Filed under: How-tos, Productivity, Tips and tricks, Mac 101
Mac 101: How to manually enable menu extras
For some reason, I tend to come across times when my optical drive doesn't want to eject the CD or DVD that's in it. I found myself having to restart the computer and try again... in more serious instances, I have to restart and force-eject the disc by holding down the mouse button during the boot process.
At some point I thought to myself, "There's gotta be a better way to do this." Having to restart my computer when a disc doesn't want to eject is not exactly user-friendly. After pondering the possibilities for quite some time, I remembered that you could enable some menu extras (including an eject button) from the CoreServices folder.
Go to the root of your hard drive, either by choosing "Computer" from the Go menu or by clicking it in the sidebar of a Finder window (my hard drive is the icon labeled 'Server' in the screenshot), and follow this path:
System > Library > CoreServices > Menu Extras
Once in that folder, you'll see a lot of different extras that you can put into your menu bar. Just double-click the ones that look appealing to you and they will appear in your menu bar. Go ahead and give them a try. If you decide that you don't want something in the menu bar, just hold down the command key and drag it off the bar.
The eject button doesn't always fix a stuck CD, but it's one more option to try before restarting my computer.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jay said 3:38AM on 11-02-2009
You can also hold down the F12 key to try to get a CD to eject.
Reply
kindakrazy said 4:00AM on 11-02-2009
Disk Utility is also a good way to eject stubborn volumes (either on USB/FW HD's or optical disks)...
Reply
bug said 5:00AM on 11-02-2009
There's a menu extra called Ink. The localizable.strings file has the following contents:
"Write_Anywhere" = "Write Anywhere";
"Open_InkWindow" = "Show Ink Window";
"Close_InkWindow" = "Hide Ink Window";
"Open_Prefs" = "Ink Preferences…";
One word: Tablet.
Reply
BuddyBoy said 5:53AM on 11-02-2009
This is for people with wacom tablets etc. It's been part of OSX for years.
bug said 5:11AM on 11-02-2009
There's a menu extra called Ink. The localizable.strings file has the
following contents:
"Write_Anywhere" = "Write Anywhere";
"Open_InkWindow" = "Show Ink Window";
"Close_InkWindow" = "Hide Ink Window";
"Open_Prefs" = "Ink Preferences…";
One word: Tablet.
Reply
Steven said 5:25AM on 11-02-2009
@bug: Yes, this is for a tablet. But not the one you expect. If you attach a Wacom tablet, you get the ink-preferences.
Donald Kelly said 5:26AM on 11-02-2009
Actually, This is for Ink.app which has been in the OS for quite a few years. It could come into play with a Tablet, but who knows, I remember seeing Ink in 10.4.
Yakov Hadash said 5:30AM on 11-02-2009
There's an app for that.
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/21871
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Tom said 6:01AM on 11-02-2009
In my experience, usually difficult to eject CDs or DVDs can be removed by force quitting the Finder, which is a less drastic than a restart.
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YoJIMbo said 6:21AM on 11-02-2009
There is a much easier way to do this. With finder highlighted, simply go to View -> Customize Toolbar and you have all the options. No need to go rummaging through the Library. :)
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BuddyBoy said 10:25AM on 11-02-2009
But that customises the tool bar not the menu bar. They are different things.
Ken said 7:13AM on 11-02-2009
^ what he said or right(control)-click the finder bar and click Customize Toolbar...
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BuddyBoy said 10:33AM on 11-02-2009
Yes, but the article isn't about the tool bar, it's about the menu bar!!!
PookieBadMuffin said 7:23AM on 11-02-2009
Geez, Josh - you didn't throw down $29 to upgrade to Snow Leopard for "more reliable disc eject?"
Sadly, that was one of the "features" Apple was touting with this release.
Step up, dude.
Reply
Josh Carr said 11:22AM on 11-02-2009
LOL
My MBP is running Snow Leopard. But I demonstrated this on my server. Snow Leopard server isn't exactly a $29 upgrade. If someone wants to sell me a copy at that price... feel free ;)
Marc Jones said 7:42AM on 11-02-2009
Is there a way to option click and "send by mail"? It's the one "PC" thing I miss the most (I know I can drag and drop to the mail icon BTW).
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prosive said 2:38PM on 11-02-2009
Yeah it's pretty easy. Use a simple Automator workflow and add it as a finder service. I have attached ones you can use, but you must be running snow leopard.
Download and extract these files.
Put these workflows in /Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Services
Then manually restart finder or do a logout / login. When you right click files in the finder you can go to Services -> Mail Selected Files.
I also have a service for moving files, works more like cut and paste windows side. Basically you right click the file and select Move To, and select the destination folder.
Mail workflow:
http://bit.ly/2oLCXL
Cut/Paste workflow:
http://bit.ly/3HG0H7
And a simple video tutorial on how the Cut/Paste workflow works.
http://bit.ly/2EnMWb
Enjoy.
robogobo said 7:49AM on 11-02-2009
An eject commend is an eject command, no matter where it comes from. If a disc doesn't eject, that means it's being used. Let it finish, go get yourself a sodapop and chill. If this is a constant problem, your machine has some other issues.
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tuaw said 8:53AM on 11-02-2009
Easier way.
open terminal and enter in
drutil eject
Reply
marc said 8:30AM on 11-02-2009
hmm. when i double click in 10.5.8, nothing happens. when i go to "customize toolbar" i only see a 13 options (vs. the 26 options i see in the folder). sup w/ that?
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