How to Configure Your New MacBook — Developer Edition

4 min readMay 8, 2019

Latest Updated: May 2024

I just released an interactive course on web application security — check it out on educative.io!

I thought it would be fun to share some steps I follow when I set up a new MacBook for development (when not using Apple’s Migration Assistant).

You will have to install additional dependencies depending on the specific tasks you are trying to tackle and alot of this comes down to personal preference but the following is a great baseline.

I would love to hear about what others do when they get a new machine too. If you create your own config post or know of any similar posts, drop ’em in the comments!

Give Your Computer a Name

Navigate to System Settings—Sharing and enter a name. Make it yours.

Install the Following Apps

(Custom app configurations are covered — just scroll down!)

Text Editors

VS Code

Browsers

Chrome
Firefox
Xcode (for iOS Simulator)
VirtualBox (for Windows stuff)

Communication

Music/Video

Mail

Spark

Calendar

Fantastical

Notes/ToDo Lists

Dev Tools

Productivity Tools

Turn Off Alerts

Navigate to System Settings — Notifications
Turn alerts/sounds off for the following apps:
Calendar (because Fantastical is used instead)
Mail (because Spark is used instead)
Messages (badge icons okay)
Spark (badge icons okay)

Install the Following CLI Tools

Add Aliases

Add the following to your ~/.zshrc file:

# Aliasessource $HOME/.aliases

run:

touch ~/.aliases

Copy the contents of this file into your ~/.aliases file

Configure Git

Open up a terminal and run:

$ git config --global user.name "John Doe"
$ git config --global user.email johndoe@example.com
$ git config --global core.editor 'code -n -w'

Add a new SSH key to your Github account

Configure VS Code

Install the code command

Install the Fira Code font
Install the following plugins:
ESLint
Proto3
One Dark Pro
Turbo Console Log
Material Icon Theme
Prettier — Code Formatter
Python
npm
Docker
Vim
DotENV
Git Blame
GraphQL for VSCode
Sort Lines
ES6 Code Snippets or ES7 React/Redux/GraphQL/React-Native Snippets
Navigate to settings and copy this file to your settings.json file
Navigate to keyboard settings and copy this file to your keybindings.json file

Configure Chrome

Set Chrome as your default browser

Configure iTerm

Import this profile
Navigate to Settings — Keys — Hotkey
Create a hotkey (mine is command+i)

Configure Alfred

Navigate to Alfred Preferences — General
Set a hotkey that you’ll remember (mine is option+A)

Navigate to Alfred Preferences — Features
Click on “Clipboard History” in the left sidebar
Enable “Keep Plain Text” for 1 Month
Click on “Snippets” in the left sidebar
Add any snippets you use frequently
You can use option+command+C to view clipboard and snippets

Navigate to Alfred Preferences — Web Bookmarks
Check “Google Chrome Bookmarks”

Purchase the powerpack
Install the following workflows:
caniuse
dash
evernote

Configure Spark

Navigate to Preferences — Notifications
Click the Badges tab
Check “Enable dock icon badge”

Navigate to Preferences — Shortcuts
Change the shortcut for “Archive” to be the delete key

Navigate to Preferences — Signatures
Setup a signature for each account

Navigate to Preferences — Templates
Add any e-mail templates with applicable placeholders

Configure VirtualBox

Follow these instructions to install IE/Edge

Configure the menu bar / iStat Menus

Hold down Command
Click on the following menu bar icons and drag them off the menubar to remove: Siri, Date/Time, Battery, User, Volume

Open iStat Menus
Enable Notifications, Weather, CPU & GPU, Memory, Disks, Network, Battery/Power, Time and Combined
Enable a notification when battery time remaining hits 15 minutes
Tweak the Time settings to only include the cities you care about
Hold down Command and click each icon in the menu bar to rearrange them to your liking

Configure the Dock

Drag the Downloads folder to the left of the trash can so that it persists in the Dock

Navigate to System Settings — Dock
Make the size as small as possible
Ensure magnification is turned off
Enable “Automatically hide and show the Dock”
You can use Command+Option+D to toggle the Dock at any time

Open Xcode
Navigate to Xcode — Open Developer Tool — Simulator
Right Click Simulator in the Dock
Select “Options — Keep in Dock”

Remove the default dock apps (right-click icon — Options — Check “Remove from Dock”)
Add your favorite apps (Open app — right-click icon — Options — Check “Keep in Dock”)

Configure Mission Control

Navigate to System Settings — Mission Control
Click “Hot Corners”
Set “Mission Control” to the top left corner

Configure the Trackpad

Navigate to System Settings —Trackpad — Point & Click
Enable “Tap to click”
Set “Tracking speed” to the 5th notch
Navigate to System Settings — Trackpad — More Gestures
Enable “Mission Control” (Swipe with three fingers)

Configure the Keyboard

Navigate to System Settings — Keyboard
Set “Key Repeat” to the fastest setting
Set “Delay Until Repeat” to the shortest setting

Configure Night Shift

Navigate to System Settings — Displays — Night Shift
Schedule “Night Shift” to turn on automatically from sunset to sunrise at the warmest setting.

Enable Full-Screen Zoom

Navigate to System Settings — Accessibility — Zoom
Check “Use keyboard shortcuts to zoom”
Check “Use scroll gesture with modifier keys to zoom”

Show Hidden Files in Finder

Open up a finder window and run:

CMD + SHIFT + .

Show the Current Path in the Finder Title Bar

Open up a terminal window and run:

defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool true; killall Finder

I hope you found the above settings useful!

P.S. — I also released a course on mastering technical interviews. Check it out!