XENOPHILE Secrets rocks! As many reviewers have noted, Secrets is comparable to MacPilot in functionality, but they are worlds apart in usability. Secrets is instantly accessible as a preference pane, and it's organized like iTunes, with display preference groups in the left pane, and individual preference details in the right pane. As a non-developer, I like the "more info" button that opens a web page with an explanation of any preference. Documentation is further provided by a link to Secrets' home page, and a somewhat vague question mark button which links to a nearly useless Secrets Wiki page. Presumably the Wiki will improve as the Secrets user base grows. My favorite feature also will improve as Secrets' user base grows; users can add new "secrets," which after a three day period of review open to all users, are reviewed by the developer and added to the Secrets database. The "Update Secrets" button in the preference pane downloads any new secrets, which are immediately accessible in the "new secrets" grouping. This community secrets database is by no means limited to bad-a55 haXX0r5; adding a new secret requires some technical knowledge, but with a little study most Mac OS X users who would be interested in Secrets would be able to add a new secret. I'd like to see a version number somewhere on the preference pane, and it's not clear if the "Update Now" button checks for preference pane updates or only downloads new secrets. Nitpicking aside, this is a fantastic app, and my most often used system utility after Maintenance. There's a whole mess of shareware utilities that can access hidden OS X settings, but Secrets demonstrates why several specialized utilities are sometimes preferable to a single utility that can do it all, but does none well.
(Version 1.0.5) | 
