What is TinkerTool?

TinkerTool is an additional control panel for the System Preferences application that allows users to access more operating system settings than are usually visible in the standard panels. Additionally, TinkerTool can change the startup and login panel language of the operating system without having to reinstall Mac OS X.

The following Mac OS X settings can be changed with TinkerTool:

• Disable the "zooming rectangle" animation effect when opening files by the Finder
• Enable the Finder to show hidden and system files
• Enable the "Quit" menu item of the Finder
• Disable the display of arrows in the Finder's column view
• Set the maximum number of label lines in the Finder's icon view
• Use transparent Dock icons to show hidden applications
• Put the Dock to the top screen position
• Place the Dock at the beginning or end of any screen border
• Set the Dock minimization effect to a "suck in" animation
• Place both scroll arrow buttons of any scroll bar at both ends of the bar
• Set the system default font used in Cocoa applications
• Set the fixed pitch default font used in Cocoa applications
• Set the application default font used in Cocoa applications
• Switch off font-smoothing in applications that use QuickDraw
• Set the font-smoothing limit for applications that use QuickDraw

Additionally, the following settings can be controlled in any version of Mac OS X 10.1. They are not available in Jaguar:

• Disable the Desktop (The Finder will no longer display the screen background picture and no longer mirror the contents of the Desktop folder to the screen background)
• Set the file format for screenshots made using keyboard shortcuts
• Set the font-smoothing limit in Cocoa applications
• Disable all font-smoothing

The following settings are available both in Mac OS X 10.1 and 10.2. However, TinkerTool does not allow to change them in Jaguar, because in 10.2 the settings can now be controlled officially by the respective applications and System Preferences. TinkerTool provides these preferences mainly for 10.1 users who want to use the same OS features:

• Disable Finder icons in column view
• Disable the preview column in the Finder's column view
• Control how the Finder scales the Desktop background image
• Disable the default application for playing audio disks
• Disable the default application for playing video disks
• Set the transparency for Terminal windows

With exception of the startup language setting, TinkerTool makes sure that preference changes can only affect the current user. You don't need administrative privileges to use the tool. With this design, it is no problem to use TinkerTool in professional networks where users have restricted permissions. The program will never change any component of the operating system, so the integrity of your system is not put at risk, and there will be no negative effect on system updates.

All preference settings changed by TinkerTool can be reset to Apple's defaults, or to the state that existed before using the tool. No dangerous background processes are used for TinkerTool's operation.

Download TinkerTool for Mac

Architecture

OSX Universal Binary

System Requirements

From Mac OS 10.0 up to Mac OS 10.5

Compatibility notes

10.0 - 10.5

Localized for many languages.

Emulating this? It could probably run under: QEMU