For our first Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard tips, we’ve been collecting a variety of popular visual tweaks and most-requested adjustments to Apple’s updated interface. Because our readership includes a mix of users, we’ve presented each hack in a technical and non-technical format.
If you’ve recently upgraded to Mac OS X Leopard, and find yourself disliking the new 3D glass shelf on the Dock, here is the hack to switch it back to a simpler 2D version.
Less Technical: Use the Dock Doctor utility.
For less technical readers, the easiest way to get rid of the 3D glass dock is to download InnermindMedia’s handy Dock Doctor utility.
This software utility allows you to easily toggle between 2D and 3D docks. Plus as a bonus you can apply a variety of special backgrounds to the 3D version of your dock if you like. Including such themes as grass, dashboard, checkered, etc.
Using Terminal: Get rid of Leopard’s 3D Dock
For more technically inclined users, here are the terminal commands to apply this hack. Please consider yourself sufficiently warned that using terminal can break your computer if mishandled.
Turn off 3D dock:
defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES; killall Dock
Turn on 3D dock:
defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean NO; killall Dock
Enjoy.
Source: This hack first appeared at the great Mac OS X Hints site. We found Dock Doctor through a recent post on The Unofficial Apple Weblog.
