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How can I make my touch bar ALWAYS show the Volume Down, Volume Up, Brightness Down, Brightness Up buttons?

I absolutely hate having to touch the button, look down at the slider, and try to drag it into the right position.

Is it possible for me just to show these controls by default (basically the old keyboard layout)?

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  • Hi Donny, thank you for choosing my answer (based on a comment below). Please accept the answer and award the bounty now that the bounty period is concluded. Thanks! – user3071284 Jun 15 '17 at 18:31
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+25

Yes, you can go into System Preferences and set the default view for the Touch bar.

  1. Open the System Preferences app.
  2. Select the Keyboard option (second row, third item)
  3. On the first tab (also called Keyboard), locate the dropdown for "Touch Bar shows" and choose "Expanded Control Strip".

enter image description here

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9

If you don't need the application-specific touch bar controls, you can configure it to always show the expanded control strip

Expanded Control Strip

Otherwise, you could try configuring something in BetterTouchTool

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  • Thanks for the answer @drewcassidy - I saw you answered first, but it took a while hunting around for where this option was, so I'm giving it to the above post with the more explicit directions – Donny P Jun 14 '17 at 17:21
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If you're interested in further customization of your Touch Bar, I'd recommend trying out BetterTouchTool (BTT). You can add additional controllers, app icons, and actions to your Touch Bar (in addition to keyboard, trackpad, and mouse customizations too).

Their licenses are reasonably priced and they offer things like student discounts, which is actually how I obtained their software.

Here's their website, if you're interested in checking it out: https://www.boastr.net/

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