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MacOS Setup (Tahoe 26.5)

I am writing this after almost five years of using a MacBook for all my professional and personal things.

My beginning of using computers was only about Windows – I used it for years for education, playing games, watching movies, and later, for my main hobby – web development. Windows served quite well for these needs, especially up to version 10, but there is one itchy thing about it.. It gradually wilts and needs to be reinstalled at some point.

Then, my professional career in web development started, and it started with Ubuntu, as a requirement for my first role’s development environment. And it simply became clear why – to set up a comfortable environment on Windows required a bunch of workarounds and crutches, which feels, say so, unreliable. Ubuntu worked pretty well, when it worked, but for me, it nearly never did: touchpad? -> oh, we don’t support drivers for it yet; wireless headphones? -> they worked, sometimes, but mostly not; decided to update the OS? -> back up everything and get ready to reinstall everything from scratch, because the chance that something critical will stop working is too big.

My first instinct was to try different distros besides Ubuntu. I tried Fedora, Linux Mint and Manjaro. The best experience was with Fedora – it was the most stable and friendly. But the amount of attention it (and other Linux-based distros) required was huge: you have to do a lot of customization and then constantly make sure everything keeps working fine.

At some point I got tired: I don’t want to fuss around with OS settings, but I want to get the job done. So I tried a MacBook.

The first week was tough – it was a very different UX from any other laptop. But when you get used to it – it is nearly impossible to go back to another OS: you have Linux-level flexibility with top-level UX, and you don’t worry about breaking anything when updating the system or some other dependency – somehow everything just works.

This guide is an artifact of a habit of reinstalling the system from scratch from time to time – I have done it just a few times when getting a new work laptop, but this time I decided to do so for the personal one, which is five years old but still feels like a new one. Of course, this process could be automated, speeded up, or simply skipped in the case of macOS – just use Migration Assistant, iCloud sync, or tools like that. But for me, this process is more like self-reflection – on software I use, configurations I set – and a chance to review my experience with the laptop in general.

1. Onboarding

  • Keyboards: British and Russian – PC.
  • Location Services – ON.
  • Siri – OFF.
  • Apple Intelligence – OFF.
  • FileVault – ON.
  • Automatic updates – only download.

2. Install Latest macOS Updates

3. Update macOS Settings

  • Speed up keyboard: System Settings -> Keyboard -> Key repeat rate – Fast, Delay until repeat – Short.
  • Wallpaper: Set some nice nature landscape from default library.
  • Appearance:
    • Liquid Glass – Tinted
    • Show scroll bars – Always.
  • Desktop & Dock:
    • Automatically hide and show the Dock – ON.
    • Show suggested and recent apps in Dock – OFF.
    • Dock: Size: 25%, Magnification: 50%.
  • Notifications:
    • When screen is locked – OFF.
  • Sound:
    • Play sound on startup – OFF.
    • Play user interface sound effects – OFF.
  • Network:
    • Firewall – ON.
  • iCloud:
    • Drive -> Optimize mac storage -> OFF.
  • Internet accounts:
    • Add personal and work emails (calendar sync only)

4. Install Software

  • Browsers: Chrome, Firefox. Set Chrome as a default browser.
  • Primary messenger: Telegram
    • Notifications and Sounds: Bounce the Dock icon – OFF, Allow sound – OFF, Include muted chats in unread count – OFF.
    • Advanced: Download path – Tmp folder, update automatically – OFF.
  • The best media player: VLC Player.
  • Handy images optimization: ImageOptim.
  • Homebrew for packages management.
  • Password manager: brew install bitwarden.
    • Allow browser integration – ON, show menu bar icon – OFF, unlock with Touch ID – ON, timeout – 5 min.
    • Login into browser extension -> unlock with biometrics – ON, timeout – 5 min.
  • Code editor: VSCode.
  • For remembering stuff: Anki.
  • Things 3 the best task manager.
    • Badge count – Deadlines Only.
  • Scroll-Reverser. Reverse Trackpad – OFF, Reverse Mouse – ON.
  • Command X – cut and paste files in Finder.
  • The Unarchiver.
  • Transmission bittorrent client.
  • nvm.
  • Claude + Claude Code CLI (Native Install).
  • ChatGPT – Install Page as App, Codex CLI
  • Docker.
  • Postman.
  • brew install cmake p7zip pnpm git git-lfs killport openssh gh.
    • git lfs install
    • brew link openssh
    • gh auth login
  • Yubico Authenticator.
  • Ledger Wallet.
  • iTerm2.

5. Update Configs and setup ssh with YubiKey

Generate new ssh keys for each yubikey: ssh-keygen -t ed25519-sk -f ~/.ssh/yubikey_x -> and add them to GitHub.

Set directory rights chmod 600 ~/.ssh/*.

Apply agents-kit.

6. Install Fonts

Download and install using Font Book.

7. Tweak UI

  • Finder:
    • Settings: Show all filename extensions – ON.
    • Favorites:
      • [User directory]
      • [Work directory]
      • Documents
      • Downloads
      • Applications
      • Desktop
    • View:
      • Show path bar.
      • Show View Options -> Always show in list view – ON, Calculate all sizes – ON + “Use as Defaults”
  • Dock icons order, from left to right:
    • Finder
    • “Apps”
    • AI chats (Claude, ChatGPT)
    • IDE and editors (VSCode, Zed, …)
    • Default browser (Chrome)
    • iTerm
    • Activity Monitor
    • Bitwarden
    • Calendar
    • Things
    • Notes
    • Clock
    • Calculator
    • Telegram
  • Widgets in notification center:
    • Weather (med).
    • Calendar (large).
    • Calendar (small, month view).
    • Batteries (small).

8. Notifications

Disable as many as possible. Leave badge application icon only for Telegram, Slack and Things.

9. Menu bar and Controls

Enabled menu bar buttons: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Battery, Sound (show always), Timer.

Controls layout:

  • Row 1: Bluetooth / Wi-Fi
  • Row 2: AirDrop / Screen Mirroring
  • Row 3: Display
  • Row 4: Sound
  • Row 5: Currently playing