunes 9, and current versions of iTunes 10. The first release of iTunes 10 (“iTunes 10.0”) is not supported.
The software is offered without implied warranty of merchantibility or fitness for a particular purpose. We cannot guarantee that TinkerTool will be compatible with future versions of Mac OS X or iTunes.
Learn more…
