Restore Original Alerts to Big Sur and Monterey

Targets macOS
1

I have just found out you can use a NSUserDefaults key to restore the original, not awful, alert dialogs to macOS. I know many people here prefer the older systems, so I thought I’d share!

defaults write -g NSAlertMetricsGatheringEnabled -bool false

FFt3PU1XoAUzCZU
FFt3PU1XoAUzCZU1184×820 30.5 KB

Source Tweet: https://twitter.com/LeoNatan/status/1466897254401429505

4 Likes
2

Update: You can do this to your own app with three lines and EinhugurMacOSBridge

Kind of miffed Lifeboat got out first today!

var oDefaults as new EinhugurCoreBridge.NSUserDefaults
oDefaults.BooleanForKey("NSAlertMetricsGatheringEnabled") = false

oDefaults.Synchronize
1 Like
3

Hmm - is this really just for the specific app?
You probably don’t want to (secretly) set a global user preference within your app, that has an effect on all other apps…

…but it’s perfectly fine to do that in Terminal.app - if you want to see the dialogs like this again on your machine, for all applications.

4

Yes, just your app. Using the method from post 2 you set the key for your app only because you’re not setting it globally.

The -g parameter in the command line from the first post is what sets it globally. You could alter the command to apply this to just a specific app, I believe like this:
defaults write com.xojo.xojo NSAlertMetricsGatheringEnabled -bool false

1 Like
5

Oh yes I do. :smile:

1 Like
6

I would love to use normal looking alerts. But every time I would make screenshots I would need to switch between nice and ugly.

7

Trouble also with the defaults write stuff is that Apple can just drop them in a new OS version without so much as a by-your-leave. So, f’rinstance, these:

  1. Move Findow window icons below the title

defaults write com.apple.finder NSWindowSupportsAutomaticInlineTitle -bool false

  1. Show path in Finder windows title bar

defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool true

These work nicely in Big Sur but seem to be MIA in Monterey.

8

I expect Mammoth/Redmond to be very light grey on white everywhere.

9

I think if Apple drops this one then nothing bad would happen to Tim’s application. It would simply just then use the default dialogs.

10

Oh indeed. But it would be irritating.

11

Like it has been for us before we knew about this command. We were “accustomed” to it.

12

@Tim_Parnell — it’s like you read my mind — I was just about to send email to DTS asking how to disable Monterey’s silly automatic layout changes!

I wonder if there’s a purely Cocoa API method of opting out of those layout changes? Invoking a command line seems a bit fragile…

I DO like that Monterey positions sheets in a more central location automatically — rather than dropping them from the top of their parent window.

1 Like