New Mac Setup Guide

As someone who builds software for a living & as a hobby - I go through lots of computers. I also like to occasionally wipe my machines and reinstall from a clean state. Therefore I spend a lot of time setting up new Apple computers. This blog is intended to be a living document of steps I take when setting up a new Mac.

Stock Apps to Delete

• GarageBand
• iMovie
• Keynote
• Pages

Apps to Install

• 1Password
• VSCode
• GitHub Desktop
• Brave
  • Settings → Sync → Start using sync: true

Browser: Brave

As of March 2025, my daily driver are Safari + Brave.

Set up Brave Sync

• Settings → Sync → Manage you synced devices

Utilities to Install

• Sensible Side Buttons
  • Menu Bar Settings
    • Enabled: true
    • Hide Menu Bar Icon: true
  • System Settings → General → Login Items → Open at Login: Add /Applications/SensibleSideButtons.app
• Mos
  • Preferences → Miscellaneous → Launch on Login: true
  • Preferences → Miscellaneous → Hide Status Bar Icon: true

Terminal

• Create Development Folder: mkdir ~/Dev

• Install Command Line Developer Tools: xcode-select --install

• Disable Apple’s Shell Session history (Explanation)

  • Create zshenv file: touch ~/.zshenv

    SHELL_SESSIONS_DISABLE=1

Terminal Theme

• lysyi3m/macos-terminal-themes

  curl -o /tmp/idleToes.terminal "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lysyi3m/macos-terminal-themes/master/themes/idleToes.terminal" && open /tmp/idleToes.terminal

Terminal Preferences

• Profiles → Text
  • Text → Background → Color & Affects → Opacity: 95%
  • Text → Font → Change → Size: 13
  • Text → Cursor: Vertical Bar
• Profiles → Keyboard → Use Option as Meta key: true
• Profiles → Window
  • Path: true
  • Acvite process name: false
  • Dimensions: false
• Profiles: Click Default to save
• Edit Menu → Marks → Automatically Mark Prompt Lines: false

Terminal Utilities

• Install Homebrew

  /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

• Hush the login messages: touch ~/.hushlogin

• Install httpie: brew install httpie node htop yt-dlp gh

.zshrc

Create a .zshrc with touch ~/.zshrc and add the following:

# Colors
export CLICOLOR=1

# Prompt
export PS1="%n@%m %1~ %# "

# Aliases
alias ll="ls -Flht"
alias ls="ls -F"
alias la="ls -Flhta"
alias activate="source env/bin/activate"
alias vactivate="source venv/bin/activate"

# Node.js
export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/node@18/bin:$PATH"
export LDFLAGS="-L/opt/homebrew/opt/node@18/lib"
export CPPFLAGS="-I/opt/homebrew/opt/node@18/include"

# Set PATH, MANPATH, etc., for Homebrew.
eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"

# Case insensitive tab completion
zstyle ':completion:*' matcher-list 'm:{[:lower:][:upper:]}={[:upper:][:lower:]}' 'm:{[:lower:][:upper:]}={[:upper:][:lower:]} l:|=* r:|=*' 'm:{[:lower:][:upper:]}={[:upper:][:lower:]} l:|=* r:|=*' 'm:{[:lower:][:upper:]}={[:upper:][:lower:]} l:|=* r:|=*'

# Automatic CD
setopt AUTO_CD

# ZSH History
export HISTSIZE=20000
export SAVEHIST=10000
setopt sharehistory # share history across multiple zsh sessions

# History search completion
autoload -U history-search-end
zle -N history-beginning-search-backward-end history-search-end
zle -N history-beginning-search-forward-end history-search-end
bindkey "^[[A" history-beginning-search-backward-end
bindkey "^[[B" history-beginning-search-forward-end

# Load the ZSH config changes
autoload -Uz compinit && compinit

# Prompt, git branch on right
function parse_git_branch() {
    git branch 2> /dev/null | sed -n -e 's/^\* \(.*\)/[\1]/p'
}
setopt PROMPT_SUBST
COLOR_DEFAULT=$'%f'
COLOR_ORANGE=$'%F{214}'
COLOR_GRAY=$'%F{243}'
export PROMPT='${COLOR_ORANGE}%1~ ➤${COLOR_DEFAULT} '
export RPROMPT='${COLOR_GRAY}$(parse_git_branch)${COLOR_DEFAULT}'

# Fun greeting from a random pokemon
fortune -s 50% computers 50% all | pokemonsay

# Docker fix for apple silicon
export DOCKER_DEFAULT_PLATFORM="linux/amd64"
source /Users/ryan/.docker/init-zsh.sh || true # Added by Docker Desktop

VSCode Config

• Sign in with GitHub and sync everything

System Settings

• Appearance
  • Appearance → Appearance: Auto
• Control Center
  • Control Center Modules → Bluetooth: Show in Menu Bar
  • Other Modules → Battery → Show Percentage: true
  • Menu Bar Only → Spotlight: Don't Show in Menu Bar
• Apple Intellignce & Siri
  • Listen for Hey Siri: Off
    • Siri voice: Australian Voice 2
• Spotlight
  • Search Privacy: Add ~/Dev
  • Help Improve Apple Search: false
• Desktop and Dock:
  • Show suggested and recent applications in Dock: false
  • Position on screen: Bottom
  • Click wallpaper to reveal desktop: Only in Stage Manager
• Displays
  • Automatically adjust brightness: false
• Battery
  • Options → Slightly dim the display on battery: false
• Lock Screen
  • Turn display off on power adapter when inactive: For 1 hour
• Touch ID & Password
  • Apple Watch → Ryan’s Apple Watch: true
• Keyboard:
  • Key repeat rate: 7/8
  • Delay until repeat: 5/6

Finder

• View → Show Path Bar
• Preferences → General → New Finder windows show: ryan

Finder List View by Default

• Go → Go To Folder: /
• View → Show View Options (⌘ - J)
  • Always open in list view: true
  • Browser in list view: true
  • Sort by: Name
• Run in Terminal: sudo find / -name ".DS_Store" -exec rm {} \;

Finder + Desktop

• Click on desktop
• View → Show View Options (⌘ - J)
  • Sort by: Name

Finder Sidebar:

• Favorites
  • AirDrop
  • Applications
  • ryan
  • Dev
  • Desktop
  • Downloads
• iCloud
  • iCloud Drive

Notification Center

• Remove all widgets

Messages

• Settings → iMessage → Enable Messages in iCloud: true

Dock

• Downloads Stack → Right Click → View content as: Grid
• Downloads Stack → Right Click → Display as: Folder

TextEdit

• Preferences → Format: Plain Text
• By default, open a new blank document (instead of asking which file to open):

  defaults write com.apple.TextEdit NSShowAppCentricOpenPanelInsteadOfUntitledFile -bool false