If you’re using Mac OS X 10.4 or higher and experience system freezes or stalls when accessing files on Windows-based servers, you may need to stop your computer from saving hidden .ds_store files on the server.

For more information on this issue, see Apple’s support page at http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1629

Here’s how to do it:

You can stop your Mac from saving the hidden files with some command line magic, but it’s much easier to use Marcel Bresink’s free TinkerTool utility  instead. In addition to disabling .ds_store files on servers, it can also control other hidden settings such as:

• Enable and disable login items
• Change the default format of screenshots
• Deactivate Dashboard
• Reveal invisible files
• Add an Eject button to the menu bar for optical discs
• Assign keyboard shortcuts to menu items
• Display double-arrows at both ends of every window’s scroll bars
• Change system fonts
• Enhance your control over font smoothing
• Block changes to the Dock
• Disable the Finder’s Shutdown option
• and much more…

TinkerTool can also enable hidden features in Apple applications such as iTunes and Safari.

Thankfully, TinkerTool it also has a “reset” button to reset all features to their default Mac OS X state.

Jeff Gamet

Jeff Gamet is a contributing editor for Design Tools Monthly, the executive summary of graphic design news. He is also the morning editor and reviews editor for The Mac Observer and iPodObserver.com, and contributing writer for Layers Magazine and Photoshop User. He writes the InBrief column for InDesign Magazine, and is the author of “The Designer’s Guide to Mac OS X,” from Peachpit Press

When Jeff isn’t writing about the graphic design world, he’s talking about it on the Design Tools Weekly podcast with co-host Jay Nelson. He also talks about Apple and the Mac world every week on The Mac Observer’s Apple Weekly Report.

Jeff studies, tests and reviews new software and technologies for the Macintosh community as well as the design and print industries. He is a former Pre-press specialist, and has nearly 25 years experience with computer technology. Jeff trains, lectures and consults on techniques for more efficiently using Mac OS X in creative environments throughout the country.

In the rare moments when he can get away from his MacBook Pro, Jeff spends his time climbing and biking in the Colorado mountains.