1. Pop up a message in the Finder

osascript -e ‘tell app “Finder” to display dialog “Hello World”‘

2. Make your computer talk

say hello

3. Change the location where screenshots are stored

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location /new_location_here

4. Show all hidden files by default

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles true killall Dock

And hide them again with

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles false killall Dock

5. Prevent your computer from going to sleep for an extended period of time

caffeinate -t 3600

6. Get Time Machine to back up every 30 minutes instead of every hour

sudo defaults write /System/Library/Launch Daemons/com.apple.backupd-auto StartInterval -int 1800

7. Add a login greeting banner (displayed to all users on the lock screen)

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow LoginwindowText “Good Morning, Dave”

8. Make the icons on the dock massive

defaults write com.apple.dock largesize -int 512; killall Dock

9. Disable the startup chime

sudo nvram SystemAudioVolume=%80

10. Enable remote desktop (Screen Sharing/VNC) access to your computer (warning: this sets the password to “mypasswd.” It is highly recommended that you change this)

sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/kickstart -activate -configure -access -on -clientopts -setvnclegacy -vnclegacy yes -clientopts -setvncpw -vncpw mypasswd -restart -agent -privs -all

Disable remote desktop

sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/kickstart -deactivate -configure -access -off