Is there a script/patch for OSX to open/eject a CD/DVD tray WITHOUT the keyboard?

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AG-Wolf's picture
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Is there a script/patch for OSX to open/eject a CD/DVD tray WITHOUT the keyboard?

My sister is using a USB keyboard which has proprietary drivers for some of its functions. It does not have a standard eject button like the Apple Extended Keyboard, and because it's funky, the function keys don't register (holding F12 doesn't do squat). My brother in law said he remembered a script or something for OSX which put a button in the menu bar or something so you can just click that to open the tray, but because I switched to Windows XP after Apple stopped supporting OS 9, I no longer know where or how to look for funky little piece of home-made Mac software. If anyone could lend a hand, it would be appreciated Smile THanks in advance...

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there is a eject menubar item

there is a eject menubar item. You can activate it by going to a folder that contains them, I forget where it is. On tiger, I have a widget called Menu Butler, which allows you to click on the one you want to turn on, and it will activate it.

hope this helps.

-digital Wink

TheUltimateMacUser's picture
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USB Overdrive

Can USB Overdrive let you assign a button for eject?

eeun's picture
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A couple choices...

From MacFixit:

Enabling an Eject menu
As a side note, you can enable another means of ejecting disks by opening the folder System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras and double-clicking the file "Eject.menu".
An eject icon will appear in the menubar that can be used to close and open selected optical drives.

Verified that works in 10.4.10 just now.

Unsure if the above activates the menu permanently.

There's also the option of highlighting the removable drive icon, and pressing command-E to eject it (used to be command-Y Pre-OS X).

Hawaii Cruiser's picture
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Cool. Works in Panther and is

Cool. Works in Panther and is still there after restart.

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Yes on USB Overdrive

TheUltimateMacUser asks:

"Can USB Overdrive let you assign a button for eject?"

Yes, from the popup on the right side of the USB Overdrive window, you can select "Eject" to assign to any mouse button.

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A script to eject the optical drive tray

The Menu Extra "Eject.menu" is what the original poster was recollecting, but if you want a script that does the same thing, put this into Script Editor, and save it as an application:

do shell script "drutil tray eject 1"

Jon
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When I plug in an old iMac/B&

When I plug in an old iMac/B&W keyboard to my mini it will automatically bring up a menu icon to eject the SuperDrive after a reboot. On a full Apple keyboard the extra buttons are F17-F20.

Hawaii Cruiser's picture
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How about an Energy Saver button?

I'm still in Panther so I don't know if there's anything in later OS's, but what I'd really like in the menu is a button to turn the Energy Saver off and on. I want Energy Saver on when I walk away from the computer and stuff like that, but it's so annoying how I have to keep waking up my computer when I'm using it but haven't touched anything for awhile, and it's a bit tedious to have to go in and out of the preferences. Anyone know of an option?

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AppleScript "Script Editor"

-- eject CD
tell application "Finder"
repeat with vDiskNumber from 1 to the number of disks
if format of disk vDiskNumber is in {audio format, ISO 9660 format, High Sierra format, QuickTake format, Apple Photo format} then
eject disk vDiskNumber
end if
end repeat
end tell

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use the mouse

When dragging a disk, the Trash icon in the dock will appear as an Eject icon. Drag the disk to be ejected, and drop it onto the Eject disk icon in the Dock.

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