Improve MacBook’s dock experience

A nice hack using simple terminal commands

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

Any time you purchase a new mac computer or perform a factory reset on your current device(s), you’ll end up with default dock settings that can feel slow.

I’ve needed to change these default dock settings on both my MacBook Pro and iMac several times. So I think a quick reference like this will help out in the future.

If you want a fast working dock that lets you navigate applications without annoying delays, then follow these simple steps.

First open your Terminal

1. Press F4 at the top of your keyboard

2. Type ‘terminal’ to search for the app

3. Press enter to open the app

Run this simple command in your terminal window (copy + paste)

defaults write com.apple.dock autohide -bool true && defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 0 && defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -float 0 && killall Dock

Nice! You just removed autohide delay and disabled animation of applications upon initial opening. Use your mouse to hover over the dock — notice the speedy automated hide and show.

You can also check  system preferences for current dock settings. Notice the box is unchecked for “Animate opening applications” as below. Try opening any app on your dock by clicking an icon — take note of how it opened immediately without bouncing. Wink*

Returning your dock back to default settings is easy too

Repeat the steps above but run the command below instead. Copy and paste this snippet of code into a new terminal session.

defaults delete com.apple.dock autohide && defaults delete com.apple.dock autohide-delay && defaults delete com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier && killall Dock

Nice!