💻🎁 New Computer Checklist 🎁💻

A checklist and list of scripts I should run when getting a new computer or reinstalling OSX.

It'll feel like a super fast, new machine!

Updated for macOS 13, M1 by Grant Timmerman

Imagine your MacBook was stolen tomorrow. Or you started a new job with a new machine fresh off the press. Would you be able to recover your favorite settings?

Getting Started

You should have the following user/pass combinations ready:

Wifi password (OS setup)
Apple ID (OS setup)
LastPass (Password manager)
Phone – 2FA

Performance

Computer performance is extremely important.

To do our jobs faster, we try to balance two things:

Use of applications to make our lives easier
Performance/Efficiency to make our lives faster

System Preferences

🍎 General

Appearance: Dark
Accent color: Multicolor
Highlight color: Accent Color
Sidebar icon size: Small
Allow wallpaper tinting in windows
Show scroll bars: Automatically based on mouse or trackpad
Click in the scroll bar to: Jump to the next page
Default web browser: Google Chrome
Prefer tabs: in full screen
Ask to keep changes when closing documents
Close windows when quitting app
Recent items: None
Allow Handoff

🖥 Desktop & Screen Saver

Message: Start after: 1 hour
Show with clock
Hot corner: bottom-left, put monitor to sleep
Screen Saver: Default
Use random screen saver

🚢 Dock & Menu Bar

Dock
- Size: Smallest
- Magnification
- Position on screen: Right
- Minimize windows using: Scale effect
- Double-click on a window's title bar to zoom
- Minimize windows into application icon
- Animate opening applications
- Automatically hide and show the Dock
- Show indicators for open applications
- Show recent applications in Dock
Menu Bar
- Automatically hide and show the menu bar on desktop
- Automatically hide and show the menu bar in full screen 🕒 Date & Time
- Date & Time: Set date and time automatically
- Time Zone: Set time zone automatically using current location
- Clock
  - Show date and time in menu bar
  - Time Options: Digital
  - Date options:
    - Show the day of the week
    - Show the date

🖲 Mission Control

Automatically rearrage Spaces based on most recent use
When switching to an applications, switch to a Space with open windows for the application
Group windows by application
Displays have separate Spaces
Dashboard: Off
Mission Control: Ctrl + Opt + Cmd + Up
Application windows: Ctrl + Opt + Cmd + Down
Show Desktop: F11
Show Dashboard F12

🌐 Language & Region

Preferred languages
- English - Primary - 简体中文 - Chinese, Simplified
Region: United States
Calendar: Gregorian
Time format: [x] 24-Hour Time

🔒 Security & Privacy

General
- Require password for 1 minute after sleep or screen saver begins
- Allow apps downloaded from: Mac App Store and identified developers
Privacy
- Allow the apps below to control your computer: (when downloaded)
  - Google Chrome (https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/features.html)
  - Moom (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/moom/id419330170?mt=12)
    - Allow the app to control your computer via System Preferences > Security & Privacy

🔍 Spotlight

Only the following:
- Folders
- PDF Documents
- System Preferences

🔔 Notifications

Allow Notifications: Banners
Show notifcations on lock screen
Show in Notification Center

📺 Display

Default for display
Automatically adjust brightness
True Tone
Refresh Rate: ProMotion

🔌 Battery

Turn display off after 15 minutes
Put hard disks to sleep when possible
Slightly dim the display while on battery power
Optimize video streaming while on battery
Optimized battery charging
Show battery status in menu bar
Low power mode

⌨ Keyboard

Key Repeat - 2nd to fastest
Delay Until Repeat - 3rd tick from left
Adjust keyboard brightness in low light
Turn off when computer is not used
Show Keyboard, Emoji, & Symbol Viewers in menu bar
Use all F1, F2, etc.

🖱 Mouse

Tracking speed: Fastest
- (you can increase it beyond this by doing this http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/15210/how-to-increase-tracking-speed-beyond-the-maximum)
Scrolling speed: 4th tick from left
Double-Click speed: 2nd tick from right
Primary mouse button: Left

⬜ Trackpad

Point & Click
- Look up & data detectors
- Secondary click
- Tap to click
- Click: Medium
- Tracking speed: 2nd to last tick
- Force Click and haptic feedback
Scroll & Zoom
- Scroll direction
- Zoom in or out
- Smart zoom
- Rotate
More Gestures
- Swipe between pages
- Swipe between full-screen apps
- Notification Center
- Mission Control
- App Exposé
- Launchpad
- Show Desktop

🖨 Printers & Scanners - Nothing special

🔊 Sound

Nothing special
Show volume in menu bar

☁️/🌐 iCloud / Internet Accounts

Uncheck all besides hardware settings. Use G Suite, Chrome, and Google Photos instead.
- Keychain
- Find My Mac

Ignore all those scary warnings and click "Remove from Mac".

💎 Extensions

DON'T DOWNLOAD DRIVE OR DROPBOX
Actions: Not enabled
Finder: Not enabled
Share Menu: Mail, AirDrop, Messages
Today: Not enabled

🕸 Network

Show Wi-Fi status in menu bar
Advanced
- Nothing really different besides default
- DNS Servers
  - 192.168.0.1

📲 Blootooth

Turn Bluetooth Off
Show Bluetooth in menu bar

👫 Sharing

Nothing should be on

👤 Users & Groups

Grant Timmerman - Admin
- Avatar: Fox
Other Users - Guest User - Off

🕰 Time Machine: Off

💬 Accessibility

VoiceOver: Disabled
Zoom
- Use keyboard shortcuts to zoom
- Use scroll gesture with modifier keys to zoom
- Zoom style: Full screen
- Advanced
  - Maximum Zoom: 0
  - Minimum Zoom: 0
  - When zoomed in, the screen image moves: Continuously with pointer
Display
- Invert colors
- Use grayscale
- Differentiate without color
- Increase contrast
- Reduce transparency (you could add this if you want)
- Display Contrast: Left-most tick
- Pointer
  - Pointer Size: 2nd tick from left
  - Shake mouse pointer to locate
Descriptions: Disabled
Captions: Default
Audio: None
Keyboard: All disabled
Mouse & Trackpad
- Spring-loaded delay: middle
Switch Control: Default
Dictation: None

🖥 Applications

OPTIONAL: Any application that you have pinned constantly should be converted to a native app

https://github.com/jiahaog/nativefier sudo npm install nativefier -g
Applications +(Less tabs, more isolation), -(Links don't work)
- SoundCloud: nativefier --name "SoundCloud" soundcloud.com
- Google Chat: nativefier --name "Hangouts Chat" chat.google.com

📂 Finder

in folders, right-click, View > as List
Finder > Preferences
- Sidebar
  - Favorites
    - All My Files
    - iCloud Drive
    - AirDrop
    - Applications
    - Desktop
    - Documents
    - Downloads
    - Movies
    - Music
    - Pictures
    - granttimmerman
    - Shared
    - Back to My Mac
    - Connected Servers
    - Bonjour computers
    - Devices
    - Grant's MacBook Pro
    - Hard disks
    - External disks
    - CDs, DVDs, and iPods
    - Tags
    - Recent tags
- Advanced
  - Show all filename extensions
  - Show warning before changing extension
  - Show warning before emptying the Trash
  - When performing a search: Search the Current Folder

⬛ Terminal Settings

Download my settings here: https://github.com/grant/iterm-profile
- Set as default iterm settings
Setup https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k
Copy .ssh folder from this repo.

Generate a key and add it to GitHub:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "your-email@example.com"
eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
/usr/bin/ssh-add -K ~/.ssh/id_rsa
pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Use GitHub UI to add public key to GH

iTerm - Terminal
- General
  - Startup
    - Use System Window Restoration Setting
  - Closing
    - Quit when all windows are closed
    - Confirm closing multiple sessions
    - Confirm "Quit iTerm2 (⌘Q)" command
  - Magic
    - Instant Replay uses [4] MB per session
    - Save copy/paste and command history to disk
  - Services
    - Add Bonjour hosts to Profiles
    - Check for updates automatically
    - Prompt for test-release updates
  - Preferences
    - Load preferences from custom folder or URL
  - Selection
    - Copy to pasteboard on selection
    - Copied text includes trailing newline
    - Applications in terminal may access clipboard
  - Window
    - Smart window placement
    - Adjust window when changing font size
    - Zoom maximizes vertically only
    - Native full screen windows
  - tmux integration
    - Open tmux windows as native windows
    - ...
- Appearance
  - Tabs
    - Tab bar location: Top
    - Theme: Dark
    - Show tab bar even when there is only one tab
    - Show tab numbers
    - Show tab close buttons
    - Show activity indicator
    - Show new-output indicator
    - Show tab bar in fullscreen
  - Panes
    - Show per-pane title bar with split panes
  - Screen
    - Auto-hide menu bar in non-native fullscreen
  - Window & Tab Titles
    - Show window number
    - Show current job name
    - Show profile name
  - Dimming
    - Dimming affects only text, not background.
    - Dimming amount: 1/4 Minimal
    - Dim inactive split panes
    - Dim background windows
  - Window
    - Show border around window
    - Hide scrollbars
    - Disable transparency for fullscreen windows by default
- Profiles
  - General
    - Basics
      - Name: ?
    - Command
      - Login shell
    - Working Directory
      - Reuse previous session's directory
  - Colors
    - Use the defaults for everything besides the following
    - Selection: ff8000
    - Minimum contrast: min
  - Text
    - Cursor
      - Vertical bar
      - Blinking cursor
    - Text Rendering
      - Draw bold text in bold font
      - Draw bold text in bright colors
      - Blinking text allowed
      - Italic text allowed
    - Defaults for other things
  - Window
    - Transparency: 1/4 from left
    - Blur: 1/2 from left
    - Defaults for everything else
  - Scroll
    - Scrollback Lines: 50000
    - Defaults for everything else
  - Session, Keys, Advanced
    - Defaults
- Preferences
  - Terminal
    - Shell Integration
      - Insert newline before start of a command prompt if needed
      - Show mark indicators

🌐 Chrome/FF - Web browser

Log in to Chrome profile
Chrome Extensions (chrome://extensions/)
- Adblock Plus
- Checker Plus for Gmail
- Checker Plus for Google Calendar
- GoFullPage - Full Page Screen Capture
- Hacker News Collapsible Comments
- JSON Formatter
- LastPass: Free Password Manager
- Refined GitHub
- Save as PDF
- Tab Pinner (Keyboard Shortcuts)
- Tab Size on GitHub
- Video Speed Controller
- WhatFont
Open email in Gmail instead of Apple Mail
- Display density: compact

↔️ Moom - Window Management

General
- Launch on login
- Show preferences on launch
- Run as faceless application
Keyboard

🖼 Images/GIFs

Screen Studio - Create HQ GIFs with smooth animations
Giphy Capture - Create GIFs
KeyCastr - brew install --cask keycastr
Screenshots:
- Open screenshot.app, options, save to ~/screenshots.

🚢 Dock

Remove all but the following:
- Finder
- Chrome
- iTerm
- VS Code

🚀 Launchpad

This will be cluttered, but uninstall anything not relevant.
Put all pre-installed apps in folders

🐚 Shell Software

Download personal dotfiles: https://github.com/grant/dotfiles

Download Homebrew: ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

git config --global user.name "YOUR NAME"
git config --global user.email "YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS"
git config --global pull.ff only
git config --global push.default current
git config --global help.autocorrect 1
git config --global --add --bool push.autoSetupRemote true

bat: brew install bat – cat is bat with syntax highlighting
gh: brew install gh – GitHub CLI

Setup OSX defaults

## All scripts not effective until Finder and Dock are restarted (see below)

## Speed up exposé animation
defaults write com.apple.dock expose-animation-duration -float 0.1 && killall Dock
## Show hidden files in finder
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool YES && killall Finder
## Disable animation for Get Info window
defaults write com.apple.finder DisableAllAnimations -bool true
## No .DS_Store files
defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true
# Disable "Last Login"
touch .hushlogin

## !!! Commit changes by running the following
killAll Finder && killAll Dock

Programming Languages

Node: https://nodejs.org/en/download/
Golang: https://golang.org/dl/
Java: https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase-downloads.html
.NET Core: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download
Python: Already preinstalled
Ruby: Already preinstalled
PHP: brew install httpd php72

📝 Fonts

Fira Code

brew tap homebrew/cask-fonts
brew install font-fira-code

🖥 Hardware (Ideal dev computer)

MBP M* Pro
16GB+ RAM
Flash storage

🛃 Rules

Don't install anything else to increase performance.
- Dropbox
- Drive
- Adobe Suite (Photoshop, Acrobat, ...)
- GoToMeeting
- Keybase
- Kindle
- Dash
- Tableau
No games. Use a different computer
- Steam
- Battle.net/Blizzard
- Wineskin
- Thalmic labs

Tips and tricks

https://blog.sindresorhus.com/macos-tips-tricks-13046cf377f8#.bw4vdg7q4

🗑️ Deprecated Software

Use of anything related to iCloud.
📝 Sublime - Text editor
📝 Webstorm - Web IDE
⚡ Messenger
↔️ QuickSilver
🐺 Firefox
Flash Player
IntelliJ
http://gitup.co/
Heroku Toolbelt (https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/heroku-cli)

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 65 Commits
.ssh		.ssh
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
vscode-settings.json		vscode-settings.json

License

grant/new-computer-checklist

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