MacOS on Michael ODoherty.tech

macOS background activity

Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In macOS I have known how to remove Background Activity Apps by deleting their .plist files from the following directories in the System Library folder and hidden User Library folder:

/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons
~/Library/LaunchAgents

What I did not know, is that you can run a simple command that will reset all background items. And as a side effect it will also reset all login items.

sfltool resetbtm

With sfl standing for SharedFileList.

Windows Lock Screen

Thu, 07 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

When using macOS Screen Sharing, you cannot easily lock the screen of a remote Windows computer.

The keyboard shortcuts do not seem to come through, like ‘Windows L’ or ‘ctrl, alt, del’.

The workaround is running this command from the Command Prompt.

Rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation

https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/mac-help/mh14066/mac

https://www.revouninstaller.com/blog/5-ways-to-lock-your-windows-pc/

macOS GateKeeper --[no-]quarantine disabled

Sat, 15 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I was trying to update my LibreWolf browswer via Homebrew, which I was already well aware required a brew “–no-quaratine” switch to bypass macOS Gatekeeper, when I ran into this commandline response:

updating librewolf Calling the `--[no-]quarantine` switch is disabled! There is no replacement.

After some DDGing I found similar Homebrew issues on Github, and a news article about it:

Removing support for –no-quarantine for casks https://github.com/Homebrew/brew/issues/20755

The alternative is now running this command after installing via Homebrew: