How to Use a Computer

This post will be significantly longer than usual and will be maintained on an ongoing basis to keep the advice current. My goal here is to compile all of the the advice, life hacks, and shortcuts that I have learned during my time in debate that make using a computer more pleasant. This is not really intended to be read straight down; instead, it is meant to be used as a reference. Feel free to skip to parts that are relevant to you!

I will cover advanced Verbatim functionality (including a surprising reason why your Word documents might be running slowly) in another post.

Quick Navigation

Click here to skip to the sections that are relevant to you:

1. Introduction
2. Computer Basics
   1. Operating System
   2. CPU
   3. RAM
   4. Storage
   5. Graphics
3. Basic Maintenance
   1. Disable Unneeded Startup Programs
   2. Computer Hygiene
   3. Power Settings
4. Cross-Platform Applications
   1. The Best Computer Interface is the Keyboard
   2. Window Management
   3. Discord
   4. Screenotate
5. Browser Lifehacks
   1. Google Chrome
   2. Vimium
   3. Arc Browser
6. Customizing Windows
   1. Basic Suggestions
   2. StartAllBack
   3. Everything Search
   4. DocFetcher
   5. Automatic Application Updating
   6. WinToys
7. Customizing MacOS
   1. Use Basic Mac Functionality
   2. Useful Applications
   3. Customize MacOS Settings
   4. Customize Finder
   5. Customize the Dock
8. Submit a Suggestion

If you are pressed for time, the most generally useful sections are:

1. Window Management
2. Vimium
3. StartAllBack
4. Everything Search

Introduction

Why devote so much effort to learning how to use your computer? There are two simple reasons:

1. We live in a post-pandemic world. Knowing how to use your computer is not optional. While everyone makes mistakes, watching an easily-preventable tech-related meltdown get dismissively chalked up to being "bad with computers" has become more grating than it is endearing. It is no less important than learning to write and, like writing, it is completely learnable. It would not be much of an exaggeration to say that learning to use your computer is one of debate's most important portable skills.
2. Friction breeds tedium. If you find using a computer challenging or exhausting, many of debate's most repetitive tasks will seem like insurmountable obstacles. These frictions can be reduced tremendously if you put some thought into streamlining your work.

Before we dive in, I want to take a step back and offer some broader perspective on how to think about interacting with your computer.

First—a computer is an instrument, not a tool. Unlike a tool, which is very simple and has limited, targeted utility, a computer is more complex and only as helpful as you are willing to make it. When you pick up a hammer, you have a pretty good idea of how to use it, even if you haven't had much instruction. You would not have such an expectation for a musical instrument, like a piano or a violin. A computer is closer to the latter. You only get better with practice, and there is a learning curve; but the payoffs from becoming proficient can be massive.

Second—learn to type. Typing is your primary means of interacting with your computer. If you are unpracticed at typing or have poor technique, this will be a speed bottleneck for much of what you do. Your goal should be to become proficient in "touch typing": typing without looking at the keys on your keyboard. There are many free sites available to help you practice and improve your technique.

Third—practice makes perfect. Most people practice giving speeches. Do you practice assembling those speeches using your actual files under game conditions? Do you practice navigating your organizational system so that finding a critical card takes you 30 seconds of prep time instead of 60? Do you practice saving and attaching documents to your email chains? This might sound over the top, but becoming more professional in how you handle the technological aspects of your round might actually be the lowest hanging fruit in terms of improving your speaker points and getting on your judges' good sides. Beyond capturing upside, practice helps you avoid downsides; if something in your setup is not working, your practice should reveal this to you before you show up to a tournament.

Fourth, and most importantly—you have agency! I am not special; there is nothing in my background or skill set that predisposes me to be "good at computers." If I figured something out, you can figure it out too. In general, this means you should be willing to second-guess how things on your computer work.

Even when you can't figure it out yourself, keep in mind that you are not the only person who uses a computer like yours. Billions of people use computers around the world, and odds are good that at least one of them has encountered a problem similar to yours. Google is your friend! The tools for shaping your computer to your preferences are more accessible than ever.

One final note: if you're at the early stages of your debate career, especially if you're a novice, the software you use for debate is unlikely to be a significant bottleneck or differentiator in your debate experience. Follow the guidelines established by your team or your local circuit for now (but, do come back next year!).

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Computer Basics

Operating System

An Operating System (OS) serves as the fundamental software layer that manages your computer's resources and provides a platform for running applications. Think of it as the conductor of an orchestra, coordinating all the different parts of your computer to work in harmony.

If you intend to debate at the highest levels, a fully-functional copy of Microsoft Word is, for all intents and purposes, mandatory. This constrains varsity debaters to computers running Windows or Mac OS. While many people express strong preferences about which one is better, the truth of the matter is that either can be made to work; if you are very accustomed to one or the other, it is probably not worth switching for debate.

Many schools provide Chromebooks, so many debaters start learning how to debate using ChromeOS and Google Drive. ChromeOS is a version of Linux that aims to provide a simplified user experience that focuses on the web browser. While it is useful for some things, it is not viable for debate in the long run. Microsoft Word, beyond running locally and providing document navigation functions that incomparably improve the debate and prep experience over Google Drive, is the only word processor that supports a package of debate-specific tools called Verbatim (we will discuss these in more detail in a different post). These tools are a requirement for successful competition.

If you are on the fence between Windows and Mac OS, here are some factors to consider.

Advantage Windows:

• Windows offers the best Microsoft Word experience. While the Mac OS version of Word has many of the same features, a few of its design choices make for a generally inferior experience.

• You can get Windows on a cheaper machine. While $1,000 of MacBook is comparable to $1,000 of Windows, the Windows ecosystem has significantly more sub-$1,000 offerings.
• Windows offers greater choice and potential repairability. You can only buy a MacBook from Apple, so you are stuck with Apple's design choices whether you like them or not. Want a touchscreen? You are out of luck. Want to repair your computer after it's damaged? Better hope you bought the AppleCare. While many computers on the Windows side are equally locked down, you can choose to purchase highly repairable devices if this is important to you.
• Windows has an advantage in niche software. This won't matter for debate. However, if you are a STEM major or want to play video games on your computer, you are likely to have far more luck on Windows than on Mac.
• Windows has superior native window management options. Window management is how you arrange the things you have on your screen. While there are ways of closing this gap on Mac OS, Windows has both a higher customization ceiling and a higher functionality floor.

Advantage Mac OS:

• You can emulate Windows on a Mac machine; it is much harder* to run Mac OS on a Windows machine. Emulation is when your computer uses software to run one operating system (in this case, Windows) inside of another operating system (in this case, Mac OS). Parallels Desktop is a fantastic piece of software that allows anyone using a Mac to run Windows (albeit with a performance and battery life penalty, and a hefty price tag).
• Outside of debate, there is value to the Apple ecosystem. Mac OS works closely with iPhones and other Apple devices, providing quality of life improvements like using iMessage to text from your computer.
• Mac computers offer high and consistent build quality. If you buy and take care of a modern MacBook, you will likely not need to replace it for many years. Although Macs are not especially repairable, they are exceptionally well-built; you are getting what you pay for.
• Used options cut down the price difference. Because MacBooks tend to age gracefully, you are likely to be able to purchase a used machine that performs well and comes in at a significant discount. Look for certified refurbished options, or buy second-hand for larger risk and larger discounts.

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CPU

‘CPU’ stands for Central Processing Unit. Think of this as the brain of your computer.

Sometimes, the CPU will be combined with other parts of the computer, such as graphics or RAM. This is called an ‘SOC’—a System on a Chip.

Your CPU contains basic instructions for how your computer should decode the software you run. Two common basic instruction sets are x86 and ARM.

On your existing computer:

• If you aren't sure, check which kind of chip you have. On a Mac, click the Apple logo in the top left corner, click About This Mac, and find the Chip line; if it says Apple M followed by a number, you have an ARM chip. If it says something else, you have an x86 chip. On a PC, go to Settings, then System, then About, and find the Processor line. If it is an Intel chip, you have an x86 chip. If it is a Snapdragon chip, you have an ARM chip. If you have something else, look it up to make sure.
• Do your best to run x86 software for x86 chips and ARM software for ARM chips. Most of the time, this will happen automatically. However, if you are on ARM and something is running slowly, checking to make sure you have the right version can be an important troubleshooting step. You can sometimes run x86 software on an ARM chip—however, this requires emulation that will make your software run slower in the best case and may not work at all in the worst case.

If you are shopping for a new computer:

• All relatively new MacBooks use ARM chips. These MacBooks are drastically superior to the older, x86 MacBooks. You should only buy ARM-powered MacBooks with M and a number (M1, M2, M3, M4) in their name.
• A few companies have started releasing ARM-powered Windows laptops. If you see a computer that says Snapdragon, it is ARM-powered. To simplify, choosing ARM means you get significantly better battery life but slightly worse performance and a risk that some of your programs will not be compatible (don't worry; anything you need for debate will run just fine). The reviews on these machines have been largely positive; however, they are pretty new, so buyer beware.

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RAM

‘RAM’ stands for Random Access Memory and is the namesake for this banger of a Daft Punk album. RAM is like short-term memory—when multitasking, your computer will keep track of the things it is doing using its RAM.

On your existing computer:

• RAM is a limited resource; if your computer is regularly slowing down, check your utilization levels. If you have opened lots of windows, lots of desktops, or lots of Chrome tabs, this will consume your limited RAM. When your computer runs up against RAM constraints, some processes will be punted from fast, short-term memory back to slower, long-term memory, making them slower to reopen. You can keep track of how much RAM you are using through Task Manager or Activity Monitor and close applications that you don't need at the moment.

If you are shopping for a new computer:

• You should buy a computer with at least 16 GB of RAM. You can get by with 8, but you are likely to run into bottlenecks. 32 GB is overkill for debate only, but can be useful if you are buying a Mac and intend to use Windows in Parallels as described above.
• Apple calls this 'Unified Memory'; you should think of it as basically the same thing.

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Storage

Storage is your computer's long-term memory; the kind of storage you have will determine how much it can remember and how fast it can recall information.

Memory is measured in bytes, but the smallest relevant unit is 1 KB.

• 1,000 KB ~ 1 megabyte (MB). A simple text document with no formatting is typically between 1 and 10 KB. A comprehensive neg debate file is typically between 100 KB and 1 MB. A comprehensive aff debate file is typically between 1 MB and 2 MB.
• 1,000 MB ~ 1 gigabyte (GB). A high-resolution photo is typically between 2 and 8 MB. A song recording is typically between 10 and 40 MB. Backfile collections in debate vary significantly based on your school, but can span from a few hundred MB to a few GB.
• 1,000 GB ~ 1 terabyte (TB). A high-definition movie is typically 2 to 4 GB. A season of a TV show in HD is typically 15-30 GB.

There are two relevant kinds of storage: SSDs (Solid State Drives) and Hard Drives (also called Hard Disks, and sometimes abbreviated as HDDs). SSDs are slightly more expensive, but much faster and have no moving parts, making them quieter and more durable. Hard Drives are cheap, but slow, fragile, and loud.

On your existing computer:

• Try to keep some storage on your computer empty. As your computer's storage fills up, it will become slower at reading and writing information.
• If you are running out of storage, external storage devices are increasingly affordable; offloading some of your less-frequently-used files onto such a device can be a good way to keep your computer snappy.

If you are shopping for a new computer:

• Do not buy laptops with hard drives. It is not worth it.
• Get at least 256 GB of storage. You can get by with 128 GB, but at least 256 GB is ideal if you want to avoid encountering storage constraints.

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Graphics

Broadly speaking, there are integrated graphics—which are graphics that are handled by the CPU—and dedicated graphics—which are graphics that are handled by a dedicated piece of separate hardware.

Dedicated graphics are significantly more performant; integrated graphics are significantly more power-efficient. Debate never requires the specific kind of increased performance that comes from a dedicated graphics card. For this reason, computers with dedicated graphics are worse for debate (though they are substantially better for non-debate tasks that benefit from graphics performance).

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Basic Maintenance

Disable Unneeded Startup Programs

Your computer will be slower when it is attempting to do lots of things at once. If your computer is running slowly, closing some programs that are running in the background may be helpful.

First, check your taskbar or dock. If there are programs open that you are not using, you can improve your computer’s performance by closing them.

The most thorough way to do this is by using your operating system’s built-in process manager.

If your computer regularly has a large number of background processes or programs open that you don’t remember having opened, you likely have too many apps designated to open on startup.

Finally, you should try to uninstall programs that you no longer need on your computer.

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Computer Hygiene

You can make a significant impact on your computer’s performance through basic maintenance and implementing basic computer hygiene routines:

• Clean your computer regularly. Your computers are filthy! More than the usual wear and tear that comes with being one of the most-used things you own, debate makes your computer disgusting. Every time you speak, you spit on your screen, leaving residue all over it. Wipe your screen down using a microfiber cloth (do NOT use alcohol wipes on your screen, this may damage it). Use alcohol/nail polish remover, q-tips, and Kleenex to clean accumulated gunk on your keyboard.

• Clean the spaces around your computer. The pocket of your backpack where you store your computer accumulates dust and grime—this gets inside your computer when you store it there. Keep it tidy.

Hygiene extends to the digital, not just the physical:

• Keep disk space headroom. Your computer can more easily read things from—and write things to—your storage if there is a lot of free space on your storage medium than if there is only a little. Keep a healthy buffer of empty space to keep your read and write speeds high.
• Empty your trash. Every computer will have a trash can or recycling bin that serves as a temporary holding space for your deleted files. All files in these folders have already been deleted—your computer is just holding onto them in case you decide to restore them in the future. If you have run out of space, emptying the trash can be a good way to get it back.
• Back up your files. Keep everything important in a cloud storage service such as OneDrive or Dropbox if you can. If you can’t, buy an external storage device and regularly back up your files so that you can restore your file system if your computer is lost or damaged. Once you have done this, consider setting some files to ‘online only’ so they do not take up limited storage space on your device.
• Update your software if necessary. All else being equal, NOT updating is preferable to updating. Updates will often add security features or useful functionality. However, they are the least tested and most bug-prone versions of software. If staying on an older version is not causing you any headaches, there is no urgency in updating. DO upgrade if:
  • A new version introduces features you can't live without
  • A new version has important security updates
  • Staying updated is necessary for interoperability between you and other people working around you. Debating on a team is a collaboration. You may be happy with your weird hipster Word template, but insisting on staying out of date when it makes your work product unusable by others makes you a bad team player.
• If all seems lost, reset your computer. Sometimes glitches occur because of complicated interactions between apps you know about and something random you might have installed on your device years ago and forgotten about. Not all is lost! All computers come with a setting to reset your computer to its factory settings. If you keep your files backed up, you can revert your computer to the way it was when you first took it out of the box.

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Power Settings

Unless you have an ARM-based, Mac your computer probably significantly restrains its performance when running on battery. This will sacrifice significant performance to extend battery life. If you are carrying your charger around with you (as you should, at all times!) this trade-off is not worth it.

There are two ways to prevent power throttling on battery:

1. Plug in your computer. When plugged in, your computer will run at full power unless you have manually configured it not to.
2. Performance profile. Go to power settings and set your computer to its performance profile. Where exactly this can be done depends on the model of computer. It likely still won’t perform quite as well as it does when plugged in, but you will leave less performance on the table than you would on a plan such as ‘Balanced’ or ‘Power Saver.’

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Cross Platform Applications

The Best Computer Interface is the Keyboard

The goal should be to use your keyboard whenever possible. Utilizing keyboard shortcuts can significantly boost your productivity by reducing time spent reaching for the mouse and navigating through menus, leading to faster and more efficient work flows. It also allows you to keep your hands in a single position, minimizing strain and enhancing comfort during long computing sessions. As the developer of Yabai put it, you should aim to:

“get your hands off the mouse and trackpad and back onto the keyboard where actual work gets done.”

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Window Management

Window management is how you allocate space on your desktop between applications. Every operating system has some system for window management; however, some approaches to window management are significantly better than others.

Most of the applications listed below are operating system-specific, but I am putting this in the cross-platform section because window management is a cross-platform problem.

There are a variety of tools representing a variety of window management paradigms:

1. Floating Windows/Full Screen Option—Easiest, Worst. This is the default MacOS window management paradigm. It mostly treats windows as free-floating without snapping to any specific region, but provides an option to make any window take over the whole screen in its own space. This approach is ill-suited to applications that require looking at multiple things side-by-side without wasting space on your screen.
2. Stage Manager—Harder and Somehow Even Worse. This is an option available on MacOS. It is a confusing mess; though better than nothing on an iPad (and probably worth enabling if you have one), it makes no sense for multitasking on Desktop.
3. Window Snapping With Subdivisions—Easy, Good. This is the default Windows window management paradigm. In Windows, you can snap a window to one side with Windows + Right Arrow or Windows + Left Arrow, maximize your window using Windows + Up, and minimize your window using Windows + Down. You can also drag a window to one side of the screen or the top of the screen, which does the same thing. Windows 11 has also added custom window snapping layouts, which you can access by dragging a window to a grey bar at the top of your screen or by moving your cursor over the maximize button. Mac OS added a similar feature in MacOS Sequoia, albeit slightly clumsier.

You can enhance your window-snapping options for both Windows and Mac:

• Windows. Windows has a utility called PowerToys. PowerToys is a suite of utilities which includes one called FancyZones, which is a window manager that enables you to set any preset you would like. This is especially helpful for larger monitors.
• MacOS. Basic window snapping capability is already available in the latest MacOS release, Sequoia. If you would like extra configurability, this can be added using a variety of paid and free apps:
  • Rectangle. This free application is a little slow, but contains basic versions of all reasonable window snapping functionality. I recommend this option.
  • Magnet. A paid app that mostly overlaps with Rectangle, but has a little more polish.
  • Raycast. This is one feature within a much larger application that has other, significantly more useful aspects. Is cumbersome and does not support snapping by dragging, but technically supports basic window snapping.
  • Swish. This app handles window snapping using trackpad gestures. It is not my personal cup of tea, but may be worth a try if the other options don't feel right to you.

4. Binary Space Partitioning (BSP)—Hard to Use, but Really Good. This option should only be attempted by advanced users who are extremely comfortable with the terminal and permissions management. BSP can be implemented on both Windows and Mac:

• MacOS. Yabai—the best binary space partitioning application—is a tiling window manager for macOS Big Sur 11.0.1+ and Monterey 12.0.0+. Instead of treating the desktop as a physical space, it treats the desktop as a branching tree: splitting the space in half, then splitting each of those spaces in half, then each of those spaces, and so on. This approach is advantageous because it is just as good when dealing with a few windows (e.g., 2-4), but it scales to deal with infinite windows; its only constraint is space on the screen. This benefit becomes larger as the size of your screen increases.

• Windows. FancyWM - Dynamic Tiling Window Manager is available at the link and through the Microsoft Store. It offers functionality that is similar to Yabai, with significantly less installation hassle.

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Discord

Discord is a great platform for coordinating research and video conferencing during online tournaments. The Discord Enhancement Project, or BetterDiscord, contains a variety of enhancements and optimizations for Discord and can be found here.

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Screenotate

Screennotate is a practical screenshotting tool designed for easy markup and highlighting of screen content. It offers a user-friendly interface and a variety of annotation tools, such as arrows, shapes, text, and freehand drawing. Most usefully, it includes a built-in image-to-text function that copies the contents of the screenshot to your keyboard as text. You can also search your screenshots by their contents, which is useful if you frequently lose old screenshots.

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Browser Lifehacks

Google Chrome

A few little-known and incredibly useful features are built into Google Chrome:

1. Tabs Can Be Grouped. If you frequently open many tabs for many different projects at once, you can group similar tabs and label them with what you are working on. You can access tab grouping options by right clicking on a tab.

2. Tabs Can Be Pinned. Pinned tabs remain open until you unpin and close them. They will reopen whenever Chrome reopens after being closed. They take up less space.

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Vimium

Vimium is an addon that provides keyboard shortcuts to navigate and control your Chromium browser. It is inspired by Vim, an open source, highly configurable text editor.

Use K and J, respectively, to scroll up and down by small increments. Use U and D, respectively, to scroll up and down by large increments.

Press F to reveal all available buttons to press; press the keystroke that corresponds to a button to press that button.

Holding down Command (or Control) while you enter a shortcut associated with a link will cause it to open in a new focused tab; holding down Shift while you click a link will cause it to open in a new unfocused tab.

A full list of Vimium’s keyboard shortcuts can be found on its Chrome Web Store page.

Vimium may ask for some fairly expansive permissions; you should not be concerned about this, as it is required for the Vimium Javascript layer to run on top of other web pages.

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Arc Browser

It is great! It is available on both Mac and Windows, but the Windows version is significantly worse. It is built on Chromium, so it supports all Chrome extensions, but has some organizational features that make it preferable to Chrome:

• Spaces. Instead of sorting tabs by window, it sorts them by labeled spaces. You can still display different spaces in each window, but your different workflows are not treated separately from one another.
• More Powerful Toolbar. It is more akin to Mac’s spotlight and can be used to execute rudimentary commands.
• Arc Boosts. You can customize the appearance of Arc and/or run arbitrary CCS or Javascript on any webpage.
• Tabs Can Be Renamed Arbitrarily. This is huge! How is this not ubiquitous! Never forget why you opened a particular tab again.
• Mini-Arc. Not everything deserves a tab. Temporary windows can be opened in a mini-Arc window without being promoted to a full or permanent tab.
• Auto Archiving. You can turn this off (I did). But, you can opt to use the auto-tab-archiving function to organically control tab proliferation without losing access to your tabs when they are gone.
• Phone Integration. Tabs sync completely and immediately between the iOS and Mac apps. You can easily send apps from your phone to your computer if you come across an article you'd like to cut later.

You can watch a video about the browser below:

If you like these ideas but dislike a particular aspect (people often chafe at the privacy implications of being forced to have an account, or the requirement to use Chromium), the Zen Browser is similar but based on Firefox.

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Customizing Windows

Basic Suggestions

Over the years, I have customized my Windows set-up in a variety of ways that I have found useful. Feel free to play around with these to see what you like!

• Reduce Your Scaling. Screen real estate is at a premium; you should not surrender it to text and graphics that are larger than they need to be. Your computer is likely displaying things at a 150% scale by default. You should make it as small as you can without sacrificing your comfort and ease of use. Open Settings → System → Display. Find the options labeled Scale and layout, then the options labeled Change the size of text, apps, and other items. Choose a scaling option that is comfortable.
• Prune Your Taskbar. You don’t need Cortana (useless), any ‘toolbar’ (useless), the button to open the action center/notification panel (duplicative with a trackpad gesture), or the dedicated search button (duplicative with opening the start menu and beginning to type). You can get rid of these by right clicking on the taskbar, clicking taskbar settings, and getting rid of taskbar elements you don’t like.
• Shrink Taskbar Icons. They are huge by default. They do not need to be that large. In taskbar settings, choose the option to Use small taskbar buttons.
• Windows 10—Unhide Taskbar Buttons. If you are on Windows 10, deselect the option to Combine taskbar buttons—this option hides your windows when you have too many. It is better to make your taskbar two rows high.
• Windows 10—Taskbar Positioning. If you are at a tournament, your taskbar should be on the left, and it should be wide. You want to see the names of your windows. If you are not at a tournament, your taskbar should be on the bottom, and it should be two rows high. This is because you would rather have access to horizontal real estate for side-by-side windows.
  • You can raise the height of the taskbar by right clicking the taskbar, unchecking the Lock the taskbar option, dragging the top of the taskbar until you get a second row, and locking it again.

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StartAllBack

StartAllBack puts all the great navigation features that existed in Windows 10 back into Windows 11. This makes the File Explorer and taskbar significantly more usable. Specifically, it restores:

• Show labels on taskbar icons
• Adjust icon size and margins
• Put the taskbar on the left (where, as explained above, it belongs)
• Start menu is back to normal

Unlike many UI customization apps, which run on top of an existing UI, this application replaces native Windows 11 functions. As a result, it has negative resource usage—it eliminates more processes than it adds.

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Everything Search

Everything Search is a search utility that allows you to rapidly query your storage based on file name. Unlike Windows search, Everything initially displays every file and folder on your computer (hence the name "Everything"). You type in a search filter to limit what files and folders are displayed. This search is extremely fast because it is based on an index of file and folder names.

Everything Search can search file content with the content: search function. Content is not indexed, so searching file content is extremely slow.

Everything Search supports Boolean operators, wildcards, spaces, searching by file type, and searching by location. You can find more information about this functionality here.

Everything Search will launch on startup by default. You can configure a keyboard shortcut to open Everything Search by going to Tools → Options → Keyboard → Show Window Hotkey.

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DocFetcher

DocFetcher is a Java-based search utility that resembles Everything Search, but searches the content of files in addition to their titles. Because DocFetcher indexes file contents, it searches contents much faster than Everything. However, it is much slower if you know the name of the file you are looking for, and can take as long as several hours to build an index depending on the number of text files on your computer (don't worry: you only have to do this once).

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Automatic Application Updating

There are several applications that allow you to download and update core utilities for your computer, all in one click or with one command.

• Ninite. This application allows you to select which programs you want to install, and will download a custom installer to install and maintain those new applications. It makes setting up a new system significantly faster.
• Chocolatey. This is a command line updater with lower ease of use but a dramatically larger library of supported applications—over 10,000! You can find a brief video explaining the command line functionality here.
  • If you would prefer to use a Graphical User Interface (GUI) instead of the command line, make sure that the first command you run in Command Prompt after installing Chocolatey is install chocolateygui. This will allow you to manage everything else graphically, including installs, updates, scheduled updates, and update exemptions.

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Wintoys

Wintoys is available through the Microsoft Store. It gathers settings and program management tools that are otherwise difficult to access in the Windows settings and command prompt menus.

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Customizing MacOS

Use Basic Mac Functionality

A few basic Mac features are extremely useful.

• Spotlight. This is an extremely performant and feature-rich search system, miles better than its Windows equivalent. You can open it with Command + Space.
• Smart Folders. You can automatically make all files that meet a specification appear in a folder. For example, you can have all files with ‘Speech’ in the name appear in a folder to aggregate all speech documents. Set this up with File → New Smart Folder.
• Screenshots.
  • Capture the entire desktop—Shift + Command + 3.
  • Capture a selection of the desktop—Shift + Command + 4.
  • Capture a selection of the desktop but don’t save it, only add it to the clipboard—Shift + Control + Command + 4.
  • Capture a selection of the desktop that exactly matches a window—Shift + Command + 4, then Spacebar.
  • Capture a recording of part of the screen using Shift + Command + 5.
  • If you have a selection going but you started in the wrong place, hold down space to move where the window started, hold down option to resize all four corners at once.

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Useful Applications

Here are some useful applications for Mac:

1. Setapp. This app doesn't do anything by itself; instead, it is a single relatively affordable subscription that bundles in hundreds of other applications that would otherwise have required subscriptions of their own. Many of the other apps in this guide, although they are paid on their own, are included with Setapp.
2. Raycast. Raycast is an application that replaces and upgrades Spotlight. At a baseline, it replicates Spotlight’s functionality. At a more advanced level, Raycast can integrate with tons of other tools and programs. These range from a fast file search and a basic notes app to integrations with Library Genesis, Google Books, and Spotify. I have used Raycast to entirely replace Spotlight, but it requires a fair bit of configuration.
3. Bartender. This application removes/hides excess icons in your menu bar. For a free but slightly less functional alternative, check out Hidden Bar here or in the Mac App Store.
4. Alt + Tab. This application creates an Option + Tab shortcut that behaves like Alt + Tab on Windows, toggling between windows rather than toggling between applications. This is very useful for jumping between Word windows.
5. iStat Menus. This application allows you to monitor the status of your Mac from the menu bar.
6. Dropzone. This application makes it easier to move and copy files by creating a ‘drop zone’ to serve as a temporary holding area for files while you move them around.
7. Karabiner Elements. This application allows you to modify the behavior of keys on your keyboard. I use this for two purposes:
   • Make it so when you select something in Finder and press Return, it will open that file or folder instead of entering rename mode (if you don't want to do this with an external app, you can also do it with Command + Down Arrow).
   • Make it so when you select something in Finder and press Delete, it will move that file or folder to the trash instead of going back (if you don't want to do this with an external app, you can also do it with Command + Delete).
8. Brew. This application allows you to install and update applications using the command line. It is a bit more advanced than the others, but makes it easy to keep your software updated. When you go to install a new program, Google to see if it is available through Brew. You will find a package name for that program. Go to Terminal, type brew install package_name (replacing package_name with the name you found), hit Enter, then follow the directions. Afterwards, you will be able to easily update any application installed using Brew that is out of date by typing brew upgrade into the Terminal.

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Customize MacOS Settings

The following is a list of customization suggestions and their rationales; take them or leave them.

• Turn On Three Finger Drag. It is an accessibility feature that allows you to drag things around using three fingers instead of by clicking and dragging. This rocks. It makes MacOS so much more fluid to use. Turn it on by going to System preferences → accessibility → pointer control / mouse and trackpad → trackpad options → enable dragging with a three finger drag.
• Customize Hot Corners. They are cool! But their default behaviors are not necessarily the most useful ones. Personally, I think the most useful options are revealing the desktop and mission control. I don't really like accidentally triggering the notes app all the time. You can change these to whatever you want by navigating to System preferences → Desktop and screen saver → Screen saver → Hot corners. If you want, you can prevent hot corners from activating unless you hold down a hotkey when you move the mouse to that corner. When you set the option, hold down a shortcut key of your choice—this will make it so nothing happens unless you hold down the shortcut key you want while moving to the hot corner.
• Turn on Type to Siri. This will let you interact with Siri by typing instead of talking to your computer like a maniac. Particularly useful now that Siri is getting a facelift through Apple Intelligence. System preferences → Accessibility → Siri → Enable type to Siri.

A few additional customizations require using Terminal commands. To apply them, simply open Terminal, paste each of the following commands, and hit enter after each one.

• Change your screenshot format. You want to do this because the default file format that screenshots save as (.png) is huge. If you prefer a different format than JPG, you can modify the command before to save as a format of your choice; e.g. PNG (to switch it back), TIFF, or even PDF.
  • defaults write com.apple.screencapture type JPG
• Increase App Store update check frequency. Make it check for updates more frequently—change 7 to any number you would like.
  • defaults write com.apple.SoftwareUpdate ScheduleFrequency -int 7
• Reveal Hidden App Icons. Make hidden apps show transparent icons on the Dock so you can see when you have hidden an app and can easily reveal it again (I have stopped using this one because Texts, my preferred messaging client, needs to keep a Messenger window open and automatically keeps it hidden, and I decided I'd prefer not to look at it).
  • defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES; killall Dock

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Customize Finder

You can customize Finder to make it more useful.

• Toggle Hidden Files. You can see them by pressing Shift + Command + Period anywhere in the Finder app.
• Show The Path Bar. View → Show path bar.
• Show The Status Bar. View → Show status bar.
• Fix Your Sidebar. Get rid of the ‘recents’ section—it is not that useful. Get rid of tags. Get rid of iCloud (presumably you are using Dropbox or OneDrive instead). Finder → Preferences → Sidebar.
• Make Finder Open The Folder You Want. When you open a new Finder window, you can choose what folder will be displayed. Finder → Preferences → General.
• Show Filename Extensions. Finder → Preferences → Advanced.

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Customize the Dock

You should rarely, if ever, use the dock. Instead, you can navigate your operating system using Spotlight (or a similar utility). This means you should not pin stuff to the dock except insofar as you care about the order in which apps display on it. Once you have practiced, these pinned apps only introduce clutter and are faster to open by typing.

1. Hide it. Unlike in windows where the taskbar shows you all your different windows and is therefore actually useful, the dock only tells you what applications are open which is not useful enough to have it take up space on your screen all the time. System preferences → dock and menu bar → automatically hide and show the dock.
2. Get rid of the ‘recents’ section. System preferences → dock and menu bar → uncheck show recent applications in dock
3. Move it to the left. That way it won’t pop up randomly whenever your mouse is at the bottom of the screen. System preferences → dock and menu bar → position on screen: left
4. Scale Effect. Minimize windows using the scale effect instead of the genie effect—the animation takes less time and is less obnoxious. You can make this change in the dock settings.
5. Make the dock hide and reveal instantly. Part of what’s annoying about hiding your dock is that when you want it back it takes forever to recognize that you’ve moused over it, and then plays a slow animation to reveal the dock.
   1. To fix this, run this command in terminal to reduce the delay:defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 0; killall Dock
   2. Then run this command to get rid of the animation: defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -float 0; killall Dock
6. Spacers. Put spacers on the dock to organize your icons—these spacers work exactly like all other dock icons, you can drag them around, rearrange other app icons around them, or drag them off to delete them.
   1. Run this command to create a spacer: defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{"tile-type"="small-spacer-tile";}'; killall Dock
7. Make it Smaller. You can adjust the size in the system preferences, or clicking and dragging the line on your doc. You should do this because the default setting is too large for most people.

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Submit a Suggestion

Have I missed your favorite computer lifehacks? Please feel free to submit them here—if I test your suggestion and like it, I will add it to this guide. Thanks in advance!

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