How to Fix the Annoyance of OS X El Capitan
With the release of any new operating system, you will always find some quirks. El Capitan is a fairly small update that doesn’t have a lot of annoyances, but they still exist. Here’s how to fix some of the more annoying problems.
Disable SIP to make the system-level utilities work again
System Integrity Protection (SIP) is a new feature in El Capitan that protects system processes and folders so that even root cannot access them. This is to keep your system safe from malware and other software that can ruin your computer. As you might expect, this takes away some of your user experience. Subsequently, you may have problems with some of the utilities that work with El Capitan. One example is the original version of Bartender, which has since been updated . Similar apps that change core functionality in OS X have the same issue, including TotalFinder and TotalSpaces . Most apps are likely to be updated, but if you are an advanced user and are comfortable with disabling this feature, it is possible. We do not recommend doing this unless you really know what you are doing.
- Restart your Mac in recovery mode by restarting your computer and holding Command + R until the Apple logo appears on the screen.
- Click Utilities> Terminal.
- In a terminal window, type
csrutil disableand press Enter. - Reboot your Mac.
SIP is now disabled. You can csrutil enable it at any time by following the instructions above and replace csrutil enable the terminal to csrutil enable .
Reset the spotlight location by pressing and holding the magnifying glass in the upper right corner
This one drove me crazy. In El Capitan, you can now move the spotlight wherever you want , which is great, but it also means that it appears where you left it last. If you prefer to keep your life a little more normal, you can send Spotlight back to its default location by clicking and holding the Spotlight (magnifying glass) icon in the menu bar.
Return the previous flight control system behavior
Mission Control no longer groups windows by application, which is really nice in most cases because you get a better idea of what exactly you have open. However, if you want to revert to the previous behavior when your sketches are stacked on top of each other, you only need to change one parameter. Go to System Preferences> Flight Control and select the Group windows by application checkbox.
Disable mouse wiggle
When you move your mouse in El Capitan, it gets bigger, so you can easily find it on the screen. This is handy if you have a large monitor, but rather silly if you have a laptop. It’s also frustrating if you’re using photo editing tools or playing games. Fortunately, it’s easy to turn it off. Go to System Preferences> Accessibility> Display and uncheck the Shake to find checkbox.
Update your apps
With every new operating system, there is a headache of updating applications. El Capitan isn’t much different from Yosemite, but that doesn’t mean the update won’t be problematic. This time, some users have reported that Office 2016 crashes frequently , so if you are an Office user, you might want to wait until the fix is in place. Otherwise, you can always check Roaring Apps for a list of compatible software.