diff --git a/darwin/common.nix b/darwin/common.nix
index 02dc52d..3ec8853 100644
--- a/darwin/common.nix
+++ b/darwin/common.nix
@@ -73,6 +73,12 @@ in
   # $ darwin-rebuild changelog
   system.stateVersion = 5;
 
+  system.activationScripts.postUserActivation.text = ''
+    # activateSettings -u will reload the settings from the database and apply them to the current session,
+    # so we do not need to logout and login again to make the changes take effect.
+    /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SystemAdministration.framework/Resources/activateSettings -u
+  '';
+
   system.defaults = {
     dock = {
       autohide = true;
@@ -105,6 +111,31 @@ in
     NSGlobalDomain = {
       AppleShowScrollBars = "WhenScrolling";
       AppleScrollerPagingBehavior = true;
+      "com.apple.swipescrolldirection" = false;
+      NSAutomaticCapitalizationEnabled = false; # disable auto capitalization
+      NSAutomaticDashSubstitutionEnabled = false; # disable auto dash substitution
+      NSAutomaticPeriodSubstitutionEnabled = false; # disable auto period substitution
+      NSAutomaticQuoteSubstitutionEnabled = false; # disable auto quote substitution
+      NSAutomaticSpellingCorrectionEnabled = false; # disable auto spelling correction
+      NSNavPanelExpandedStateForSaveMode = true; # expand save panel by default
+    };
+
+    # Customize settings that not supported by nix-darwin directly
+    # see the source code of this project to get more undocumented options:
+    #    https://github.com/rgcr/m-cli
+    #
+    # All custom entries can be found by running `defaults read` command.
+    # or `defaults read xxx` to read a specific domain.
+    CustomUserPreferences = {
+      "com.apple.desktopservices" = {
+        # Avoid creating .DS_Store files on network or USB volumes
+        DSDontWriteNetworkStores = true;
+        DSDontWriteUSBStores = true;
+      };
+      "com.apple.screencapture" = {
+        location = "~/Pictures/Screenshots";
+        type = "png";
+      };
     };
   };
 
@@ -116,8 +147,8 @@ in
     distributedBuilds = true;
 
     gc = {
-      automatic = true;
-      options = "--delete-older-than 7d";
+      automatic = lib.mkDefault true;
+      options = lib.mkDefault "--delete-older-than 7d";
     };
     settings = {
       experimental-features = "nix-command flakes";