Change the iTunes 10 Window Buttons

The new ‘traffic light’ style window buttons on iTunes 10 are completely out of context to all my other applications. After having success changing the icon I decided to find out if it was possible to change the buttons. Much to my delight – it is! Unfortunately the site I found out how to do it on is “under temporary maintenance” so I don’t have a link but I can tell you how to do it:

• Close down iTunes if you have it open
• Open up ‘Terminal’
• Type or paste the following text on the Terminal screen:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes full-window -boolean YES

• Click return and quit Terminal
• Launch iTunes

You should now have lovely aesthetically pleasing horizontal buttons. The buttons will remain horizontal even when you update your iTunes software. If you do decide however that you want the vertical buttons back then type the following text into terminal:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes full-window -boolean NO

Also, I had never heard of Terminal this before I did this but just search for it on your mac and don’t be scared of it. The icon looks like a blackboard.

Replacing your iTunes 10 Icons

My initial dislike for the new iTunes icon led me to discovering this tutorial from OSXDaily. It allows you t to have the new iTunes 10 BUT with the old iTunes 9 icon on your desktop. Just follow these steps:

• Click into your Applications folder and select iTunes
• Right click on the icon and select ‘Show Package Contents’
• Open the ‘Contents’ folder, then open the ‘Resources’ folder
• Find file called ‘iTunes.icns’ and make a copy of it on your desktop for backup purpose
• Replace it with the  old iTunes.icns file
• Start or restart iTunes

You can delete the back up image file once your finished and everything is working alright. Unfortunately you will need to do this every you update your iTunes software. This was the reason I eventually forced myself to accept the new impostor!