I’m a fan of indie mac utilities, especially multipurpose ones that can solve a bunch of nagging small issues in one blow. Enter Supercharge, a new all-in-one utility from prolific Mac developer Sindre Sorhus. It provides a unique set of features that I haven’t seen before, including tweaks for Finder that make it work like the File Explorer on Windows, plus some nifty keyboard shortcut tools. It also does things that other utility apps have done before, but packaged in a nicely designed interface, so it’s worth checking out if alternatives like Almighty don’t quite have everything you need.
Making Finder easier for Windows migrants
We’ll get to the other cool stuff in a bit, but first I want to discuss the Finder tweaks, since they’re what make Supercharge stand out. The utility has a couple of features that mimic File Explorer on Windows, so if you’ve just switched to Mac, you’ll appreciate them. Even if you’re a lifelong Mac user, you might find a new and better way to use the Finder app here (let’s be honest, it could use an upgrade or two).
Windows has an established system for moving files—cut and paste. You cut a file, it gets greyed out in a folder, and when you paste it in a new location, it disappears from the original folder. The Mac has no such feature. There is a roundabout way of doing this, where you paste using the Option+Command+V keyboard shortcut. But that’s one more thing to remember.
If you like the flow of cut and paste, you can enable the feature from Supercharge Settings > Tweaks > Finder > Move Files with Cut and Paste. You can even play a sound effect when cutting. With the feature enabled, just use Command+X to cut, and paste with Command+V to move your file or folder to a new location.
From Supercharge’s Finder section, you can also enable a couple of other nifty tweaks.
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Move files to trash by simply pressing the Delete key instead of the Command+Delete combo (another treat for Windows users).
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Directly open a file by pressing the Return key, instead of renaming it (you can still rename using the Shift+Return keyboard shortcut).
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Create a new plain text file using Option+N. Great shortcut for developers and coders. You can create a file, and then use any extension at the end. For example, you can create a markdown file using a “.md” extension at the end.
Even more quality of life upgrades
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
Supercharge has a couple of other great tweaks that I would classify as quality of life upgrades—they make things simpler and easier. For example, there’s an option in the menu bar dropdown to quickly hide all windows aside from the one you’re working on. From the Tweaks section in Settings, you can also enable a hidden feature to only quit apps using the Shift+Command+Q keyboard shortcut instead of the regular Command+Q combo. If you keep pressing the Q button accidentally (it is next to the “W” key that’s used to minimize windows), this can be a really useful feature for you.
Lastly, take a look at Supercharge’s Shortcuts section. You can assign keyboard shortcuts to quickly toggle dark mode, grayscale mode, open the Finder, or hide all windows. My favorite option here though is the fact that you can map a keyboard shortcut to exclusively open the Passwords menu bar utility. With the latest macOS Sequoia update, the Passwords app is a great contender for a default password manager, and I’m personally a big fan of its hidden menu bar utility. To open it with just a keyboard shortcut makes it even more convenient. That said, Supercharge is no replacement for a dedicated keyboard shortcuts mapping tool like Keyboard Maestro.
Supercharge is available directly from the developer’s website for $8, and you can purchase it via Gumroad. The app offers purchase parity, so if you’re from a country that has a lower purchasing power, the price will be matched automatically (for example, the app costs $4 in India), which is quite nice.
