How To Change Background Of Mission Control And Dashboard In OS X Lion

by GadgetGizmodo

If you use OS X Lion, youâ€™re probably aware of Mission Control: a new feature that displays all your currently open windows, as well as Spaces. While this feature is functional, itâ€™s not at all customizable, but thanks to a few file edits, youâ€™ll be able to change Mission Controlâ€™s standard fabric background to something else more personal.

missioncontrol

These steps require nothing but a full copy of OS X Lion and some basic Finder skills. As you can tell from the steps below, youâ€™ll be up and running in a matter of minutes:

How To Change Background Of OS X Lion Mission Control:

Step 1: launch Finder and navigate over to System/Library/CoreServices and locate Dock.app.

Step 2: right-click that app and select "Show Package Contents". This will allow you to actually edit the files within the app.

Step 3: from within Dock.app, navigate over to Contents/Resources. Locate defaultdesktop.png and rename it to anything else you want.

Once weâ€™ve removed that fabric pattern, Mission Control should now display OS X Lionâ€™s standard desktop background: the Andromeda Galaxy many of us have stared at for hours. If you want to spice this up, you must replace this file as well. Donâ€™t worry, it wonâ€™t take long:

Step 4: leave Dock.app as it is and navigate over to /System/Library/CoreServices. Back up DefaultDesktop.jpg and replace it with the file youâ€™d like to set as the background for Mission Control.

Step 5: log out and log back in to see the changes! You can alternatively just launch the Terminal (Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app), type in killall Dock and press the Enter key. This will restart your dock.

How To Change Background Of OS X Lion Dashboard:

In previous versions of Mac OS X, the Dashboard would be displayed as a semitransparent layer over the standard desktop, but now in OS X Lion, the widgets have a background of their own. This, too, is so simple that an 8-year-old could do it:

Step 1: locate Dock.app in System/Library/CoreServices. Right-click on it and select "Show Package Contents".

Step 2: navigate over to /Contents/Resources and locate pirelli.png. Just back it up and change it to anything else youâ€™d like. If the file isnâ€™t large enough, it will be displayed as a pattern.

Step 3: as with the previous steps, youâ€™ll need to log out and log back in to see the changes youâ€™ve just made, or just perform the Terminal command we mentioned above.

Kill Dock