Hey guys. So this is the new MacBook Air M2 in the glorious midnight blue with that boxier slim design. So I’m going to show you the first ten things that you’ve got to do to transfer from your MacBook into your own and give it a unique style. Let’s go.
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MacBook Air M2 Setup
So the very first thing to do with MacBook Air M2 goes through setting up and one of the things I like to do and highly suggest is you put in your fingerprint the exact same one three times. That way whenever you log into your MacBook Air M2 or approve something using your fingerprints, it is so quick and works every single time.
Straight after that, my next favorite thing to do on my MacBook Air M2 is set up my emoji. And most people have no idea about this, but once you’ve selected your emoji pose and style, all that jazz, it actually comes to life on your lock screen and it reacts to all your different wrong passwords or wrong fingerprints. So now whenever I’m on the lock screen, my emoji reacts to my actions with a ton of different animations and the animations are just so damn cool on MacBook Air M2.
MacBook Air M2 Theme
The next thing I love to do on my MacBook Air M2 is set up my theme. And ages ago I found this app called wallpaper. You can get it on the app store and it is absolutely amazing because it is filled with a bunch of live wallpapers. It is completely free but I opted for the paid version just to get rid of the watermark. And this is what their live wallpapers look like.
There are so many different ones to choose from. So this is the one I went for after going through like a gazillion. But if you want, I have also gone and created a couple of these different wallpapers for you guys to download. Now that I’ve chosen the wallpaper, I like to see it even more. By changing the color of the menu bar on Google you can just download this app called Menu Bar Tint.
It is completely free, it takes 2 seconds to install, and then you can start color-picking the menu bar colors straight from your wallpaper. You can choose to go for a solid color like I did or you can even choose a gradient. So there are a couple of different options. Then you can adjust the transparency and also decide if you want this mouse-over effect. So cool.
Then in System Preferences under general, I like to decide whether the light or dark theme is going to suit better. In this case, it is the dark one. But next up, more importantly, the accent color. This will be the main color of all the icons, highlights, and other system settings that as you can see, instantly change depending on what you choose. So in my case, it’s purple.
Then one more hidden Gem in System Preferences and accessibility. Then display you’ll see the pointer and here is where you can customize your pointer. So the little mouse cursor is all over the screen. You can use the color picker once again to choose colors from your wallpaper, enlarge the size and check it out.
You have a super custom pointer that matches your entire aesthetic. But there is still a lot more we can do, especially with apps and widgets.
MacBook Air M2 Apps And Widgets
So the third thing to do on MacBook Air M2 is open up the App Store and download some widgets. Now, a personal favorite of mine is the desktop flip clock. Here’s what it looks like and once it’s installed, there are so many different customization settings you can run through.
It is also a free app, but the paid version does just get you more customization options. So the choice is completely yours. But once you’re done customizing your clock, you can just place it anywhere on the desktop then just toggle on full-screen mode and the clock will stay there. As you can see, there are so many different options based on your theme, aesthetic, and colors. The next widget to add to your desktop is Silico MiniPlayer.
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This is a mini music player that sits on your desktop and for setup, all you need to do is select your music streaming app or keep it on automatic and then you can just head on over to preferences, customize a bunch of different settings as well as the appearance, there are three different styles to choose from.
So depending on the album, artwork, and desktop look you’re going for, there are a ton of different options and once you’re done, you can control your music. Love it. Then the Flow app is a great timer widget to have that I love. Once you start the timer, it’ll actually show up in the menu bar and when the timer is up, it will give you a notification.
So the Apple notch is now also a part of the Aerm to design. But if you’re not a fan of it, then you can get this top-notch app. All it does is just blends that menu color to the notch and just like that makes it vanish.
MacBook Air M2 Folders
So I bet some of you guys didn’t know that you can change the color of your folders in MacBook Air M2. Okay, so it’s actually really simple. All you need to do is right-click on any folder, tap Get Info, and now what you can do is a drag on any JPEG, PNG, or TIFF image, like this pink folder icon that I had and it will automatically change. And to make it easier for you guys, I’ve made a bunch of different folder icons that you can use to play around with your desktop aesthetics.
The next thing to do on MacBook Air M2 is set up quick links so you can highlight any URL, drag it onto your desktop, then once again just right-click on it, tap Get Info and now you can drag on any icon. So I went with the YouTube icon of course, but once that’s done, you can just drag that link to anywhere on your desktop. And when you tap on it, it’ll open things up in seconds. All right, now that that’s all done, the next thing I like to do is set up the actual size of my desktop.
MacBook Air M2 Desktop
So, number five setting up a desktop on MacBook Air M2. If you right-click and tap on Show View Options. These settings, although small, make a huge difference to your desktop setup. So you can change the icon size. I like mine fairly big. And then the Grid spacing is kind of small.
Then for tick size, I also preferred bigger. I just like to see things easily on my desktop. And in case you didn’t know, you can also change the text to the right-hand side or bottom position of each folder. Finally, I like to keep things very organized on the desktop, so I just sort it by date created snapping to a grid is also a great way to keep things organized. Then I make space for something else.
MacBook Air M2 Dock
Now, on a fresh MacBook Air M2, the dock comes filled with a bunch of unnecessary apps. So I like to get specific to mine and do this. Start off by removing every single app I do not use on a regular basis. And there’s a lot. This, to me, is a must.
It is so necessary and knees up the dock beautifully. Then I like to add back only essential apps that I use literally every day, like WhatsApp, Final Cut, Spotify, and Google Chrome. Then I like to rearrange them in order of use from my most used app to my least used. Then we can start playing with the design by right-clicking on the dock and tapping Dock Preferences. So once again, I adjust the scale to a medium-big size.
You can actually choose to position it on the left, right, or bottom. But I’ve always loved it at the bottom. Then I enable Magnification and I hide the dock. I do not like it showing because again, it just keeps things looking neat and tidy. And then I go into selecting the window effect.
I personally like the Genie effect, but if you come from a Windows computer, you’ll probably prefer the scale effect.
MacBook Air M2 Toolbar
So now that the desktop is complete and looking so good, the next thing to do is customize the Finder toolbar. So to do that, you just click on Finder, then right-click on the top toolbar and select the customize options. You will not believe what a vast difference customizing this toolbar makes. So again, the first thing I do is just remove all the tools I do not use. Then I add back the most useful ones, like the new folder, Trashcan, and AirDrop.
Like seriously, this will change your life. If you right-click on the toolbar, you do also have the option to choose just text or to have the icons and text.
MacBook Air M2 Finder Preferences
But there are also a few more important and hidden settings inside Finder so number eight is setting up Finder Preferences. Again, these are pretty simple settings but make such a huge difference with workflow.
So I like to add in the Macintosh HD and when I open a new Finder window I want it to open up to my Hales World folder. So now every time I tap on Finder there you go. Then for the sidebar, I also clean things up a bit and the only thing I do is remove movies, music, and pictures. I just don’t seem to use these but then I do drag in any important folders into my sidebar that I need access to all the time.
MacBook Air M2 Keyboard And Trackpad
Another really handy thing I like to do is set up a quick key to Emojis. So in the keyboard settings, if you change this little input source to Emojis and symbols every time you now tap the Globe function key, it will automatically open up your Emoji panel and then you can just quickly select one. I mean come on, that is just so nifty.
Then every time I get a new computer under Trackpad Settings, I have got to do this and it is changing the scroll direction to unnatural, I guess. But basically, I like the screen to scroll down When I scroll. I also make sure all these gestures are enabled because they are surprisingly useful and you definitely get used to them over time. So setting up your trackpad is a definite must.
MacBook Air M2 Battery
Lastly, number ten, and most importantly to optimize the battery and get the best and longest performance in System Preferences, I go to Battery and make sure all of these are toggled on. These will make a huge difference to your battery in the long run. And another thing I do is show the battery status in the menu bar. I highly suggest you do this as well and in the dock and menu bar settings, you can go to Battery and toggle on show percentage.
So those are my first ten things to do to get the absolute most out of your MacBook and create the best workflow, setup, customization, and aesthetic that you’ll absolutely love. So now that all of that is done, this is how my setup turned out and I freaking love it. But how did yours turn out?
