Lion Tweaks 2.01 reclaims Snow Leopard features you love but miss

Fredrik Wiker has updated his Mac freeware utility, Lion Tweaks to version 2.01. Version 2 added support for Mountain Lion and Gatekeeper, while version 2.01 makes some more minor changes, including marking system default settings in bold for easier identification.

Lion Tweaks allows Lion (and now Mountain Lion) users to “correct” certain features changed from older builds, providing them with a way to restore favourite settings from Snow Leopard. It also includes several additional tools, including a TRIM-support enabler for SSD drives. This offers an alternative method of switching on TRIM to standalone tool TRIM Enabler 2.2, recently updated to include SMART support for a wider range of SSDs.

Lion Tweak 2.01 aims to provide users with a simple click-based interface for restoring many features removed or altered when Lion was released a year ago. Tools include being able to recolour the Finder sidebar icons, replace the leather skin found in iCal and Address Book with the metallic look of Snow Leopard and make the User Library folder visible by default.

Some options require a single click, while others download further tools and files to perform the tweaks via a series of wizard-based installers. By adding support for Mountain Lion, Lion Tweaks ensures it will remain viable when the latest build of OS X goes on sale later this month.

TRIM Enabler 2.2 includes a number of minor fixes with the application window, status text and disk order in addition to widening its SMART support for more SSD drives. The user flicks a switch in the main app and reboots to enable TRIM for their device – note that each time an OS X update is released, TRIM support is automatically disabled, so it’s important to check back each time.

It’s also worth noting that enabling TRIM won’t necessarily improve matters for all drives -- if you notice performance suffering after enabling it, disable it. On our Crucial M4 SSD, however, benchmarking tool Disk Speed Test (free on the App Store) recorded a definite improvement in read/write speeds.

Both Lion Tweaks 2.01 and TRIM Enabler 2.2 are freeware downloads for Macs. Lion Tweaks works with both Lion and the forthcoming Mountain Lion release; TRIM Enabler requires Snow Leopard (10.6.8) or Lion to run.