System Preferences

The first thing you should do is update your OS. To do that, go to: Apple menu () -> System Settings… -> Software Update.

Don’t forget to sign in with your Apple ID to sync your iCloud account.

There are a couple of tweaks you can make to the System Preferences. The settings below are all optional, so consider them as suggestions.

General

• Airdrop & Handoff

  • Airdrop -> Select Everyone

Appearance

• Appearance : Dark

Accessibility

• Motor

  • Pointer Control

    • Check Ignore built-in trackpad when mouse or wireless trackpad is present I primarily use a mouse, so I find it annoying when I accidentally move the mouse pointer while typing on the keyboard.

Control Center

• Menu Bar Only

  • Spotlight -> Set to Don't Show in Menu Bar

Siri & Spotlight

• Uncheck Ask Siri

Desktop & Dock

Your dock is probably flooded with all of macOS’s default apps. I usually drag them all to the Trash to make it cleaner. I usually hide the Dock (cmd + option + d) because launching apps with an app launcher like Raycast is faster.

• Dock

  • Size : Small

  • Position on screen : Left

  • Uncheck Automatically hide and show the Dock

  • Uncheck Show suggested and recent apps in Dock

• Desktop & Stage Manager

  • Uncheck Show Items -> On Desktop

  • Set Click wallpaper to reveal desktop -> Only in Stage Manager

  • Uncheck Stage Manager

• Hot Corners

  • Set all to none

Display

• Disable True Tone

Wallpaper

• Update your favorite wallpaper.

Internet Accounts

• Add your Google, Yahoo, or iCloud accounts to sync with the Mail, Calendar, Messages, and other macOS apps.

Keyboard

• Set Press 🌐︎ key to -> Do Nothing

• Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Spotlight -> uncheck Show Spotlight search

  • Spotlight -> uncheck Show Finder search window

Fun fact: Spotlight was completely redesigned in OS X 10.10 Yosemite and now resembles Alfred. However, I still prefer using Raycast over Spotlight for various reasons. That being said, we’ll be disabling the Spotlight search keyboard shortcut since we’ll be using Raycast anyway.

Mouse

If you're using a Magic Mouse:

• Adjust tracking speed to preferred speed

• Set Secondary click -> Click Right Side

Trackpad

• Point & Click

  • Enable Tap to click