Hidden Settings Preference Pane
Hidden Settings is a preference pane that installs into the System Preferences application in Mac OS X. The purpose of it is to provide users an easy way to access some hidden features in the operating system and some applications that ship with it.
Some screenshots:
Other similar software:
- Secrets An open-source preference pane that retrieves undocumented and/or hidden preferences from a publicly editable database. Has way more options than this one, and lists hidden preferences also for third-party software. Limited to enabling hidden features that are set via the user defaults system.
- xMod A stand-alone application that is very similar in features to this preference pane. Haven't checked in a while, but probably has more features.
NOTE:
- Although I have made this preference pane mainly for my own use and have thus used it myself without encountering any problems, it is important to note that all of the features it invokes are undocumented and hidden by Apple for a reason, and as such no warranty can be given for the safety of using it.
- This preference pane assumes you are running the latest version of OS X with the latest updates (i.e. the version of OS X that was latest when the latest version of this software was published).
© 2008 Ali Rantakari.
Use at your own risk.
Latest version:
Version 0.7.9
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June 06, 2008
Changelog:
- Minor UI copy change (a reference to the "system" settings changed to "misc." settings)
- Some minor cleanup of useless log output
Older versions:
Version 0.7.8
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June 06, 2008
Changelog:
- Added a "Keep Help Viewer windows always in front" setting into the "miscellaneous" section (find more from macosxhints.)
Version 0.7.7
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June 05, 2008
Changelog:
- Removed the "Switch spaces automatically when an application in another space gains focus" option since it was added into the built-in Spaces settings in the 10.5.3 update and with this change, renamed the "Dock & Spaces" section to simply "Dock".
- Moved the "Create .DS_Store files also on remote volumes" setting into the "Finder" section
- Renamed the "System" section/tab to "Miscellaneous"
- A Quick, minor UI bugfix related to information popups popping up at the wrong time
Version 0.7.6
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March 24, 2008
Changelog:
- Added preference for enabling high definition trailers in Front Row's "Theatrical Trailers" menu
Version 0.7.5
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March 23, 2008
Changelog:
Accommodating to changes introduced in the recent Safari 3.1 update:
- Removed the "Enable debug menu" preference (this is now exposed to users in Safari's built-in preferences window)
- Removed the "Progress indicator style" preference (this doesn't work anymore :( )
- Added a new Safari preference: "Open all targeted links in tabs instead of windows". Find more info on what this does at TUAW.
Version 0.7.2
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March 18, 2008
Changelog:
- Fixed a bug where the preference pane didn't properly recognize changes in the "System" section as being applied when just the "safe sleep" setting was changed and applied.
- Whenever the "safe sleep" feature is turned off with this preference pane, the sleepimage file (located in /var/vm/sleepimage) will be removed to conserve disk space (this can be considered one of the advantages in disabling the feature in the first place.)
Version 0.7.1
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March 17, 2008
Changelog:
- Added some notifications about restarting the computer or the System Preferences application when some settings that require restarts have been applied.
Version 0.7
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March 13, 2008
Changelog:
- Added options for installing three "hidden" Preference Panes (Archives, Disk Images, and Processor, the last one of which is only available if you have Developer Tools installed)
Version 0.6.2
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March 13, 2008
Changelog:
- Fixed the default value of the Finder preference "display alternating row colors in list view" to on instead of off.
Version 0.6.1
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March 11, 2008
Changelog:
- Enabled the "enable safe sleep" setting only for Intel laptops, as I don't have a PowerPC mac laptop available for testing