MacOS Tip: Quick Access to System Information

Craig Hockenberry:

Do you hate how hard it is to get to System Information now? (System Settings… > General > About > System Report…)

Just hold down the Option key in the Apple menu…

This is actually a great meta tip: on the Mac, it’s an idiom that goes all the way back to the classic Mac OS era for additional menu items to be exposed by holding down the Option key. One common idiom — which you’ll notice in the Apple menu — is using Option as a modifier to skip a confirmation step. So the “Restart…” and “Shut Down…” commands — whose ellipses indicate that they require confirmation — turn into “Restart” and “Shut Down” while holding Option.

(Also: System Information is just an app, so you can launch it using Spotlight, LaunchBar, Alfred, Raycast, etc.)

★ Sunday, 17 December 2023