Skip to content

Make your macOS Dock suck

Now, some may not like the Dock and say it already sucks. But I'm actually referring to a really old hint that ran on Mac OS X 10.0's release date—March 24, 2001.

The hint explained that the Dock has three minimization modes available; back then, you had no choice of which to use. Now we have a choice between two: Genie (the default) and Scale, selectable on the Dock System Preferences panel. If you'd like to see the hidden third mode, Suck, issue these two commands in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.Dock mineffect suck
killall Dock

Your Dock will restart, and when you minimize a window, it will be sucked into the Dock. The best way to compare these three animations is by watching them in slow motion—hold down Shift1That's called a hidden hint—hold Shift to see any macOS animation in slow motion. while clicking the yellow button on any window. Or just watch this video…

I personally use Scale, though I am surprised that Suck has survived intact over all the intervening years.

Tags:

4 thoughts on “Make your macOS Dock suck”

  1. These terminal commands made no effect on my minimize animation. Using Yosemite 10.10.5 on a late 2008 17-inch MBP (yes, really.)

    1. Now *that's* interesting! I tested in my 10.10 virtual machine, and you're right: suck wasn't present there. I then tried the 10.11 VM, and it worked fine.

      -rob.

  2. just hold down the shift key whilst minimising (uk spelling) works for me in 10.10/10.11
    H

    1. That will show whatever animation you have in slow motion - Genie by default. But Shift by itself doesn't change the animation.

      -rob.

Comments are closed.