macOS Tips

If we meet or talk about Apple Macs or macOS, I may recommend an app, tool, or command line tweak to you. This is an attempt to summarize everything on one page.

If you find an outdated link, please let me know. If you’re after my general tips, I have a page for that here.

If you are looking for my reviews or how-to guides check this link.

Important Note: If you own, operate, or publish anything I link to, please contact me BEFORE you want to add me as someone who endorses you, testimonial, etc.

This list is provided as a courtesy to family, friends, and colleagues not for you to quote me in marketing material.

macOS Tweaks

• HiddenBar
  A free app to hide macOS menu bar icons. It works, it’s 100% free on the Mac App Store.
  alternatives to HiddenBar include BarTender (paid) and Vanilla (freemium)
• MOS (preferred)
  Enable smooth scrolling on your Mac (my preferred Mac smooth scrolling tool)
  an alternative to MOS is Smooth Scroll.
• Tinted Folders Lite (Free)
  Customize the color of your Mac folders in Finder.
• TuneMyMusic
  if you’re moving from AppleMusic to Spotify (or vice versa), the best way to sync or move playlists. Web service, not an app.

Fun Stuff

• If you want to emulate a retro Mac, try this macOS 8 emulator.

Recommended M1 macOS Apps

• Amphetamine – Free
  Essential if you want to keep your computer awake when on battery (presentations, meetings, etc).
• Forklift (File Manager)
  The best file manager for macOS. Dual panes, supports FTP, Cloud Storage, etc.
• Menu World Time – Free
  If you work across multiple time zones and need another clock in your Mac Menu bar, this is perfect.
• New File Menu – Free (Paid Available)
  If you’re coming from Windows and like to right-click to create new files, you will need this.

Discounted Mac Apps

If you’re after discounted Mac Apps, StackSocial is a good place to look. I have picked up macOS software for less than half the price that they sell for on the macOS App Store.

Mac Gaming

Not a tweak, but if you’re looking to see if a game will run on Mac silicon, check out this site. It will also give you benchmarks for games running on Mac silicon.

Separately, macOS related blog posts with tips, tricks, or advice written by me are listed below: