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Mac Tricks and Tips, Wallpapers and Applications for Mac Users
Tweaking Mac Login Window
In my previous articles, I've touched on three interesting login window tweaks, which are:
Applying these three killer tricks, I am sure that your Mac can stand out from the crowd since its booting up. Before throwing you with new trick on login window: changing Apple logo, let me review a bit on the past three tweaks.
Transparent Login Picture
Even though we have put transparent image as our login pictures, the white square box will still be there. This indicates that there is lack of transparency in displaying our login pictures.
But now, it's not a problem. Mac OS X Hints has put up a really interesting topic about how to enable this transparency. All of the steps are done in Terminal.
In their article, Show User Pictures with Transparency, I can conclude three main steps used in adding transparency to login pictures.
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dscl . -read /Users/[your username] Picture
This will help you identify which image you're currently using for Desktop picture. As a response, Terminal will return the path of the picture.
Picture: /Library/User Pictures/Animals/Butterfly.tif
Don't forget to copy the path to this file, as you will need it later. -
sudo dscl . -delete /Users/[your username] JPEGPhoto
As explained inside the article, we will have a JPEG version of the image. This JPEG version is the culprit behind the inability to display alpha transparency. With the command line above, this JPEG version will be removed. -
sudo dscl . -change /Users/[your username] Picture '/Library/User Pictures/Animals/Butterfly.tif' '/Library/User Pictures/New/Smile.tiff'
The first parameter under the single quote is the path to the current login picture. This is the path that you've copied to clipboard at the 1st step.
The second parameter is the path to new login picture that you want to use. Obviously, use new login picture with some transparencies. You need to provide the full path of it. (Hint: You can use drag and drop to accomplish this task)
As usual, logout for the change to take effect.
I cannot fully guarantee that this trick will not harm your Mac. The only thing I can prove is that this trick didn't harm my Mac. So, you can try it for your own risk.
Leopard - Fast User Switching
You will probably share your Mac with other people. Sometimes, it happens that the person with whom you share your Mac wants to use his/her account for a while. So, what should you do?
Stop All Your Activities and Log Off Your Account?
I thought we're talking about Leopard now. This old-fashioned, troublesome way to switch user is no longer of our interest, I believe.
Fast User Switching
Fast User Switching will be the right choice. Using this, whenever you want to switch to another user, you can just click on one of the accounts, enter the correct password and after a nice switching animation, your view have been changed to another account. Is it cool?
Mac OS X - Startup Sound
Adjust Startup Sound Volume
I found this site useful, SilverMac, which provides us with .prefPane file to adjust your startup sound volume. This story was hot on Digg several months ago.
Hear the Chime with MacTracker
Some people would probably have forgotten how their Macs startup song sounds like. In this case, download MacTracker, which can get the info of any Mac along with the startup sound.
Leopard - Change Login Background
Still remember how to change login background for Tiger? In Leopard, it's totally different.
I remember the last time I changed Tiger login background, I only need to go inside my Desktop Pictures folder and change the filename. Now in Leopard, what should I do?
Find Default Desktop
Leopard stores the default login background in the form of file named DefaultDesktop.jpg. This file is exactly located inside Macintosh HD ▸ System ▸ Library ▸ CoreServices ▸ DefaultDesktop.jpg. As you expected from Leopard, your DefaultDesktop.jpg is actually Aurora.jpg by default.
Replace with New Background
After you spotted the file, change it to other name, such as ExDefaultDesktop. Then, drag the new login background into the folder and change the filename into DefaultDesktop.jpg. Next time you log on your Mac OS X Leopard, you should get your new login background.
Categories:
Leopard,
Tips and Tricks
Tags:
Login,
login