Lion defaults tweaks

Many tweaks exist through the Terminal command defaults. Some of those specific to Mac OS X 10.7 have been included in Lion Tweaks, a standalone app. Also, there is a wonderful prefpane called Secrets, but while many of the tweaks available there still work on Lion, it has not yet been updated with new "secrets", so listed below are some of the tweaks I've found:

Disable resume for most Apple applications (replace appName with desired program, i.e. QuickTime, Preview, TextEdit...):
defaults write com.apple.appName NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false
Disable new window animation:
defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticWindowAnimationsEnabled -bool false
Disable Mail reply animation:
defaults write com.apple.Mail DisableReplyAnimations -bool true
Disable Mail send animation:
defaults write com.apple.Mail DisableSendAnimations -bool true
Disable character picker:
defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false
Use Snow Leopard-style Save dialog shortcuts (i.e. Cmd-D selects "Don't Save"):
defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSSavePanelStandardDesktopShortcutOnly -bool true
Disable iOS-style spelling corrections:
defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticSpellingCorrectionEnabled -bool false
Show system info at login screen:
defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow AdminHostInfo HostName

How to Edit the Login Window in Snow Leopard

This shows how to open the login window files. It requires Apple's Developer Tools, which can be downloaded here for free if you have a free developer account.

I don't completely understand how the login window elements work together, so anyone with more knowledge can chime in through comments and I'll update this post. I do know these steps have worked since Jaguar (10.2) with some tweaks to the file location and without the compiled .nib file errors introduced with Snow Leopard's spring cleaning.

I recommend making a backup of the original .nib file. That way, if you somehow mess up and the login screen will not let you in, you can alway start up in Single User Mode and replace the copy with the backup. I also did all the changes through my root user so I didn't have to authenticate every change I made.

1. Navigate to /System/Library/CoreServices/SecurityAgentPlugins/
2. Right-click on loginwindow.bundle and choose "Show Package Contents".
3. In the new window that opens, navigate to Contents/Resources/English.lproj/. If LoginWindowUI.nib shows as a folder, open and close Interface Builder, thus associating the .nib filetype.
4. Open LoginWindowUI.nib and begin editing.

In Snow Leopard, the first time you do this, you will get the below error. Look here for information on how to get around this.

"The document "LoginWindowUI.nib" could not be opened. Interface Builder cannot open compiled nibs. Try opening the source document instead of the compiled nib."

How to Open Compiled .nib Files in Snow Leopard

When attempting to modify a file with Interface Builder, you'll possibly get the below error, particularly when editing system files:

"The document "LoginWindowUI.nib" could not be opened. Interface Builder cannot open compiled nibs. Try opening the source document instead of the compiled nib."

The problem comes from the .nib file not containing the classes.nib and login.nib files. The fix is pretty simple:

1. First, download and unzip this, which has dummy versions of both needed files.
2. Right-click on the file you want to edit and choose "Show Package Contents".
3. A new window should come up, and there will be one file, keyedobjects.nib, listed.
4. Copy classes.nib and login.nib into this folder.
5. You should now be able to open the original .nib file.