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News

How to Customize the Control Strip

Monday, December 21, 2020

Back in 2016 Apple introduced us to the “Touch Bar”. This is a thin LED display that sits above the keyboard on most MacBook Pro model laptops that have been sold since then. The Touch Bar is designed to give you shortcuts, and quick actions that are contextual based on what program or app you are in. If you don’t like the default options though, you can add and remove buttons to customize the Touch Bar to your own preferences. 

If you’d like to customize the Touch Bar from the default set of buttons, you can do so using system preferences. Here’s how. 

  1. In the upper left corner of your Mac, click the Apple logo. 
  2. In the drop-down menu select “System Preferences”. 
  3. In System Preferences select “Keyboard”.
  4. In the lower right corner of the “Keyboard” preferences, click “Customize Control Strip”.

What you’ll see next is a screen that allows you to drag and drop individual controls onto, or off of your Touch Bar’s control strip. If you ever find yourself accidentally triggering an unwanted function of your Mac (Siri is notorious for being hit accidentally!) by touching it’s icon, you can relocate it to another position on the Touch Bar, or remove it entirely. You can use the “Space” option to put some padding in between the different buttons on the control strip. 

This is a great way to make your Mac your own, and to get rid of pesky actions that are being launched by accident.