MacPilot

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is the documentation?

Aside from this documentation, many of the features have help tags associated with them. In the main list, the yellow bar at the bottom describes the currently highlighted feature. In other areas, moving the mouse over a control and pausing will show a tooltip. At this time, these are the only help features we offer. For additional assistance, please Contact Support.

Removing Spacers From the Dock

Spacers can be removed by dragging them out of the Dock as you would an application or file icon, or by right/control-clicking on the spacer and selecting "Remove from Dock."

What are the gold badges next to features?

These gold badges indicate the logged in user must be an administrator to change this feature.

"Dashed" checkbox - what does it mean?

The dashed checkbox means the feature has not been configured, and is using the operating system default setting whichever that may be.

Creating and Restoring Save Points

Save Points allow you to create a list of saved settings in MacPilot. This can be useful to deploy a series of settings across multiple computers, on a new installation, or revert to an earlier state.

Create a Save Point

1. Click the General tab on the main toolbar.
2. Configure settings as desired.
3. Press the hammer and wrench icon at the bottom right hand corner of the window.
4. Drag the configured settings into the save point list.
5. Press the Save button.

Restoring to a Save Point

1. Click the General tab on the main toolbar.
2. Configure settings as desired.
3. Press the "play" icon at the bottom right hand corner of the window.
4. Choose the Save Point file.
5. Follow all on-screen prompts (if any)

Startup Chime Not Muted

Occasionally, it will appear the startup chime is not being muted. And, in functionality, this may be correct. However, in technically it has been. Sound like techno babel? Perhaps a bit. To explain this, we need to go into a bit of detail. The feature does work perfectly, if the system configuration does not change. MacPilot looks at the current volume for the current output channel (speakers, headphones, internal speaker, etc.). Then, on shutdown, saves the system volume level for that output level and mutes the system. If the audio output source changes between shutdown and boot, the chime will be muted for the wrong source. For instance, if you shutdown while headphones were plugged in, and then booted with speakers plugged in, the system would notice the headphones were no longer plugged in and revert to the volume settings for the speakers instead of being muted. Unfortunately, as it currently stands, there is no easy workaround for this as it is just how Mac OS X is programmed. Each output source will always have its own unique volume settings. Since MacPilot is not running while your computer is off or while it is starting up, there is no way for the program to determine the correct source of action if the volume output location has been modified.

Restore to Normal Boot Mode

After using Single User mode or Debug Mode you can restore to normal boot behaviour by following these steps:

1. Turn the computer off
2. Hold down Command-S and tap the power button on the computer.
3. Wait until you are taken to a black and white command prompt.
4. Type this and hit enter: sudo nvram boot-args=""
5. Type this and hit enter: sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot "Kernel Flags" -string ""
6. Type this and hit enter: reboot

Feature Requests

1. Scour MacOSXHints.com for new Lion hints
2. Make a "Friendly" mode
3. Verify Startup chime in MacPilot
4. Lion uMask https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3204865?start=0&tstart=0
5. launchctl support.
6. http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2009083113534843
7. Change the background for Mission Control
8. Modify com.apple.mail.plist -> FlagNames (Dictionary)
9. Remove illegal characters from file names
10. Drag and drop to favourites
11. Use bigger font for UI
12. Set system volume levels by decimal instead of a slider
13. Character Map should localize keystroke combos for non-US layouts
14. Edit multiple files at once in File Browser
15. Ability to customize Internet Config on Mac OS X to change the default handler for file types.
16. Ability to have the Apple Help window be moved into the background.
17. Ability to set a preference or a group of preferences to be prevented from syncing in a MobileMe environment.
18. Add a setting to enable/disable auto-quitting X11 when X11 child apps quit.
19. Add a setting to control the delay.
20. Add a way to easily edit the hosts files.
21. Edit custom terminal commands.
22. Automate tasks by dragging and dropping (ie. cron).
23. Ability to change Airport MTU.
24. Reset Finder Sidebar.
25. Change SSH Port, FTP Port, SMB, HTTP Port.
26. Cron manager.
27. Pixel Test.
28. Install Processor Prefs Pane.
29. Change Dock font, font size, colors, transparency.
30. CGContextSetShouldSmoothFonts and/or CGContextSetShouldAntialias.
31. Firewall Configuration.
32. Web Sharing Settings.
33. Modify Internet Config file mappings & handlers.
34. Swap/VM Manager (hide container/ support non-IDE, drive, and max. init time): http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20001215021440138
35. Disk cloning (source, destination, exclusions, optimization, bootable, replace existing, log).
36. Create ASR (source, destination, exclusions, read only/compressed, reset setup assistant, remove users).
37. Relocalize folders.
38. Safari > Close download window on interval.
39. Increase the default width of the columns in column view (in Finder).
40. Set the default size of the Open and Save dialog boxes in all applications.
41. Preference/option to require password for MacPilot prior to launching.
42. Add Insert Defaults buttons to each application under general.
43. Add a new Advanced section under Tools.
44. Add note about removing Dock spacers.
45. Make iCal alarm sounds play a preview when selected.
46. Collapsible panes for standard procedures to replace the current progress window.
47. Update documentation to explain ACLs.
48. Change the docks indicator color.
49. Ability to relaunch Dock/Finder manually.
50. Transparent login images: http://www.usingmac.com/2008/6/27/transparent-login-picture
51. Under the dock panel, you may want to include a line that says "visual changes will only work if the dock is attached to the bottom part of the screen".
52. Archives preference warning if user has installed in past.
53. Ability to modify the default Reply header to match the default Forward header and/or the ability to modify both Reply and Forward headers w/ fields chosen by the user. (Apple Mail Reply Headers). defaults write com.apple.mail UserHeaders '{"Reply-To" = "theemail@goes.here"; }'
54. MacPilot Log that shows all modifications made by MacPilot.
55. Show current/default values for reference.
56. Spotlight: list installed importers. Run and parse "mdimport -L".
57. Quicklook: list of installed qlgenerators & their types. Run and parse "qlmanage -m".
58. Allow "Start Desktop Screensaver" after reboots (via a LaunchAgent or shell script).
59. Ability to set the default size of new Finder windows, plus the default column widths.
60. Screencapture Shadows: defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool true To make the changes take effect, logout and login, or restart SystemUIServer.
61. Desktop Screensaver support for multiple Spaces.
62. Manage virtual hosts (Apache) http://jonathan.tron.name/2008/01/05/hosts-aliases-in-leopard
63. More chax features: http://ksuther.com/chax/
64. System update scheduler automation. http://www.macworld.com/article/139860/2009/04/schedulesoftwareupdate.html
65. Customization Profiles allowing quick switches between many settings depending on their circumstances.
66. Ability to schedule maintenance tasks.
67. Add "erase print queue jobs list" to Tools > Maintenance.
68. Show user pictures with transparency: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080328141726511
69. Spaces: Set different wallpapers for each space.
70. defaults write com.barebones.bbedit Color:Invisibles:Spaces -string "rgb(x,y,z)"
71. defaults write com.barebones.textwrangler Color:Invisibles:Spaces -string "rgb(x,y,z)"
72. defaults write com.barebones.bbedit Color:Invisibles:Other -string "rgb(x,y,z)"
73. defaults write com.barebones.textwrangler Color:Invisibles:Other -string "rgb(x,y,z)"
74. Mail: Use alternate folder for attachments: $ mv Library/Mail\ Downloads Downloads/; cd Library; ln -s ../Downloads/Mail\ Downloads Or alternatively, to make Mail downloads appear directly in the Downloads folder$ mV Library/Mail\ Downloads/* Downloads/; mv Library/Mail\ Downloads/.* Downloads/; cd Library; rmdir Mail\ Downloads; ln -s ../Downloads Mail\ Downloads
75. Snow Leopard: Force OS X font smoothing: defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 2
76. Faster keyboard repeat rate: defaults write NSGlobalDomain KeyRepeat -int 0
77. Set precise screensaver/wake from sleep password delay: defaults -currentHost write com.apple.screensaver askForPasswordDelay -int 1800
78. Ability to resize all windows.
79. Darken font color of subcategories.

Known Issues

1. Changing sleep mode (ie. hibernation) may not work on Snow Leopard.
2. New network interface/presets not permanently applying.
3. Disabling the Dashboard's ripple effect doesn't work.
4. Changing the AFP and SSH port do not work on Leopard.
5. Safari > MaxTabsToOpenWith/WithoutConfirmation not working.
6. Error sending the correct gdud to AppleScript via our applications on some systems. AppleScriptMBS returns error -1708.
7. Snow Leopard: Disable all Finder animations does not apply to Finder's toolbar animation, and maybe more.

Potential Bugs to Investigate

1. "My Login window desktop picture set through Macpilot was reset to the system default after updating my system to 10.7.4 on my iMac 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5. Macpilot seems not to able to change the picture from the default."