10.5: Partially tame Time Machine's warping background

Nov 08, '07 04:30:08PM

Contributed by: robg

I really believe Time Machine is a wonderful technology (even if it's got a few rough spots in its version 1.0 release). However, while I like the direction Apple took with the flying back through time interface metaphor, I think they really went too far: I cannot stand looking at the twirling galaxy and streaming stars when I'm trying to find a file to restore. So I started digging, and found most of the culprits in the Finder's bundle -- /System » Library » CoreServices » Finder. Control-click on the Finder, choose Show Package Contents from the pop-up menu, and then navigate into Contents » Resources.

As I looked through the folder, I found the following suspect files:

Given that I was doing this on my test rig, I was quite brutal with it: I moved all of the above files out of the Resources folder, then restarted the machine. (There's one additional file, vortex.png, which is the actual background image. I left it in place, hoping to just get rid of the twirling and flying stars.)

As you can see from the image at right, though, I was only partially successful. The flying stars are (mostly) gone, but the background is now all white. So I'm running this hint as a partial-hint -- if you really hate the warping effect, then getting rid of those files will do the trick. Just be warned that the results aren't pretty (and you're removing portions of the Finder, which is a very bad thing to do. A much safer alternative would be to replace these files with empty replacements of the same names). If you're going to use this hint, I suggest a good backup (sense the irony there?) before you start.

Perhaps someone can use this very rough start as the background to a better "no warping" solution for the Time Machine interface.

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