How do I change dock design in Mountain Lion?

Hello

What did you use to change your previous Dock design?

Before Mountain Lion, I have always use CandyBar to customise my icons and Dock design. After I upgraded to Mountain Lion, "shockingly" discover that CandyBar still able to change the icons but not the Dock. I am stuck with the Mountain Lion's Dock.

I think it has something to do with a new UI. If you downloaded something into the Download folder, or any folder you designate and put in the Dock, there is a tiny scroll bar below it when downloading is going on, very much like when you buy and install an app from the Mac App Store, there will be a tiny blue progress bar below Lanchpad icon.

Cheers

Hi bioeric73,

Thanks to Apple's "dictator" type control over how a user has to work on his Mac computer, as well how a user is supposed to think according to them, desktop customization has been restricted if not entirely removed. I'm not the only one who's dissatisfied with this move, just google for it. I've been trying to customize the 3D dock ever since I upgraded, but to no avail. The only thing you can do is either downgrade to OS X Lion, which I'm doing as I'm typing this, or enable the 2D dock in OS X Mountain Lion.

I'm pretty sure if I post the terminal commands here, Apple's forum moderaters will delete my post (the Think Different days are over). So simply google for "enable 2D dock in OS X" and follow the onscreen instuctions. if the terminal thing is too diffuclut for you, you can also go to macupdate.com and download the application called Docker.

I know for many of you, desktop customization is not important and a trivial thing. Not worth abounding a smooth & fast running operating system. Well, for me it is. Because individuality both in my private life and desktop has always been important to me. I never liked the default icons of Mac OS X, or the dock. And I was perfectly happy with being able to customize them to the look and feel that I appreciate. Now with the latest relase of OS X Mountain Lion, this ability has been completely removed and one is forced to use the default desktop appearance. Like many of you, I am not a big Windows fan, but I have to credit them for being so cordial to allow their users to change the color of their Windows menubar (the equivalent of the dock in Mac OS X).

This is just one of the many things I dislike about Mountain Lion/Apple's iron grip/limitation of the Pro user & customization of OS X and I'm certain I am not the only one.

If this doesn't change in the near future, then I will be forced to either stay on Lion until my Imac gives in, or simply look for other alternitaves to Apple, like Linux or even switching to Windows! Over 16 years of patronage down the drain, not that Apple cares!

I hope this helps!

Best regards,

Stuart

Dude, chill out.....Mountain Lion just came out and I am sure that there will be a solution to this item. Even Microsoft limits you to being able to change the task bar to colors that they choose, hmmm. If you want total control you have to install a third party app.

With that said, CandyBar is an application that worked well in Lion for changing icons and the dock. It is reported to be updated for Mountain Lion. I have had luck changing icons but not the dock. CandyBar is now a free application and no longer supported by the original developer but is going to be revamped by another one.

Give it some time and I am sure a solution will develop from the many talented developers out there.

P.S. - I'll take a stable Mountain Lion install over bloated Windows or complicated Linux any day of the week.

Dear cgn1026,

"Dude", I'm chilled out..just stating my opinion".

I admire you optimism, however it shows me that you're not a professional user. As programmer and someone who has been in the business long enough, I wouldn't consider Linux complicated. Linux is heading into the right direction. They adapted the business model of their Unix family member OS X (Linux is Unix-Like). Mac OS X is based upon the Mach kernel, certain parts from FreeBSD's (Open-Source) and Part of and NetBSD's implementation of Unix were incorporated in NeXTSTEP, the core of Mac OS X. So technically speaking OS X is as complicated as FreeBSD & Linux, the only difference is that Apple has developed it to be an "everyday user" friendly OS. Under the hood, for pro user's like me it's the same powerful OS that we need, to do our daily tasks and I'm not talking about syncing our iOS devices .

Linux has gotten the message and Ubuntu is a good example, they are working towards a user friendly Unix-Like environment. Indeed, it is not perfect, one shouldn't forget though that it is open-source, meaning it doesn't cost anything and highly customizable both in use & desktop appearance. Imagine what they could do, if they had the means of a company like Apple.

I totally agree with you when it comes to Windows, I am not a big fan, but at least their users get a few colors to choose from.

Now regarding the dock, the new OS X dock is rendered by your graphics card's GPU, in order to apply a custom dock, one would have to develop an application which disables dock rendering by the graphics card, but this will most-likely interfere with your desktop experience, since dashboard (and a few other functions in the new OS) depend(s) on the new rendering process. Both the dock and dashboard have been rewritten from ground up. Even if one dares to develop an app to address this problem, it wouldn't be just a tremendous amount of work, but also a certain violation of Apple's software agreement.

CandyBar does not modify your system, it only replaces icons and images, thus in compliance with Apple's software agreement. The app that we would need in order to change the dock in OS X Mountain Lion, is not replacing icons/images but rather modifying the system itself.

Thanks for your input, it's much appreciated! And I'm happy for you that the new OS is to your liking.

Have a nice day,

Stu

You could also try Superdocker:

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/27054/superdocker/

That has been discontinued also, but Docker is still available as Stu pointed out. I did download Docker and was able to switch to a 2D dock and change colors. The 3D dock is still not accessible though.

Hey guys, so have you found any way to change the dock in Mountain Lion?? I just updated today from Lion and it's quite disappointing to have this light gray dock instead of the custom-made shiny-black dock I had on Lion!!

In OS X Mountain Lion Apple changed how the Dock is rendered, so it's no longer possible to customize the Dock's look. If you can't live without a custom Dock like me, you'll have to downgrade to OS X Lion!

If you are not happy about not being able to customize your dock, send them some feedback and let them know (that's what I did):

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

I too dislike the new frosted Dock in ML. I changed mine to sleek translucent black, complete with round indicator lights, with this simple Terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -bool yes;killall Dock

Good luck.

Thanks.

i found this link anyone willing to try and let me know if it works before i upgrade to ML ?!?

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1409195

p.s.

i'd like to upgrade to ML 'cause i found out they brought back Exposèe alternatively to mission control (wich i find useless and slows me down a lot other than not showing many windows i need e.g. : EQs and Plug ins windows in logic, dialog boxes).

they also seem to have fixed the full screen mode if you're using a second monitor (on lion it would only work on the primary monitor)

tnx

i'd like to upgrade to ML 'cause i found out they brought back Exposèe alternatively to mission control

Exposé has always been there along with Mission Control. The only thing that has changed is you have the option to not stack your application windows.

AFAIK, the Lion Dock will work in ML. If so, put a copy of it in /System/Library/CoreServices/ after saving the current version, restart, and see if that works. If not, restore the saved version and use one of these other options.

Hi Stuart,

I am just discovering this new rendering dock. I tried changing the dock by the usual replacing scurve.png etc etc

But it didn't work, so I put them back and now it doesn't show the s-curve reflection over the top of th ebasic rendering. Is there any way (other than clean install) to repair this?