So, have you tried Apple's new Safari 4 (Beta) web browser yet? If you haven't, I suggest you go right now and download it...don't worry, it works on a PC as well as a Mac. Go on, I'll still be here when you get back. :-)

Welcome back! So what do you think of Safari 4? Pretty slick isn't it? Even though I've been a FireFox fanatic for (that's a lot of F-words) a number of years now, I've been using this new Safari 4 browser quite a bit since downloading it about a week ago. There's just something about it that screams elegance and sophistication. Maybe it's the beautiful Mac OS X-style "welcome" animation that greets you on Safari 4's initial start-up. Or, maybe it's the Top Sites feature that displays previews of your most visited websites in a sleek curved wall of graphic delight. Whatever it is...I like it!

Of course, like any product (especially a Beta), not everything about Safari 4 is all unicorns and rainbows. There are things about it, such as having the tabs at the very top of the window instead of their normal place just above the web page, that leaves me scratching my head in wonder. But, where ever there are bugs and annoyances, there are opportunities to do a little hacking! ;-)

So, how can we hack Safari 4? Well, the fine folks over at TG Daily have come up with a list of 10 hacks and tweaks to help fix some of those little annoyances you may have had with Safari 4. Their list of Safari 4 hacks are as follows:

(NOTE: The text below should all be input on one line, it is divided into two lines for display purposes only)

1. TABS IN PLACE - Moves the tabs bar from top of the window to its regular position.
OS X
Write the following in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4TabBarIsOnTop -bool NO

Windows
Change the value of the DebugSafari4TabBarIsOnTop item in the com.apple.Safari.plist file to false. If this item is missing, add the following right after the line:

DebugSafari4TabBarIsOnTop

2. BLUE LOADING BAR (OS X ONLY) - Restores the blue loading bar behind the URL in the address field. This trick works only in OS X Safari version.
OS X
Write the following in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.Safari
DebugSafari4IncludeToolbarRedesign -bool NO

Windows:
Change the value of the DebugSafari4IncludeToolbarRedesign item in the com.apple.Safari.plist file to false. If this item is missing, add the following right after the line:

DebugSafari4IncludeToolbarRedesign

3. SPINNER IN TAB - Moves a page loading spinner indicator from the address field to a tab. This is useful for quickly glancing if a page has loaded when you have multiple tabs opened.
OS X
Write the following in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.Safari
DebugSafari4LoadProgressStyle -bool NO

Windows:
Change the value of the DebugSafari4LoadProgressStyle item in the com.apple.Safari.plist file to false. If this item is missing, add the following right after the line:

DebugSafari4LoadProgressStyle

4. OLD-SCHOOL URL AUTOCOMPLETE - Reverts to the original design of the URL autocompletion menu.
OS X
Write the following in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.Safari
DebugSafari4IncludeFancyURLCompletionList -bool NO

Windows:
Change the value of the DebugSafari4IncludeFancyURLCompletionList item in the com.apple.Safari.plist file to false. If this item is missing, add the following right after the line:

DebugSafari4IncludeFancyURLCompletionList

5. KILL GOOGLE SUGGEST - Turns off Google Suggest search suggestions for queries typed in the search field.
OS X
Write the following in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.Safari
DebugSafari4IncludeGoogleSuggest -bool NO

Windows:
Change the value of the DebugSafari4IncludeGoogleSuggest item in the com.apple.Safari.plist file to false. If this item is missing, add the following right after the line:

DebugSafari4IncludeGoogleSuggest

TURN OFF GOOGLE'S SEARCH SUGGESTIONS
When you start typing into Safari's search field, it will display a list of the matches from your bookmarks and history and suggestions obtained online from the Google Suggest service. If you want, you can turn Google suggestions from appearing in this list.

6. KILL COVER FLOW IN BOOKMARKS - Removes the Cover Flow feature from the Bookmarks view entirely.
OS X
Write the following in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.Safari
DebugSafari4IncludeFlowViewInBookmarksView -bool NO

Windows:
Change the value of the DebugSafari4IncludeFlowViewInBookmarksView item in the com.apple.Safari.plist file to false. If this item is missing, add the following right after the line:

DebugSafari4IncludeFlowViewIn- BookmarksView

7. KILL TOP SITES - Removes the Top Sites feature from the browser entirely. Disabling it also removes Top Sites choice from the drop-down list in the General section of Safari preferences that enables you to choose what should open when you create a new tab ("New tabs open with..." option).
OS X
Write the following in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.Safari
DebugSafari4IncludeTopSites -bool NO

Windows:
Change the value of the DebugSafari4IncludeTopSites item in the com.apple.Safari.plist file to false. If this item is missing, add the following right after the line:

DebugSafari4IncludeTopSites

8. NO PAGE DIMMING - Removes dimming effect when you click on a page in the Top Sites section. When clicked, a page thumbnail zooms into place and normally remains dimmed until Safari refreshes page content. This hack simply removes page dimming.
OS X
Write the following in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.Safari
DebugSafari4TopSitesZoomToPageAnimation- DimsSnapshot -bool NO

Windows:
Change the value of the DebugSafari4TopSitesZoomToPageAnimationDimsSnapshot item in the com.apple.Safari.plist file to false. If this item is missing, add the following right after the line:

DebugSafari4TopSitesZoomToPageAnimation- DimsSnapshot

(hyphen in the -string denotes continuation, remove and input on a single line)

9. CLEAR RECENT SEARCHES - Starts anew a list of recent searches that appear when you start typing into Safari's search field. Keep in mind that this hack simply clears a list while searches still remain locally stored on your computer and can be accessed in your browsing history. All searches that you do from this point on will re-create Safari's list and will consequentially appear in the Recent Searches section of the search field.
OS X
Write the following in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.Safari
DebugSafari4IncludeTopSites -bool NO

Windows:
Change the value of the DebugSafari4IncludeTopSites item in the com.apple.Safari.plist file to false. If this item is missing, add the following right after the line:

DebugSafari4IncludeTopSites

10. DISPLAY PAGES FASTER - A preset time delay prevents Safari's WebKit engine from immediately throwing a page on screen in order to give some time for scripts, images and page code to arrive over the network and catch up with the rendering engine. You can reduce this treshold to slightly improve page display, which helps the perception of page loading times.
OS X
Write the following in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.Safari
WebKitInitialTimedLayoutDelay -real 0.25

Windows:
Use the plist Editor to add the following two lines to the Defaults.plist file found in C:\Program Files\Safari\Safari.resources folder:

WebKitInitialTimedLayoutDelay
0.25

CLEAR RECENT SEARCHES

While you can always delete past searches from the browsing history saved locally on your computer, this hack allows you to clear recent search entries that automatically populate the search field when you start typing, while keeping corresponding search items in you browsing history intact.

Enjoy...and please hack responsibly! ;-)

Via TG Daily

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