Adjust Tahoe Window Corner Radius

TidBITS Talk
1

Update: As @TBTdn mentioned below, Tinkertool has been updated to include the features described in this post. If you’d rather not mess around with the Terminal commands in this post, Tinkertool provides a reliable way to update these preferences using a GUI tool. Even very experienced command-line users may find Tinkertool to be a more convenient approach. Recommended.

One of the more criticized interface “features” of Tahoe has been the extensive rounding of window corners in the Finder and other applications. There also is the appearance of a floating sidebar in Finder windows. These effects have been reduced in Golden Gate, but not all the way back to the pre-Tahoe default.

I forget where I saw them first (Reddit, perhaps), but I’ve seen some Terminal commands recently that can set the rounding to pre-Tahoe levels for most windows and turn off the floating Finder sidebar, allowing better use of space and, for once, a “cleaner” look that really is cleaner.

For example, compare the windows on the left (Tahoe default) with the windows on the right (floating sidebar removed, Sequoia-style rounding):

windowscorners
windowscorners541×403 70.6 KB

It seems like a subtle difference on a static image, but if you have multiple windows open, it significantly reduces the amount of content that is available on the screen. That’s a bit odd, given the apparent Apple strategy of minimizing controls to emphasize content.

Here are the commands to enter into Terminal.app:

defaults write -g NSSplitViewItemSidebarDefaultsToFloatingAppearance -bool false

and

defaults write -g NSConvolutionOverride1 -float 10

After executing those commands, logout and log back in (or use the killall Finder command) to see the changes. On the second command, the “10” will bring back Sequioa’s rounding. Tahoe’s rounding level is “26”.

To go back to the Tahoe defaults, enter the following commands in a terminal window and logout/login again:

defaults delete -g NSSplitViewItemSidebarDefaultsToFloatingAppearance
defaults delete -g NSConvolutionOverride1

These commands work in the current Golden Gate betas, too.

13 Likes
2

My reference is Override window corner radius, disable floating sidebar (!!) | MacRumors Forums Also Want the bigger window corner radius back? Come inside | MacRumors Forums which includes examples of circular windows (for fun).

1 Like
3

It’s amazing such a (seemingly) trivial change, can make such a significant visual improvement.

3 Likes
4

Window corner adjustments are also available in an update to TinkerTool:

Release 11.7 (Build 260706)

  • Added new setting to change the degree of rounded corners in windows. The value can be set to match the defaults of previous generations of macOS. (Setting for macOS 26.4 or later only.)

  • Added new setting to disable the floating Liquid Glass effect for sidebars in windows.

  • Updated preliminary support for future versions of macOS.

3 Likes
5

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried it on GG beta 3 and it worked fine for most, but not all apps. Dialogue boxes still have more rounded corners, but I am willing to live with this. I set the radius to that of Sequoia.

6

Thanks for the news about Tinkertool! I almost wrote in my original post that this was the sort of thing that probably would eventually show up in tools like Tinkertool and Onyx.

1 Like