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OSX-Optimizer is a collection of shell-based tweaks for macOS designed to speed up boot time, improve perceived performance, and reduce unnecessary background activity, especially in virtualized environments. The README emphasizes that macOS can be heavily modified using the defaults command, and many of the optimizations are simply well-chosen combinations of defaults and system utilities. It shows how to capture and compare system preferences before and after GUI changes (using defaults read and diff) so that users can understand which keys to automate. The script collection includes aggressive adjustments like skipping the GUI login screen, enabling performance mode via NVRAM flags, and disabling large wallpapers and visual effects to reduce graphical overhead. It also provides commands to disable Spotlight indexing system-wide, which can significantly speed up virtual machines where disk I/O is at a premium.
Features
- Collection of performance-oriented macOS tweaks implemented as shell commands and defaults writes
- Examples for capturing and diffing system preference changes to discover tweakable settings
- Options to skip GUI login, lighten the login screen, and reduce motion/transparency to lower UI overhead
- Commands to disable Spotlight indexing and automatic updates to prevent background I/O spikes and disk growth
- NVRAM-based performance mode enabling more resources for server-like or virtualized workloads
- Advanced remote and automation tweaks including enabling multi-sessions, adjusting auth warnings, and configuring remote management
Project Samples
