EZ Computer Help.Org » Mac Tip

Get an Applications Dock Icon to Go Away!

Zane — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 04:56:04 +0000

Ok, there are some applications that you just wish didn’t have a dock icon. One of those apps for me has always been Awaken by Embraceware. The things dock icon really doesn’t do anything to benefit me. So why have it there? I found a way to get just about any applications dock icon to run along like a good little icon. Just bear with me:

So this is the thing that I had sitting there, the Awaken Dock icon.

It was not adding any functionality to the program, so why was it there?

I decided to put a stop to it.

So, what you’re going to need to do is this:

1. Open the app that you want to modify in the finder. You can do so easily by right clicking it in the dock and choosing the “Show in Finder” option.

2. Right click the application and choose “Show Package Contents”.

3. Double-click Contents and then right click “info.plist”. Choose “Open With” and then select “Other”.
Then, what you’re going to do is search for textedit and open up the “info.plist” file.

4. Now’s the time when things get a little trickier. Which is why I recommend copying and pasting the application in it’s folder to create a backup.

5. Now press Command+F and search for “NSPrincipalClass”

6. You should find an exact match in between “[key]“. Straight after that, on the next line, paste the following:

[key]NSUIElement[/key]
[string]1[/string]

7. Now, align all the text, make sure that nothing else is out of hand, and it should end up looking like this:

8. Press Command+S to save the plist and then open up the application. Voila! No dock icon.

This should work with any application, but there are some applications like system preferences. You can fix those up with a terminal command, if you want to know how, you can email me: helpmetechshow@gmail.com but I think this should settle most people for now.

*Note* I substituted the regular triangular brackets:
with the square ones for the purpose of the post, because obviously websites think they’re for html.

Watch the video for a step by step tutorial!

-Zane

Speed Up Firefox With Two Tiny Tricks!

Zane — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:00:05 +0000

Ever wished your browser could be faster? Or just appear faster? Well, with this quick trick it can!

All you have to do is type about:config in your browser bar. Once you’re in filter for “network.http”. Then find “network.http.pipelining” and double click the value to change it to true. Then find “network.http.proxy.pipelining” and change it’s value to true. Now, find “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests and change the value to eight or more. The reason it’s eight is because that’s the most http requests that Firefox can send. Setting it higher won’t break it, but it won’t do anything either! Now, lastly what you’re going to do is right click somewhere and choose new>integer.

After that, you should get a message asking you to name your new integer, call it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay”. After that, restart firefox and you should be browsing at a tidbit closer to light speed.

Use Mac OS X Spaces without a Keyboard!

Zane — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:15:06 +0000

Are you getting sick of going Cmd-Arrow to get around Mac OS X Spaces? Well I was too, so I sought a competitor. Enter Warp, and show your mouse a little love. Just download the Warp Preferences Pane from ksuther.com and you’ll be set. It allows you to set many things, from the option to see a preview of the next space when you move your mouse to that corner/edge and then click to switch. Or even just to mouse between them in a very efficient work flow. You can set the delay for activation and even use a modifier key to activate it. Check out the video for more:

My Mighty Mouse isn’t Mighty!

Zane — Sat, 10 May 2008 23:33:05 +0000

Have you got trouble with your mighty mouse? Is it just not working the way it was when you bought it? Is the scroll bar more of a non scroll without a brick ball? Well follow these tips, and you’ll be set.
First you’re going to need a q-tip and some rubbing alcohol or a wet wipe , and a paperclip.
Then what you do is rub the scroll ball vigorously with the q-tip or wet wipe and you should be set. After a few minutes of rubbing the scroll ball, it should look like it did when you first got it. If it doesn’t, persist. If it worked, then you can get into scraping the dirt off the crevices with the paperclip. A bit hard to explain, so watch the video. Hope that saved you some money!

View YouTube Videos the way they were meant to be viewed!

Mac Tip – Spotlight

EZ Helper — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 20:18:02 +0000

This is the first of a continuing series of tips on Macs. I recently made my computer dual boot with a Mac and I will cover that in a future post. These will be more aimed at the beginner user of Mac’s. Today I will be covering Spotlight.

Spotlight is a fantastic feature that is included in OSX. All you do is click a button and type what you’re looking for and Mac will search the whole entire PC for it. An example of this is that a user is searching for an mp3 but cannot find it. The user will type what they are looking for and Mac will spring into life and search the whole PC. The results are impressive, especially the speed.

Feeling Launchy?