Transcription
Macs and MacBooks are known to just work out of the box with no fuss. But there are plenty of hidden settings, tips, and tricks to make your Mac a whole lot better without spending a single extra dollar. In this video, I'll go over all those setting changes and easy tweaks to supercharge the Mac Dock, secure your Mac, and overall just make MacOS useful and work more for you. It doesn't matter if you have a Mac or a MacBook or if it's brand new or used. Just grab yours and follow along.
The very first thing you want to change is to remove bloatware whenever you start up your Mac. To do this, go into system settings, then general, and then login items and extensions. At the top, you'll see what your Mac is opening every time it boots up. So, remove all the applications you don't need to automatically open when you log in. And this will help speed up your Mac's bootup speed and save some precious Mac memory.
The next thing to check is your Mac OS updates and ensure that security response is on. So go back into general settings, then software update. Then click on the info icon next to automatic updates. And you'll want to toggle on download new updates when available and install security responses and system files. So these two options will make sure that you have the latest Mac OS ready to go and also download security fixes to your Mac in the background automatically. It's also worth checking up the top to see if there's any Mac OS updates in store, especially if you've just purchased a new or pre-owned Mac. It will sometimes come with an older Mac operating system.
And if you did just buy a MacBook, it is really important that you check the battery health. The easiest way to do this is by going to general settings, then about scroll down to this system report button, then click on power in the sidebar. And here you can see the number of cycles the Mac has been charged, the health condition of the battery and the maximum capacity. So just check that the battery condition is at least normal and the maximum capacity ideally is above 90%. If it's not and you just bought your Mac, that is potentially an issue.
Alrighty. So now let's move on to the dock. First, I remove and clean up all the apps on the dock. Then under doc settings, I reduce the overall size of the dock so you can still easily see the applications, but it takes up much less screen space. Then enable the minimize window into application icon setting. So instead of it being minimized onto the side of the dock, it will sit in the application icon, saving some crucial doc space. Then scrolling down, there's a group windows by application option that's off by default. And by turning this on, when you activate mission control, all open windows are automatically grouped for easier access. If you deactivate this, you can see that everything is all over the place.
Now, down at the bottom, hot corners is also worth setting up. Let's say by hovering your pointer to the top right corner. You can set it to bring up the desktop view really quickly. I've also added a modifier key like the command button, so it only activates when I'm holding down the command key. Otherwise, it'll always accidentally toggle without the command key. So, to do this, just hold down the command key while setting this up.
If you prefer to change the look of your Mac doc completely to something like this, then you want to download an app called Docfix. And this isn't sponsored by them or anything like that. I just like this app. So once you install it and go into settings and you want to disable and replace native dock and show doc on all displays if you use an external monitor. You can also install custom docs by clicking the install community doc option and then entering the theme ID here. I'll drop this theme ID in the description box if you like the one that I've set up here and I'll share it with you guys in the description box.
The other area worth optimizing is the menu bar, which is the area at the top of your Mac display. Go into control center settings and then start with hiding all the modules that you don't use because there's very little space on the right menu bar, especially on MacBooks with dynamic island. Some of the things I've hidden are Bluetooth, AirDrop, Focus, Stage Manager, and now playing buttons. So now there's a little more space. I always enable show battery percentage as well. This is super useful to have uh when you're monitoring the remaining battery rather than just assuming how much battery that you have left. Then scroll all the way down and I adjust the clock options here so it only shows the day and time rather than the full date and time separators for a smaller footprint on the menu bar. I've also removed the spotlight in menu bar. I find that it's just much easier to use the keyboard bind of command and spacebar for faster access to spotlight.
Next up are some really useful setting changes to help boost your Mac security and your privacy. Some of these settings are on by default, but you'll definitely want to switch them off instead. Also, if you're finding this video helpful so far, I'd appreciate you dropping this video a like.
So, let's start in the privacy and security area in settings. So, bring it up and then scroll all the way down to accessories. Make sure this is toggled to ask new accessories. So, what this does is it helps prevent the off chance that a rogue device that you plug into your Mac is injecting malware. While you're in this area of settings, just make sure that file vault is turned on. This is basically Mac's disc encryption system. And what this means in like normal terms is that if anyone ever had physical access to your Mac, they could technically remove the drive and see all your files. But with File Vault turned on, everything on your Mac is scrambled and unreadable without your password or a recovery key. So, you absolutely want File Vault turned on at all times.
Now, go back out and under these two areas, if you're conscious about privacy, you'll want to limit sharing your personal analytics here. And also under Apple advertising, limit ad tracking here, unless you prefer to see relevant ads. But this does mean you'll be sharing some personal details with Apple so they can personalize your ad experience. Then scroll back up and go into location services here. Scroll all the way down to system services and click details. It's definitely worth reviewing these and toggling off the unnecessary location tracking. I personally recommend turning off suggestions and search significant locations. HomeKit if you don't use that. Mac analytics then toggle on show location icon. So, every time your location is being used, you'll see an icon pop up and know what your location is being used for.
The one other setting to turn off is Apple search data. So, in the system settings toolbar, find Spotlight. Then, scroll down and you'll see a section on helping Apple improve search. This allows Apple to store your Safari, Siri, Spotlight, and lookup searches, and it queries Apple's servers. I'm sure Apple has strict protocols to protect your information and data, but personally, I prefer turning this off just to be extra safe.
Now, we've got your Mac secure like Fort Knox. Let's really take advantage of Mac OS and make it work for you. So, I always take a moment to set up smart folders on a new Mac. Set it up once and it will automatically find and organize your files. So instead of manually organizing files all the time, you can at least part of it get it automated. So to do this, all you have to do is bring up Finder, then file, then new smart folder, click the plus button, and then add the parameters you want. So, if I want to set up all JPEG photos with a certain name to go into this smart folder, I can do this by setting up kind, then image, then JPEG, then click plus, and then name matches a certain name here. So, highly, highly recommend setting up a few of these smart folders. It will change your life and save you lots of time when they're set up right instead of you manually creating folders all the time and sorting the files yourself.
The other Mac folder tip is to get the encrypto app for your more private files and folders. It is a free app that takes any file or folder and adds AES 256 encryption so only the intended person can access the file. So, when I store important information on a drive or before sending confidential documents, I'll secure it with Encrypto by dragging and dropping the files into the app and adding a password to decrypt it. It's as simple as entering the password. It's a great lightweight app that just works when you need to use it here and there.
And if you're hooking up your Mac to a third party monitor, it is definitely worth calibrating that monitor so colors are more accurate. To do this, go into display settings, then under the preset option, scroll down to calibrate display, then click on the full calibration option and follow the steps to color correct your monitor. And although the colors of a MacBook's display or even an iMac display is pretty great straight out of the box, it still is always worth calibrating your display.
So, while we're in the display settings, definitely enable night shift and true tone modes. These help with eye comfort. So, under night shift, I like to maximize the warmth so there's less blue light at night, which actually messes with your sleep circadian rhythm if you use your Mac late at night.
Next, if you want your Mac to feel a little snappier and you perform more minimal type of setup, it's also worth turning off motion animations. To do this, go into system settings, accessibility, and then display. Here you can toggle on reduce motion. And so now if I bring up mission control, you can see it sort of just fades in gently. So yeah, totally personal preference though.
Now if you're in the Apple ecosystem, which I'm assuming you are because you're watching this video, you'll definitely want to enable Handoff, universal clipboard, and Airdrop for convenient multi-device use. But if you don't use other Apple devices, you'll want to disable this to help save battery. In general settings under airdrop and handoff, toggle the top setting on. Turn this off if you don't use other Apple devices like I said. And it's also worth setting the AirDrop setting to contacts only for added privacy.
If you have Mac OS 26 installed like I do here, here are some extra settings worth changing that are specific to Mac OS 26. So, Macs finally have access to live activities. And to turn this on, go into notification and focus, allow live activities on your menu bar. And now, if you've ordered an Uber, for example, it will show the live progress on your Mac and not just an iPhone.
Apple's also recently added true pass key portability, which means you can finally share your Apple passwords to a dedicated password manager like One Pass or vice versa. So, if you want to transfer your passwords to Apple or your Apple passwords to a different password manager, go into the passwords app, tap export, authenticate the change with Touch or Face ID, then select the receiving password app, and they'll be securely transferred.
Next is one of my favorite setting changes on both an iPhone and now a MacBook, and it's called vehicle motion cues, which is designed to reduce motion sickness when you use your MacBook in a moving vehicle. Open system settings and go to accessibility. Then scroll down to the motion section. Then toggle vehicle motion cues on. And I'd set this to automatic so it only turns on when it recognizes you're in a moving vehicle. And this setting has absolutely changed the game for me when I'm on my iPhone. And it's great to see it is now on Macs, too.
Now, drop in ultimate in the comments. And I'll give your comments a like for watching right until the end. And now that your Mac is all set up and ready to go, here are some completely free Mac apps you'll want to download and install. As always, thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video. [Music]