Mac: If you upgraded to Mac OS X Lion and immediately started finding system settings and changes you disliked, Lion Tweaks is a utility that gives you one-click access to enable or disable all of Lion’s most loved-or hated-new features. More »

Mac: If you upgraded to Mac OS X Lion and immediately started finding system settings and changes you disliked, Lion Tweaks is a utility that gives you one-click access to enable or disable all of Lion’s most loved-or hated-new features. More »

Enable three-finger swipe for back/forward

In Snow Leopard, swiping three fingers on the trackpad moved you back or forward in Safari and the Finder. In Lion, however, that gesture has been changed to two fingers, with the three finger gesture reserved for Mission Control. In effect, any apps that used this gesture for back/forward are broken and need to be updated to use the new gesture. Until then, you can get the old gesture back by going to Trackpad in System Preferences, and under the “More Gestures” tab changing the option for “Swipe between pages” to “Swipe left or right with two or three fingers”. If you do this, you’ll have to switch between full-screen apps with four fingers.

Enable tap dragging and disable inertial scrolling

Apple moved these preferences to the Universal Access pane in System Preferences. To tweak them, enter the Universal Access area, go to the “Mouse and Trackpad” tab and click “Trackpad Options.”

Turn off automatic file locking

Due to the addition of Auto Save, Lion automatically locks files after two weeks if they haven’t been edited. You can change this by going into System Preferences > Time Machine > Options and unchecking the option to lock files.

Take Dashboard out of Mission Control

With Lion, Dashboard is now a space in Mission Control. If you don’t want it taking up the room, or if you want Dashboard to act as an overlay, the way it did in Snow Leopard, you can go to Mission Control’s System Preferences pane and uncheck the box next to “Show Dashboard as a space.”

Show the Finder’s status bar and hide All My Files

The Lion Finder has a couple of annoying changes. First, the status bar is hidden, so you can’t see the extra information it provided, such as how much space is left on a volume. You can show it again by going to View in the Menu bar and clicking “Show Status Bar.”

Second, the Finder has a new sidebar item called “All My Files.” Basically, this is a smart folder that shows a full list of every kind of file on your system. While this may be useful for people who don’t have a lot of files, for me, it’s pretty worthless, as I have to scroll for ages to find anything. You can get rid of it by simply holding down the Command (?) key and dragging it out of the sidebar.

What other annoyances have you found in Lion? Tell us in the comments.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• Millennials in the enterprise, part 1: strategies for supporting the new digital workforce
• Infrastructure Q2: Big data and PaaS gain more momentum
• A field guide to cloud computing: current trends, future opportunities

Enable three-finger swipe for back/forward

In Snow Leopard, swiping three fingers on the trackpad moved you back or forward in Safari and the Finder. In Lion, however, that gesture has been changed to two fingers, with the three finger gesture reserved for Mission Control. In effect, any apps that used this gesture for back/forward are broken and need to be updated to use the new gesture. Until then, you can get the old gesture back by going to Trackpad in System Preferences, and under the “More Gestures” tab changing the option for “Swipe between pages” to “Swipe left or right with two or three fingers”. If you do this, you’ll have to switch between full-screen apps with four fingers.

Enable tap dragging and disable inertial scrolling

Apple moved these preferences to the Universal Access pane in System Preferences. To tweak them, enter the Universal Access area, go to the “Mouse and Trackpad” tab and click “Trackpad Options.”

Turn off automatic file locking

Due to the addition of Auto Save, Lion automatically locks files after two weeks if they haven’t been edited. You can change this by going into System Preferences > Time Machine > Options and unchecking the option to lock files.

Take Dashboard out of Mission Control

With Lion, Dashboard is now a space in Mission Control. If you don’t want it taking up the room, or if you want Dashboard to act as an overlay, the way it did in Snow Leopard, you can go to Mission Control’s System Preferences pane and uncheck the box next to “Show Dashboard as a space.”

Show the Finder’s status bar and hide All My Files

The Lion Finder has a couple of annoying changes. First, the status bar is hidden, so you can’t see the extra information it provided, such as how much space is left on a volume. You can show it again by going to View in the Menu bar and clicking “Show Status Bar.”

Second, the Finder has a new sidebar item called “All My Files.” Basically, this is a smart folder that shows a full list of every kind of file on your system. While this may be useful for people who don’t have a lot of files, for me, it’s pretty worthless, as I have to scroll for ages to find anything. You can get rid of it by simply holding down the Command (?) key and dragging it out of the sidebar.

What other annoyances have you found in Lion? Tell us in the comments.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Millennials in the enterprise, part 1: strategies for supporting the new digital workforce
• Infrastructure Q2: Big data and PaaS gain more momentum
• A field guide to cloud computing: current trends, future opportunities

Mac OS X: There are lots of ways to hide your files, but Skedaddle offers one that both useful and fun. It creates a secret drawer in your desktop that opens with a keyboard shortcut and a password. The app is kind enough to walk you through the entire setup process and help you test the preferences you choose. Once you’re all set, you’ll have a little hiding space for your folders and files. You can customize the size of that space as well as how items within it are displayed. While Skedaddle won’t encrypt the data it stores, it does a great job at keeping things hidden that you don’t want people to see. If you’re mainly looking to protect your privacy when others are using your computer, it’s a good app to have. More »

Mac OS X: There are lots of ways to hide your files, but Skedaddle offers one that both useful and fun. It creates a secret drawer in your desktop that opens with a keyboard shortcut and a password. The app is kind enough to walk you through the entire setup process and help you test the preferences you choose. Once you’re all set, you’ll have a little hiding space for your folders and files. You can customize the size of that space as well as how items within it are displayed. While Skedaddle won’t encrypt the data it stores, it does a great job at keeping things hidden that you don’t want people to see. If you’re mainly looking to protect your privacy when others are using your computer, it’s a good app to have. More »

Start Google Plus is a great extension for Chrome and Firefox that lets you update Twitter and Facebook from within Google+, also adding feeds from both social networks onto your main page. We mentioned it in our Facebook to Google+ migration guide, but felt it deserved to be highlighted on its own because it’s so useful. More »

Start Google Plus is a great extension for Chrome and Firefox that lets you update Twitter and Facebook from within Google+, also adding feeds from both social networks onto your main page. We mentioned it in our Facebook to Google+ migration guide, but felt it deserved to be highlighted on its own because it’s so useful. More »

It’s difficult enough to keep track of all your open tabs, so when one starts playing an ad for mouthwash, it’s a pain to root out the source. For Chrome users, MuteTab by Jared Sohn identifies the problem tabs, allowing for easy toggling of any unwanted noise. More »

It’s difficult enough to keep track of all your open tabs, so when one starts playing an ad for mouthwash, it’s a pain to root out the source. For Chrome users, MuteTab by Jared Sohn identifies the problem tabs, allowing for easy toggling of any unwanted noise. More »