MacOS – Can iTunes be configured to have the ‘Store’ be default screen at startup

itunesitunes-storemacmacossoftware

I like to use iTunes predominantly to check things out on the iTunes store (and make the occasional purchase), not to browse a library of downloaded media by default.

Is there a setting or way to make the store be the default initial screen in iTunes for Mac?

Best Answer

There may be other even more elegant ways to do it, but here's one way to automate the process:

  • Download Keyboard Maestro (it's a paid app, but you can try it out at least and see if you like it - it's an extremely powerful app that is worth purchasing if you are committed to enabling tweaks such as this one), and open the app.

  • In the 'Macros' pane, click the + button at the bottom of it to create a new Macro. Give the Macro a name as prompted. Click on 'New Trigger' and select 'Application Trigger'. Select iTunes. Then under iTunes where it says 'Activates' click on that and change it to 'Launches'.

  • Now click on 'New Action' further down. An 'Actions' pane will appear to the left. Scroll down or search within the pane to find 'Execute an Applescript'. Double click on it or drag and drop it into the 'No Action' box in the right-hand pane.

  • Insert the following code in the Applescript box:

    tell application "System Events"
tell application "iTunes" to activate
    delay 1.0
    keystroke "H" using {command down, shift down}
end tell

And the process is complete. It is already enabled in your list of active Keyboard Maestro Macros and you can test by opening iTunes afresh to see the Store Home open by default when it opens.

N.b. there's a 1 second delay in the above Applescipt code due to it not working if I didn't include the brief delay. Tweak it as desired, maybe less than a second is fine but 1 second is not much to wait when launching the whole app anyway.

And also to explain: ⇧+ ⌘ + H is the default assigned hotkey for Store > Home for iTunes in OS X, so that's all this Keyboard Maestro macro is emulating. (Obviously, the hotkey combination can be customised in System Preferences keyboard shortcuts.)

Upon brief googling it appears there may not be any free apps/tools available to automate such a 'execute applescript/hotkey action upon app launch so Keyboard Maestro might possibly be the only way. But I only did a quick search, there's probably some tool on github somewhere that can do it, and it'd be nice to know of any free solutions for this problem too.

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