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OS X Mavericks is finally here, so MacLife proudly presents a series of informative how-tos to keep you updated on what has changed and how to use it. Check back often to learn more about the newest Mac operating system from Apple.
Many users have upgraded to Mavericks from Mountain Lion with the best of intentions, but if your workflow revolved around some of the things that changed with Mavericks, then you may be less than excited about the new features. Some of these, including full-screen apps, each display getting its own Space, and the Dock and menu bar available on multiple displays, can be tweaked back to the way they behaved in Mountain Lion. We’ll show you how.
1. Fixing Multiple Menubars and Spaces
One of the biggest potential annoyances with Mavericks and a second connected display is that the OS X Menubar is available on all displays, and not just the primary one. Fortunately, Apple has included a way to turn this off, and it fixes a second annoyance.
To do this, visit System Preferences > Mission Control, and uncheck the box labeled “Displays have separate Spaces.” You may be required to log out after making this change.
So, what does this change do? Well, besides the obvious change of making each display share the Spaces instead of giving each display its own set of Spaces, this will also remove the Menubar from all displays except for the primary one. You can always change this preference back to its original settings by checking this box again.
2. The Dashboard
The Dashboard seems to keep hanging on after more than five OS X iterations. While we’re sure it still gets used by many people, there are a few (ourselves included) who are getting tired of Dashboard wasting precious keyboard real estate. Here’s how to nix it from your system:
Open the Terminal and type this command, followed by the enter key:
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean true
Follow that up with this command followed by the enter key:
killall Dock
The deed is now done, and the Dashboard will be disabled. You can get it back by reversing the command’s true statement with a false, then killing the Dock again:
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean false3. Turn off App Nap
App Nap is a brand-new feature of Mavericks that reduces resources for apps in the background, in hopes that they will reduce power consumption. However, some apps may behave poorly with this new feature. If you notice erratic behavior from your backgrounded apps, you can turn off App Nap on a per-app basis by opening the Get Info panel for an app in your Applications folder. Here, uncheck the box labeled “Prevent App Nap.”
4. Turn off Away Notifications
Notifications in Mavericks now appear on your lock screen to show you items that happened while you were away. This new feature can be annoying, especially when you open your MacBook in a meeting, only to see multiple Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus notifications appear on your screen.
Fortunately, you can correct this by opening System Preferences > Notifications. Here, select an app that supports notifications, and then uncheck the box labeled “Show notifications on lock screen.”
5. Quickly Turn Off Notifications
Notifications are great, but sometimes they can really be annoying. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to ensure that you get no notifications for the entire day. All you have to do is hold down the Option key on your keyboard while you click the Notification Center icon in your Menubar. Optionally, you can open the Notification Center by clicking on the icon in the Menubar and sliding the “Do Not Disturb” switch to “ON.”
6. The Dock on Multiple Displays
In Mavericks, the Dock can automatically appear on a secondary display if you drag your mouse to the bottom of the screen on the secondary monitor (this will cause the Dock to switch displays from the primary display).
Unfortunately, this can get annoying if you’re not used to this behavior. A simple fix is to move your Dock on the primary display to one of the sides (left or right). When the Dock is positioned on the side of the screen, it will not jump between displays. You can change the positioning of the Dock in System Preferences > Dock.
Cory Bohon is a freelance technology writer, indie Mac and iOS developer, and amateur photographer. Follow this article’s author on Twitter.
