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ChrisTitusTech/macutil

★ 555 · Shell · MIT · updated Mar 2026

Fix macOS crazy defaults to be functional and remove animations and other apple b.s.

A Shell + F# toolkit for stripping Apple's defaults and animations off macOS, in the style of ChrisTitusTech's winutil. The GUI is an Avalonia app written in F# that wraps a collection of `defaults write` and setup scripts. The author has put it on hold because Apple has progressively locked down what these kinds of tools can change.

The script organization is clean — system-setup, applications-setup, and browser configs are all separate and discoverable. CI is solid: shellcheck, bashisms checks, typo linting, and release automation are all wired up. Using Avalonia + F# for the GUI is an interesting choice that keeps it cross-platform by default. The contributor tooling (templates, dependabot, code of conduct) is better than most personal utility repos.

The author's own README says it's discontinued — Apple locked down enough system knobs that the core premise doesn't hold on recent macOS versions. No developer license means macOS will block the binary with Gatekeeper warnings; users have to manually allow it. The F# GUI layer is thin boilerplate with no real state management, so it's more of a launcher than a UI. 555 stars and only 30 forks suggests people are watching but not adopting, which tracks with the install friction.

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