Disable Dashboard on Mac OSX

Carl Thomas | February 23, 2013 | Leave a Comment

On the Mac you may have noticed the Dashboard, it is the desktop on very left. It allows you to view stocks, time zones etc and can be very useful. However, if you are like me you may never use it and not want Mac OSX to load it every time you start your Mac. In this post I will show you how to disable (and enable) the dashboard.

Step 1.

Open the terminal Applications > Utilities > Terminal.app

Step 2.

Type the following code into your Terminal and this will disable your Dashboard.

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES

Step 3.

Now all you need to do is restart your Dock. This will take a few seconds but it will come back and you will not know any difference except that you can no longer access the Dashboard Desktop.

Type this code into your Terminal (thus is case sensitive).

killall Dock

Note

If you want to restart your dashboard, all you have to do is follow the steps again except in step 2 change the code to

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO

This will then restart the Dashboard.

Add Spacer To Mac OSX Dock

Carl Thomas | February 7, 2013 | 1 Comment

Have you ever seen a tutorial video on a website that has been shot on a Apple Mac OSX and in the dock they have spaces between the apps?

Have you ever wondered how they have done this?

Well look no further, I will tell you now (it’s very easy!)

Step 1.

Open up the Terminal.app located in Applications > Utilities > Terminal.app.

Step 2.

Type the following code into Termainal and press Enter.

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{"tile-type"="spacer-tile";}'

You can do this as many times as you need and it will create a new blank dock spacer.

Note: When you press enter a spacer will not appear until you do Step 3.

Step 3.

Now enter the following which will restart the Dock. You should then have a space between your apps which you can drag to wherever you want.

killall Dock

Remove Space

You can remove a spacer at any point by right clicking on the space and clicking ‘Remove from Dock’.

Enable Mirroring On Mac Through Apple TV

Carl Thomas | February 4, 2013 | Leave a Comment

In this article I will show you how to get your Mac display showing on your TV through the magic of the Apple TV box.

Step 1

Connect your Apple TV to your tv and then go to Settings > AirPlay and make sure the option AirPlay is turned ‘On’.

Step 2

Go to your Mac and go to System Preferences > Displays and at the bottom you should see that there is an option ‘AirPlay Mirroring’. If you click this select box you should see Apple TV, click that label and Voila! You should now see your Mac on your tv.

Apple Mac AirPlay Mirroring Option
The location of Apple’s AirPlay mirroring option on Mac OSX.

Optional

While you are on your Mac and inside System Preferences > Displays, just below where it says ‘AirPlay Mirroring’ there is a checkbox that says ‘Show mirroring options in the menu bar when available’. If you check this option you will see a new icon in your Mac’s toolbar on the right hand side (image 3).

Apple AirPlay Toolbar
Apple AirPlay Toolbar

If you click that icon you will see all the available Apple TV’s in the vicinity of your Mac, click one of the names listed and your Mac will mirror onto that device, thus being displayed onto your tv.

Note: if you are using your tv as your display for productivity purposes then you may see a slight lag in the mouse as it catches up with your movements.