Mac is an intricate device. While modifying simple settings and making changes in the preferences can be easily managed through System Preferences. However, if you want to make functional or visual changes, you need to use Terminal, the terminal emulator of the Mac operating system.
But not everyone wants to mess with Terminal for various reasons. First, it is way complicated and second, if anything goes wrong, you need to scour the internet to find the cure.
Therefore, unless you are a pro, you are better off without it. This doesn’t mean that you cannot access features without commands on your Mac. There are a bunch of tools which could help you access a lot of macOS features easily.
In this post, we have listed a few tools which could help you access macOS features without using Terminal.
1. MacPilot
MacPilot is a utility tool which you can give you access to a lot of features and settings without using Terminal. The tool shows hidden files in Finder, add stacks and spacers to Dock, disable startup Chime, can change network settings, run maintenance tools, empty trash forcefully.
The list doesn’t end here. The tool allows you to set login window picture, edit the system welcome message, view system logs, modify advanced file permissions, activate synchronous recordings in QuickTime, or allow the Debug menu in various apps.
The utility tool shows a list of ports, fonts, manuals, error codes, key combos, and system configuration. With the tool, you can get detailed info related to connected disks, such as the number of free blocks, RAID status, and device tree path
The tool also allows you to do the following things:
- Disable Notification Centre, iCloud saving, Dashboard, Graphical animations, App Nap and more
- Prevent system sleep.
- Remove downloaded files warning message
- Delete files safely
MacPilot is an organized software. It has an easy to use interface. On the app’s window, you will find a lot of categories. The crucial ones are divided into panels. Every panel is further divided into subcategories which comes at the sidebar of the menu.
It is recommended to go through the settings panels and take your time before making changes. As it is better to wait before making random changes.
The tool is available for trial, so try it and if you like it and want to use the full app, pay $30 to get all hands on all the extensive features.
2. Onyx
Onyx is one of the best tools if you are looking to tweak Mac settings without using Terminal. It is a utility tool which can be used to do multiple tasks including configuring parameters in Finder, Safari, Dock and other native apps, cleaning and maintenance tasks. Moreover, the tool enables you to remove corrupt files and folder, delete caches, build several indexes and databases. It can detect and fix usual macOS issues. The tool is free, and no registration is required which makes it easy to use.
Onyx tool includes some settings for several categories such as Dock, Safari, Login, and Finder. With the help of those settings, you can make several changes such as:
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- Display or Hide several Finder items.
- Configure screen capture.
- Add System Preferences panel for inbuilt Archive Utility.
When you launch the tool for the first time, it verifies the structure of the startup disk. If you are running the tool for the first time, you can let the tool verify. However, you don’t need to do this every time you use the tool, you can cancel the option.
Once the verification step is completed, Onyx appears in a single window app containing a toolbar without various tabs such as Maintenance, Automation, Cleaning, Utilities, Info, Parameters, and Logs.
You can explore the tabs and use the features to customize your Mac accordingly. Onyx developers have two more apps, Deeper and Maintenance which help you access hidden macOS features and cleans running scripts and caches respectively.
The tool provides a specific version of Onyx tool for every version of the Mac operating system; therefore, you need to check your macOS before downloading the tool.
3. Cocktail
Cocktail just as the name indicates, is a multi-purpose utility tool which helps you clean, optimize and repair your macOS. It comes with a lot of extensive features and categories which allows you to do a lot of tweaks on your Mac. The tool is easy to use and comes with a simple interface. The tool comprises of the following categories: Disks, Files, System, Network, Interface. And, the six-tab Pilot, will allow Cocktail to make necessary changes to your Mac in order to optimize it. With the interface pane, you can make changes in Finder, login screen, Dock and more.
With all these features, you can get access to a lot of settings such as:
- Disable window zooming.
- Lock Dock icons.
- Change or lock the Dock icons size.
- Adjust Time Machine settings
- Force empty the Trash
- Clear system caches, user caches, font caches
- Disable startup sound, Notification Center and App Nap
- Delete Spotlight indexes
You can schedule cleaning of caches, and log files so that you don’t have to worry about it. The tool can also help you manage spotlight indexing, clean inactive memory along with optimizing virtual memory usage.
Moreover, the tool can delete temporary files, internet caches, DNS cache, mail downloads, cookies, history files and more. You can also delete unnecessary language resources files, application caches, Adobe Flash Player caches and cookies.
You can also modify network configuration settings, hidden settings of, iTunes, Safari & Launchpad. If you want to customize features of the Finder, Dock, and other system services.
4. Tinkertool
Another good tool to enable macOS features, Tinkertool. Whether you want to add Quit Finder option to the Finder window or you want insert separators on Dock. You can get all the settings categorized in panels, for example, Safari, Dock, Desktop, iTunes and more. It is recommended to tackle these panels one by one so that you can keep a course of changes you made.
With Tinkertool, any changes made to an app is restricted to a specific user account. Therefore, it doesn’t need admin credentials unlike the other three apps mentioned in the list. Tinkertool allows you to make useful changes for example:
- Activate single app mode, this hides background apps when you switch to a new app.
- Modify the number of entries that come up in Recent Items.
- Change the format and default locations of the screenshots taken.
What if you made a mistake and want to go back to the state from where you started, Tinkertool helps you with that as well. You can revert the changes and restore the settings to the original state. You just need to click Reset to pre-TinkerTool state located on the Reset Pane and it is done!
To Conclude
So, these are apps which could save you from the scary looking command line interface Terminals and commands. You can get rid of caches and unwanted files and also get access to extensive features of MacOS, which otherwise can’t be accessed without Terminal.
Try any of them and get access to all the hidden features of Mac without Terminal.
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