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Disable 'recent places'

M

moveright

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 18, 2012
59
0
I've got all the settings I know of to get rid of 'recent' lists but if I use a program like mplayerx and choose "open", on the drop down box where I could select "macintosh HD, etc" at the bottom is "recent places" which stores directories that have been opened.

how do you COMPLETELY disable any and all recent data from osx lion?
 
Run this in the Terminal:
Code: 
defaults write .GlobalPreferences NSNavRecentPlacesLimit -int 0
Then restart.
 
Intell said:
Run this in the Terminal:
Code: 
defaults write .GlobalPreferences NSNavRecentPlacesLimit -int 0
Then restart.
Click to expand...
Thanks! just did that now. sounds like that will do the trick.

How did you come to know that? I mean, in Linux, EVERYTHING is editable. I just go to the config file, edit it and bam!

What about mac?
 
Not exactly sure how or why I know that. Over the years I've compiled a long list of neat tweaks for Mac OS X. That happened to be one of them. Linux isn't much different from OS X in terms of edibility. All that line in the Terminal does is add a line to the .GlobalPreferences.plist file.
 
Intell said:
Not exactly sure how or why I know that. Over the years I've compiled a long list of neat tweaks for Mac OS X. That happened to be one of them. Linux isn't much different from OS X in terms of edibility. All that line in the Terminal does is add a line to the .GlobalPreferences.plist file.
Click to expand...

MY hero, you are. I will now begin my journey of learning the OS backend.
 
Intell said:
Run this in the Terminal:
Code: 
defaults write .GlobalPreferences NSNavRecentPlacesLimit -int 0
Then restart.
Click to expand...

I'm also looking to do this, and have tried running the line in Terminal and restarting. Did it twice with no effect. Could you direct me to something I might be doing wrong? Running 10.7.4. Thanks.
 
Are you copying and pasting the text? Did you try typing it in manually? Try putting "sudo", no quotes, in front of it.
 
Intell said:
Are you copying and pasting the text? Did you try typing it in manually? Try putting "sudo", no quotes, in front of it.
Click to expand...

I was copying and pasting it into Terminal, but also tried typing. After I type manually or copy/paste and hit Enter, Terminal just creates a fresh command line ready for the next entry... Should I get some kind of response?

I tried the "sudo" command and was met with the warning message saying "Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss
or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your
typing when using sudo. Type "man sudo" for more information.

To proceed, enter your password, or type Ctrl-C to abort."

I aborted until I could get more info on what "sudo" was all about and what running the command would do.

Any insight on either of above would be appreciated.
 
You won't see any response when running that command. Sudo basically runs the command with ultra-admin privileges. Using it can be bad, but using it with that command won't hurt anything.
 
Intell said:
You won't see any response when running that command. Sudo basically runs the command with ultra-admin privileges. Using it can be bad, but using it with that command won't hurt anything.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the followup... I tried executing the sudo command, but it won't let me complete it. It requests a password, but I have no password on my or the other user account on the system. Dead end.
 
The password it wants is your administrator password that is used when installing updates or logging in.
 
That's what I was figuring... I don't have any passwords setup for admin or startup. I have two users accounts on the machine... A and B. A is the administrator and B is standard. Neither have passwords. Strange.
 
Having two different user accounts like that on Mac OS X doesn't increase security. Not even a bit. Having a password does, and that is something that you should do immediately.
 
The accounts were separated for security... Just to divide my wife's things from mine and to allow us to both have sessions open and flip back and forth. Think creating a password for the admin account will make it work in the Terminal session?
 
Tigidal said:
The accounts were separated for security... Just to divide my wife's things from mine and to allow us to both have sessions open and flip back and forth. Think creating a password for the admin account will make it work in the Terminal session?
Click to expand...

Separating accounts doesn't affect the security of your machine in any way. You are mistaken to think that. (It does affect the organization of files on your machine. That is about it.)

Create an administrator password for your account, or create a new account with Admin priviledges, and password protect that.

The warning you received re: sudo shows up the first time the command is used and exists to remind you that "sudo command" means that the root (admin) user is performing the commands. root can do any and everything to a system (like deleting the entire filesystem) so caution must be exercised.
 
Thanks for the reply... Confusingly, I mis-wrote my last response. I meant to say "The accounts were NOT separated for security." I understand that this has no affect on security.

I'll be trying the sudo command this week, and reply to this post once I do.
 
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