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RumorzGuy

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 17, 2008
264
82
Guam, Mariana Islands, U.S.A.
As I mentioned in the macOS Sierra section, after encountering a number of different problems with using Sierra on my unsupported iMac, yesterday I dropped back down to El Capitan, where I will remain until this old machine kicks the bucket.

There is one thing which I would like to change/control in the Dock, which Apple apparently has made very difficult -- if not impossible -- to do; that is, change the color of the indicator light, or status light, of running apps.

There used to be a number of apps and hacks which made this possible in earlier versions of Mac OS X, and there are still a few that do -- such as cDock -- which I uninstalled just yesterday, along with a few other apps. On the positive side, my system is now running a lot snappier and noticeably faster since I removed those apps, because they hook into the OS and slow it down some.

It also used to be possible in earlier versions of Mac OS X to change the color of the indicator light by altering certain PNG images in /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources. These PNGs included the word "indicator" in their file name.

However, these files no longer exist in El Capitan and forward. I am not sure in which OS version they were actually removed.

I just spent a few hours scouring the web looking for something that would work in El Capitan, including apps, haxies and Terminal tricks. I found nothing that works in El Capitan.

Next, I started altering quite a few PNGs in El Capitan's Dock.app, but again, it was to no avail. I don't know if it is because of SIP or what.

I am beginning to doubt that the indicator light is even an image file. I suspect that it may possibly be actual code that is embedded somewhere else.

Anyway, that is all that I want to do; that is, be able to change the color of the indicator light, or app status light, or whatever it is called. I don't want to change the Dock in any other way. That's it.

If any developers here have discovered how to do this via the Terminal or any other way, without using a third party app, please let me know.

As I said, I plan on staying on El Capitan until this almost eight-year-old iMac bites the dust, so there is no chance -- at least I hope not -- of the change being undone.

Thanks in advance to whatever brainiac can figure this out for me. :)
 
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