Revert iTunes 10 Windows Controls, Remove Ping Pop-up

iTunes 10.0 introduces a new orientation of the window control buttons and 10.0.1 introduces a Ping pop-up. If you want to restore iTunes 10 to the previous way of doing things, here’s how to fix it.

First, if you don’t like how iTunes 10 moves the control buttons on the upper left to a vertical position, you can change it with a fix to the iTunes preference file found in /Users/YourAcctName/Library/Preferences. Here’s the new, default orientation in iTunes 10 that annoys some users:

iTunes 10 Red, Yellow, Green Control buttons are reoriented

Here’s the procedure:

1. You don’t need to be an administrator.
2. Quit iTunes.
3. Launch the Terminal app in /Applications/Utilities
4. Enter this command, then press return

defaults write com.apple.iTunes full-window -bool TRUE

5. Quit the Terminal app.
6. Relaunch iTunes.

To restore the default orientation, repeat steps 2 to 6 with this command:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes full-window -bool FALSE

Second, if you’re not ready to engage in Apple’s Ping social network and you’d like to suppress the Ping pop-ups (or rather, a drop down) in iTunes 10.0.1, you can do that too. Here’s how the drop down looks, inside the red rectangle.

Ping pop-up

Once again, you’ll follow a similar procedure:

1. You don’t need to be an administrator.
2. Quit iTunes.
3. Launch the Terminal app in /Applications/Utilities
4. Enter this command, then press return

defaults write com.apple.iTunes hide-ping-dropdown -bool TRUE

5. Quit the Terminal app.
6. Relaunch iTunes.

To retore the Ping drop down, repeat the steps above with:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes hide-ping-dropdown -bool FALSE

Note that the command above can be executed from any directory location. The default, when you launch the Terminal app is fine.  The command knows where to find the Preference directory that has the iTunes settings.

If you really want to see how this change takes effect in more detail in the plist file, navigate manually to:

/Users/YourAcctName/Library/Preferences

and double-click the file: com.apple.iTunes.plist. That will launch a Property List Editor and you can see some of the other settings as well. However, don’t make any changes here unless you’re an expert or you could damage iTunes for good. The idea for beginners is always just to look and learn first.

iTunes Property List (partial)