Setup My MacBook

This repo is used to configure a MacBook from scratch. It can serve as a guide for a brand-new computer or after a factory reset.

ℹ️ Reset MacBook

NOTE: These steps were made for macOS Sequoia, it may not work with other macOS versions.

MacBook Specifications

Model: MacBook Air (13-inch, M3, 2024)

Chip: Apple M3

Memory: 16 GB

Storage: 256 GB

macOS Updates

When starting your mac for the first time, you should always check if there are any software updates available. You can find these updates by going to System Preferences > Software Updates.

System Preferences

When setting up a mac, there are also some system preferences I like to change.

Network

Turn on Firewall

Battery

Select Low Power Mode > Only on Battery

General

Software Updates

Select only Install Security Responses and system files

AutoFill & Passwords

Deselect AutoFill Passwords & Passkeys (as I use Bitwarden, for now)

Uncheck System Preferences > General > Close windows when quitting an app

Appearance

Select Appearance > Dark

Control Center

Battery

Select Show Percentage

Desktop & Dock

Dock

Select Double-click a window's title bar to > Minimize

Unselect Show suggested and recent apps in Dock

Desktop & Stage Manager

Select Click wallpaper to reveal desktop > Only in Stage Manager

Windows

Select Prefer tabs when opening documents > Always

Unselect Close windows when quitting and application

Mission Control

Select Groupd windows by application

Hot Corners

• Left Inferior Corner: Launchpad
• Right Inferior Corner: Lock Screen

Sound

Sound Effects

Unselect Play sound on startup

Lock Screen

Select Start Screen Saver when inactive > For 5 minutes

Select Turn display off on battery when inactive > For 2 minutes

Select Turn display off on power adapter when inactive > For 10 minutes

Select Require password after screen saver begins or display is turned off > After 5 minutes

Select Show large clock On Screen Saver and Lock Screen >

Keyboard

Select Turn keyboard backlight off after inactivity > After 5 seconds

Trackpad

Select Tap to click

Finder Settings

General

Select New Finder windows show > Downloads

Commands and Shortcuts

Mac

On the Mac, the "command" key (⌘) replaces the "ctrl" key in Windows. Here are the main combinations that I use:

• @: Option + 2
• – (em dash): Option + Shift + dash (-)
• Change current app: CMD + Tab
• Change tab: CMD + Option + Left/Right Arrow
• Clear cache (in browser): CMD + Shift + R
• Close app: CMD + Q
• Close window: Shift + CMD + W
• Enter full screen mode: Control + CMD + F
• Force quit app: CMD + Option + Esc (use only when an app doesn't respond)
• Go forward/backward word by word: Option + Left/Right Arrow (+ Shift to select)
• Go to the beginning/end of a line: CMD + Left/Right Arrow (+ Shift to select)
• Hide app: CMD + H
• Minimize app: CMD + M
• New tab: CMD + T
• New window: CMD + N
• {}: Shift + Option + 8/9
• (): Shift + 8/9
• Spotlight Search (currently I'm using Raycast as a replacement): CMD + Space bar (currently using CMD + )
• Take Screenshot: CMD + Shift + 5
• Screenshot entire screen: CMD + Shift + 3
• Screenshot separate app: CMD + Shift + 4 + Space
• Screenshot selected area: CMD + Shift + 4 + Click & Hold & Drag Mouse
• Change desktop window: Control + Left/Right Arrow
• Go to Folder window: CMD + Shift + G

Brave Browser

• Show tabs in fullscreen mode: CMD + SHIFT + F

Visual Studio Code

• Show/hide terminal: CMD + J

Terminal

Setup Script

My setup.sh file can be found at the root of this repo, running the script will:

• Install Homebrew
• Install brew formulæs and casks that I use
• Configure Git
• Installing Oh My Zsh
• Create a SSH key to be added to GitHub and add it to the Mac’s Keychain

iTerm2

My iTerm2 preferences file can be found here.

Color presets

I am currently using the BlulocoDark color preset.

All my iTerm2 color presets can be found here.

Configurations

• Enable usage of option + command + left/right or command + left/right keyboard shortcuts: Preferences > Profiles > Keys > Key Mappings > Presets > Natural Text Editing
• Check Preferences > Profiles > Session > status bar enabled
• Preferences > Profiles > Terminal > Scrollback lines: 4000
• Preferences > General > Terminal > Startup > Window restauration policy: Use System Window Restauration Setting
• Preferences > Profiles > General > Working Directory > Reuse previous session's directory
• Preferences > Profiles > Text > Cursor > Vertical bar
• Check View > Show Tabs in Fullscreen

Font

The font I use is Fira Code.

Shell

Oh My Zsh

Oh My Zsh is an open source, community-driven framework for managing your Zsh configuration.

.zshrc

My .zshrc file can be found here. To edit the zsh config file, run:

vim ~/.zshrc

.vimrc

My .vimrc file can be found here. In alternative, this is the file content:

syntax on
set hlsearch

To edit the vim config file, run:

vim ~/.vimrc

Zsh Spaceship prompt

Spaceship is a minimalistic, powerful and extremely customizable Zsh prompt. It combines everything you may need for convenient work, without unnecessary complications, like a real spaceship.

Auto Suggestions Zsh Plugin

zsh-autosuggestions

Homebrew

Homebrew is a free and open-source software package management system that simplifies the installation of software on Apple's operating system, macOS, as well as Linux.

Before you install Homebrew though you need to install the xcode command line utilities:

xcode-select --install

We can then install brew with:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Brew

Here are some of the brew formulæs that I have (more to be added):

• git
• htop
• wget
• curl
• telnet
• tree
• trash
• pyenv
• pyenv-virtualenv

Brew Cask

• visual-studio-code
• brave-browser
• docker
• rectangle
• postman
• notion
• iterm2
• the-unarchiver
• webtorrent
• spotify
• teamviewer
• stremio
• iina
• gray
• raycast

Apps

These are the apps that I have currently installed on my mac. Whenever I can, I will install these apps from Homebrew.

• Endpoint Security VPN
• Tunnelblick
• Spotify
• Slack
• The Unarchiver
• Visual Studio Code
• Messenger
• iTerm2
• TeamViewer
• Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
• Brave Browser
• Postman
• Zoom
• WhatsApp
• Docker
• MusicHarbor
• Rectangle
• Spark
• Bitwarden
• WebTorrent
• Notion
• Gray

Brave

⚠️ To access certain websites functionalities (ex. Streaming services), it's necessary to deactivate Brave shields on that websites.

Extensions

Here are the chromium extensions that I use:

AutoHideDownloadsBar

FireShot

Dark Reader

I still don't care about cookies

Bitwarden Password Manager

Grammarly: AI Writing and Grammar Checker App

Auto Refresh Plus | Page Monitor

AdBlock — block ads across the web

Search Engine Shortcuts

On Brave, go to Settings > Search engine > Manage search engines and site search > Site search, and add the desired shortcuts:

Site or page	Shortcut	Search query (URL with %s in place of query)
YouTube	-y	https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%s
Rotten Tomatoes	-r	https://www.rottentomatoes.com/search?search=%s
Goodreads	-g	https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=%s&qid=
Wook	-w	https://www.wook.pt/pesquisa?keyword=%s
IMDb	-i	https://www.imdb.com/find/?q=%s&ref_=nv_sr_sm
PlayStation Store Portugal	-p	https://store.playstation.com/pt-pt/search/%s
Amazon ES	-a	https://www.amazon.es/s?k=%s
Google Internet Speed Test	s	https://www.google.com/search?q=speedtest&sca_esv=426d1894efaa3de5&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ADLYWIKmu8KNlSes7Av8xbbCytRXEBCk1w%3A1726748266383&ei=ahbsZqX9FruZkdUPlKC1-Qc&ved=0ahUKEwil2qLI_s6IAxW7TKQEHRRQLX8Q4dUDCA8&uact=5&oq=speedtest&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiCXNwZWVkdGVzdDIKECMYgAQYJxiKBTIKEAAYgAQYQxiKBTIFEAAYgAQyBRAAGIAEMgUQABiABDIFEAAYgAQyBRAAGIAEMgUQABiABDIFEAAYgAQyBRAAGIAESO4IUJEDWOMFcAF4AZABAJgBmgGgAYECqgEDMC4yuAEDyAEA-AEBmAIDoAKVAsICChAAGLADGNYEGEfCAg0QABiABBiwAxhDGIoFwgIQEC4YgAQY0QMYQxjHARiKBZgDAIgGAZAGCpIHAzEuMqAHig4&sclient=gws-wiz-serp

VS Code

My Visual Studio Code preferences file can be found here.

Extensions

• Live-Share
• Dracula Official (theme)
• GitHub Theme (theme)
• Palenight Theme (theme)
• Copilot Theme (theme)
• Remote - SSH
• vscode-pdf
• Todo Tree
• GitLens
• Error Lens
• VSCodeFileHeader
• Save as Root in Remote - SSH
• Grammarly
• Docker
• Diff
• Copy On Select
• Bookmarks
• DotENV
• Draw.io Integration
• Restore Terminals

Color Theme

Currently using One Dark Pro Darker color theme.

Raycast

Raycast is an application launcher and productivity software developed for macOS. It offers fast access to applications, dictionaries, files, text snippets, clipboard, and more. Raycast is an alternative to the macOS's built-in Spotlight function, with a richer interface providing additional ways to display varied content.

Preferences

My Raycast preferences file can be found here.

Built-in functions

Raycast comes with many built-in features that can have a shortcut or an alias assigned, most notably:

• Application search
• File search
• Clipboard history
• Floating notes
• Calculator
• Changing volume, brightness, hibernating
• Word definitions
• Window management
• Snippets and text expansion
• Access to calendar events
• Quick access to ChatGPT (paid feature)

Extensibility

While Raycast itself is a closed-source application, it includes a built-in store that offers open-source extensions to extend its functionality. The current features I'm using are:

• Year in Progress
• Brew
• Google Translate
• Brave
• Amphetamine
• Format JSON
• GitHub
• Quit Applications
• Installed Extensions

Dock