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A detailed look at replacing the Finder with Path Finder
Authored by: frautschi on Jul 13, '05 02:37:09PM

in 10.4 the .plist files are in binary instead of ascii... but apple provides a conversion tool: plutil.
to convert a file, you run it like this from the command line while in the ~/Library/Preferences folder:

plutil -convert xml1 com.apple.loginwindow.plist

Then you can edit with a text editor. I believe OS X can read the xml formatted version as well, but to convert back simply type:

plutil -convert binary1 com.apple.loginwindow.plist

Another thing: 10.4 does not automatically create this file. I had to copy another and remove all the existing properties. (I'm not sure if it creates it automatically using the "defaults write..." command or not - i think it does).

One final side note: you can start up OS X using a UNIX script file too by adding the .command extension to the script and placing its path under the Finder key as outlined (that's what I am doing).



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