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LaunchServices

Demonstrating causal connections using the log

I’m browsing images in the Finder, when my software firewall tells me macOS is trying to phone home to one of Apple’s servers. We all know what that means, don’t we?

January 20, 2023 Macs, Technology

How does macOS tell the type of a file?

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How does the Finder know the right app to open a file with? Or QuickLook how to preview its contents? Or other services like Spotlight know how to index and handle files? UTIs.

December 24, 2022 Macs, Technology, Updates

Explainer: file types

Many think that a file’s type is determined by its extension. Although partly true, that’s indirect: it’s the UTI which sets the type, as explained here.

October 16, 2021 Macs, Technology

How to run an app or tool at startup

Four popular and straightforward ways to set your Mac to run an app or other software when it starts up. Includes AppleScript code.

September 16, 2021 Macs, Technology

Explainer: version and build numbers

Where to see them, how they’re constructed, Apple’s rules, how they are created, and how even Apple doesn’t use them according to its own rules.

June 19, 2021 Macs, Technology

How to slip ‘unsigned’ apps past Gatekeeper in Big Sur

If you use the Installer app the wrong way, it will open an ad-hoc signed package and quietly install apps which don’t get checked by Gatekeeper.

March 16, 2021 Macs, Technology

When you don’t have permission to run an app on an M1 Mac

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You try to open an app on your M1 Mac, only to see an alert telling your that you don’t have permission to open it. Only that isn’t the reason.

January 26, 2021 Macs, Technology

How macOS overrides app behaviour, including quarantine

How apps can opt to set the quarantine flag on files they create, and how macOS can override that to protect you.

July 10, 2020 Macs, Technology

Bookmarks, a type of Alias: their access and use

They’re Base-64 encoded data which is related to the Finder Alias. Here’s how to resolve them in an app, at the command line, and in code.

May 21, 2020 Macs, Technology

What happens when you double-click a document? Processes, problems and solutions

An explanation of the magic which takes place when you double-click a document, the things that can go wrong, and how to fix them.

May 4, 2020 Macs, Technology

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