Is it possible to change the “skin” of iCal and Contacts from the leather look that now comes with Lion back to the aluminum look of Snow Leopard? I’ve gone through the preferences and did a Google search and wasn’t able to find any possible solutions. Any suggestions? Also…I hate the lock screen gray background and the gray dashboard background. How can I change it as easily as the desktop background?
Skinning iCal to look like its previous version is one of the most common questions we’ve gotten since the Lion update. The aluminum did look a bit better, we think. Fortunately, you can get back the aluminum look in iCal. To do this, download the free Lion Tweaks app from MacUpdate.
To switch back to aluminum, click on the Yes button beside Change iCal Leather to Aluminum. This will launch an installer that will copy the necessary files into place. Re-launching iCal will present you with a nice aluminum interface that looks similar to iCal in previous versions of Mac OS X. To switch it back, run Lion Tweaks again and click the No button. You can also apply the same aluminum interface to Address Book in the same manner.
Ahhh… it’s like taking a time machine back to pre-Lion days.
Dashboard in Mac OS X Lion has changed slightly in that it has its own space in Mission Control. To change this back, navigate to System Preferences > Mission Control, and uncheck the box labeled “Show Dashboard as a space.” This will force Lion to overlay Dashboard, when activated, on top of your other windows, just as Dashboard operated in previous versions of Mac OS X.
Tweaking Lion’s login screen is also easy. We’ve tackled this one before, so check out this article on our site for more information on personalizing your login screen: goo.gl/BSqmP.
