Choose one of the presets from the Region dropdown to change how the numbers on your computer are presented. You can also find these options at System Preferences > Language & Text > Region. Click the time in your menu bar and again choose Open Time & Date Preferences, but this time select Open Language & Text. Your clock doesn’t have to look like the OS X standard.
Change how the time is displayed in the menu bar. If you do keep the time where it is, you can choose whether to display the time with seconds, use a 24-hour clock, show AM/PM, and more. Remove the clock from your menu bar entirely by deselecting Show date and time in the menu bar. Click the time in your menu bar, choose Open Time & Date Preferences, and then select Clock. You have some limited control over how the clock appears in your menu bar.
Mac menu bar settings full#
If you’d like to keep the fast user switching menu active, use the dropdown to change how it is displayed, whether your full name, short name, or just the fast user switching icon is displayed.Ĭustomize How the Date and Time Are Displayed Edit or remove the Fast User Switching menu.ĭeselect the Show fast user switching menu option to remove it entirely from your menu bar. You’ll need to click the lock icon to access Login Options and authenticate with your password. Open up OS X’s Login Options in System Preferences (System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Options). You may want to change from the icon to your name or vice versa maybe you just want to remove the Fast User Switching menu altogether. That’s the Fast User Switching menu, and it allows you to switch among users without having to log in or out. There may be an icon that looks like a silhouette of a tiny person in your menu bar, or your name may be up there instead.
There are several changes you can make without any extra applications, but to make the most of your menu bar, you may want to look beyond what comes standard on your Mac.
Mac menu bar settings how to#
In this tutorial, we’ll go through the process of customizing and removing third-party and Mac OS X system menu bar icons, look at how to replace application and system menu bar icons with your own and try out a couple of third-party applications for managing your menu bar. Worse yet may be the OS X system icons, some of which you never use but can’t seem to remove without a herculean effort on your part. There may be icons up there for unidentified applications or icons you’d like to get rid of if you just knew how. The Mac OS X menu bar is a great tool for increasing your productivity, but left unchecked it just ends up a big mess.