1Setter
One-click system settings for macOS
85 followers
One-click system settings for macOS
85 followers
1Setter is a lightweight macOS menu bar app that lets you control system settings with a single click. Quickly toggle features like hidden files, Dock behavior, and other system options—without opening System Settings.
@new_user___10320247bff8eb04cea94c1 Really like the idea, simple pricing and setup. Just noted that there is a limitation to show at least 4 shortcuts. Any particular reason why?
@matt_rewo
Thanks, glad you like it!
The minimum of 4 shortcuts is mainly a practical UI safeguard rather than a hard product limitation. Since 1Setter supports grouped shortcuts, a group can expand into multiple menu items. When the top-level menu becomes too short, expanding a group can lead to awkward layout or display behavior in the macOS menu system.
Keeping a small minimum at the top level helps ensure grouped items expand consistently and stay readable. I’m keeping an eye on this and exploring ways to relax the constraint without compromising menu stability.
Menu-bar toggles are deceptively hard at scale because macOS settings are a mix of defaults write, privileged services, and OS-version-specific keys that can silently change across updates.
Best practice is to route each toggle through a versioned “capability” layer (per macOS build), prefer official APIs where possible, and add a verify step that reads back the effective state after applying to avoid false UI states.
Which toggles rely on direct defaults/launchctl calls versus system frameworks, and how are you handling permissions plus compatibility across Sonoma/Sequoia so a toggle can’t brick a user’s setup?
@ryan_thill
Great points — macOS settings are definitely a moving target, especially across OS releases.
In 1Setter I try to stay conservative by design. Toggles are grouped by capability rather than treated as simple key-value switches, and where Apple provides a stable framework or API, I prefer that over raw defaults writes.
For settings that still rely on underlying defaults or system services, each toggle includes a verification step that reads back the effective state, so the UI can’t drift from what the system actually applied. Anything that requires elevated privileges is handled explicitly, and I avoid touching settings that could leave the system in an inconsistent state.
Compatibility is tested per major macOS version (including Sonoma and Sequoia), and unsupported or changed behaviors are intentionally disabled rather than “best-guessed.” The goal is that a toggle failing safely is always better than a toggle half-working.
Really appreciate you calling this out — it’s exactly the kind of edge case thinking that shaped the app.
@new_user___10320247bff8eb04cea94c1 Curious what your compatibility strategy looks like under the hood: do you maintain a per-version capability matrix (feature flags) plus an automated harness that validates each toggle in CI on real/macOS VMs? Also, for the verification step, are you reading the effective state via the owning framework when available vs just checking the defaults domain?
As a tool that resides permanently in the menu bar, smooth wake-up and operation are the top user experience priorities. In practical use, is the entire process from clicking the icon to finding and triggering the target toggle quick and intuitive?
The mention of common options like hidden files and the Dock in the description is highly useful for power users. Does it cover a sufficiently wide range of system settings to truly replace most scenarios that would otherwise require opening System Settings?
As a tool deeply integrated with system settings, how compatible is it with different macOS versions (especially the latest ones)? When toggling settings frequently, do you occasionally encounter issues like the need for re-authorization or operational lag?
Tools of this kind often bring a strong sense of novelty initially. As time goes by, do you think it has truly integrated into your daily workflow and become an indispensable efficiency staple that’s hard to uninstall, or just a supplementary tool you only use occasionally?