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Nice tip to unhide your Mac's Library folder even after a system update

One of Apple's "big brother" features introduced in Mac OS X Lion 10.7 (now called plain ol' OS X Lion) is the hiding of the user's Library folder. While this may be a fine precaution for inexperienced users, it's a bother for Mac pros. A recent Login Script can fix this so-called feature.
Written by David Morgenstern, Contributor

One of Apple's "big brother" features introduced in Mac OS X Lion 10.7 (now called plain ol' OS X Lion) is the hiding of the user's Library folder. While this may be a fine precaution for inexperienced users, it's a bother for Mac pros. A recent Login Script can fix this so-called feature.

The User Library isn't gone, it's just hiding. You can reveal it by holding down the Option key while clicking on the Go Menu. Still, it's a bother to remember.

Daniel Jalkut, the founder of Red Sweater Software points out on his blog that even if you tweak the folder pref and make it visible, each time the system is updated, the folder disappears again. Jalkut solved this by hacking his configuration script in the Terminal.

I solved this very early on for my own needs by adding the command-line instructions for re-showing the Library folder to my Terminal configuration script. Every time I open a new Terminal window, the Library folder is aggressively set to visible again. In practice, this has meant that since 10.7 shipped, I’ve never been bothered once by Apple’s disappearing act.

For the rest of us, Jalkut offers a Script Login item that will do the fix. He offers detailed instructions (super easy) to apply it. Login items are found in the Users & Groups preference.

The script file is just a few lines of AppleScript code to invoke the appropriate shell script.

Nice.

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