MacTricksAndTips Daily Email, Today: 22 Finder Hacks, Tricks and Changes & More |  |
| 22 Finder Hacks, Tricks and Changes Posted: 27 Jan 2013 11:05 AM PST Hey, We all enjoying tweaking out Mac, changing the settings to get it just how we want. Today’s post is going to show you many hacks, tricks, and tips to alter your Mac, with specific focus on the way Finder operates and runs. These tricks use Terminal and a short command to change the preference settings. You can chop and change which commands you want to run. Not all commands work with Lion, however many do. If you don’t like the way a setting looks or works you can always revert them using the supplied reverse command. If you don’t want to change the settings manually I recommend you purchase an app such as MacPilot. Using TerminalAll of these commands use Terminal. To use any of these commands open up Terminal in your Applications > Utilities folder. Then copy and paste any command you want to run and hit enter. Many need you to restart Finder so follow the command you want to run with the Hidden FilesOne of the most popular commands you can run. If you want to view all the hidden files and folders on your Mac you can run this command. There are many files and folders that are hidden. This command works on Mountain Lion and older versions of Mac OS X.
If you want to reverse this command type the following:
 View the hidden files on your Mac. Disable Finder PreferencesIf you have set the preferences of Finder and you don’t want them to be changed you can disable the menu option. This command will disable the Finder preferences.
Play Media In Get Info PanesOne of my favourite commands that should be enabled by default. This command will enable movies, word documents, music and other files to run in a similar method to that of Quicklook. When you open up the Get Info window, there will be a small playable window that will allow you to play a movie, or flick through a word document.
To reverse this command;
 The preview window will now animate the media you are looking at. Disable Emptying TrashOne of the commands I would probably advise against using. This command will stop you from emptying the Trash.
And to allow you to empty the trash;
Disable The Warning When Emptying The TrashWhen you press the empty Trash button, Finder will give you a warning saying do you want to do this action. If you want to disable this option use the following command.
If you want the warning to re-appear the following is used;
 Disable warning about emptying trash. Disable Warning When Changing File ExtensionOne of the more interesting, or annoying, options you encounter when changing files extensions is the warning dialogue box asking if you want to change the extension. If you want to disable this option you can use the following command, this will automatically change the extension without giving you the warning.
If you want to warning back again the following is used.
Disable Connect To Server Menu Bar OptionIn the menu bar, Go option there is a variety of options which allow you to quickly jump to various folders on your Mac. One of these options is the connect to server option, this allows you to connect to a remote server and allow the Finder window to act as the interface to that server. If you want to disable this option use the following command.
To re-enable the option use the following command;
 Just like that the Connect To Folder is gone. Disable Go To FolderIf you want to remove the Go To Folder option, in a similar way to the previous command of removing the Connect To Server option you can use the following command.
Like all the previous commands you can use the following to reverse the command and get the option back.
Disable DVD Media BurningIf you have a school or work computer and you want to disable media burning, such as that of DVD’s you can use the following command to prohibit media burning. If you want a permanant solution you can remove the DVD drive like I have.
To re-enable the ability to burn DVD’s and CD’s use the following.
Add A Quit Finder Menu OptionOne of the more interesting commands, you can add a quit Finder option, where you can quite Finder. I don’t really see the point in this menu option other than for debugging and testing purposes.
To disable the option, which is usually a good option;
 You can Quit Finder with this command. Disable Disk EjectIf you want to disable the ability to eject disks such as disk images or physical disk you can use the following command.
To re-enable this command use the following;
Disable Icons On The DesktopIf you want to remove the icons on the desktop you can use this command. Every icon on you desktop will disappear. It will not be deleted, just hidden. This is useful if you are making a presentation and you don’t want people to see the icons you use.
Show Remote DisksWith the advent of MacBooks without disk drives there is a problem of being able to access CD drives. You can do this over the network. Simply allow remote disk on your Mac and you can access any DVD drive on another Mac. This option allows you to always see remote drives within Finder.
To disable this option
 You can enable remote disk within Finder’s sidebar New Window When Opening A Removable DiskOne of the more useful commands in my opinion. This command will open a new Finder window when a removable disk is accessed or opened.
To disable this option simply type the following:
Custom Icons For Removable VolumesAnother useful command is this, it allows you to have a custom icon for a removable volume. Normally a removable drive has that small white block, what ever it represents. With this command you can give it a custom icon.
To disable this option, simply type;
Enable Text Selection Within QuicklookThis little tip makes Quicklook a bit more useful. When you hit space bar to enable Quicklook, this command will allow you to select text within the Quicklook window. I like this command as it enables you to copy text out of a file without having to open it.
To disable this option
 With this command you can select text within Quicklook Enable Quicklook On Application SwitchAnother great command which should be enabled by default. When you normally open quicklook and select a different application the quicklook window will disappear. Using this command, the Quicklook window will stay open. So you can view the contents while having a second application selected.
To disable this command so the Quicklook window disappears when a different application is selected.
Show The Path BarThe path bar shows the current location of the Finder window. To enable it use the following:
To disable this command;
Show The Finder Pathbar In The TitleIf you want to show the current path bar in the title of any Finder window, simply use the following command.
To disable this command use the following;
 You can view the path of the folder you are in in the title bar Show Stripes In FinderAnother cool little visual command. With this command every other line will be coloured blue. This makes looking down a list a lot easier as there will be a clear distinction between each line.
To disable this command and remove the stripes;
Slow Animations When Holding ShiftOne of the slightly less useful commands for Finder. If you enable this command when you hold shift and minimise any window, or play the animation it will slow to a halt. A bit pointless but something you can enable all the same.
To get animations back to full speed.
Disable Snap To Grid AnimationI am not sure if this command works in the later version of Mac OS X, however it will disable the the snap to grid animation.
To re-enable the command;
Using An AppThere are many commands which you can choose from in this list. If you want to do this within an app and remove the need to do a lot of copying and pasting you can use something like MacPilot. It has many of these commands and more. ConclusionThere are plenty of commands within this list. I have checked that most of these work within Mountain Lion. However, if many do not work you want do any harm to your Mac. If you have any more that you want to add, please leave a comment below. Want to catch up on the latest Tweets about this site, follow me on Twitter. |
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