Finder...How Should It Open...

JoelBC · Dec 8, 2012

I will try to do my best to make sense here...

I have Finder setup to open on my Home folder as can be seen by this photo

I have noted that when I first boot / start OS X, Finder opens looking like this

I want Finder to open looking like this

The two questions I have are as follows:

1. Is it normal for Finder to open looking like this...as I do not have another computer with OS X and would appreciate someone testing this for me.

2. Is it possible to force / to get Finder to open looking like this...and, if yes, then how...

Thanks so much...

Joel

switon · Dec 8, 2012

RE: Finder...

Hi Joel,

Sorry for answering another of your queries, but your Finder screenshots are normal.

In fact, you can specify how your Finder windows look, and how they default. I call your attention to the buttons in the title bar that allow you to change how the Finder window shows folders/files. Also, if you open the Finder's Preferences pane, you can configure various other parameters for the Finder windows. In the System Preferences utility, you can also configure a number of other GUI parameters, such as the backgrounds for each of your desktops. Do you use multiple desktops, they are very convenient? I like to turn off the "Automatically rearrange spaces" feature in the Mission Control pane, as I like to know what windows are on which Desktop. I also like to "Automatically hide and show the Dock" in the Dock pane, as it gives me the greatest amount of screen real estate for other tasks. In the Users&Groups pane you can setup Login Items, that is, apps that will be automatically started whenever you login. You can also setup your iCloud (first 5GB free cloud storage) for automatically uploading revisions and downloading to all of your Apple iDevices.

Regards,
Switon

JoelBC · Dec 8, 2012

switon said:
Hi Joel,

Sorry for answering another of your queries, but your Finder screenshots are normal.

No worries, appreciate all the help that I can get.

switon said:
In fact, you can specify how your Finder windows look, and how they default. I call your attention to the buttons in the title bar that allow you to change how the Finder window shows folders/files. Also, if you open the Finder's Preferences pane, you can configure various other parameters for the Finder windows.

Although I saw that when I first configured / setup Finder I can not figure out how to get Finder to *ALWAYS* open per last image in my original posting...is there a way of accomplishing this and, if yes, then how?

switon said:
In the System Preferences utility, you can also configure a number of other GUI parameters, such as the backgrounds for each of your desktops. Do you use multiple desktops, they are very convenient?

Yes, I like using multiple desktops very much...they are one of the better features.

switon said:
I like to turn off the "Automatically rearrange spaces" feature in the Mission Control pane, as I like to know what windows are on which Desktop.

Agreed...

switon said:
I also like to "Automatically hide and show the Dock" in the Dock pane, as it gives me the greatest amount of screen real estate for other tasks. In the Users&Groups pane you can setup Login Items, that is, apps that will be automatically started whenever you login. You can also setup your iCloud (first 5GB free cloud storage) for automatically uploading revisions and downloading to all of your Apple iDevices.

Regards,

Switon

Again, thanks for all the help...

Joel

switon · Dec 8, 2012

RE: default Finder window...

Hi Joel,

If you click on the "gear" menu in the title bar of a Finder window, then choose the "Show View Options", you will see a choice of options. If the current view options are not the default options, then at the bottom of the window you will be given a "Use as default" button to click. This will set the default view options for your future Finder windows.

Switon

JoelBC · Dec 9, 2012

switon said:
Hi Joel,

If you click on the "gear" menu in the title bar of a Finder window, then choose the "Show View Options", you will see a choice of options. If the current view options are not the default options, then at the bottom of the window you will be given a "Use as default" button to click. This will set the default view options for your future Finder windows.

Switon

Agreed, it just does NOT want to work on the "first open" after start up but does work on all subsequent opens...a little frustrating but I guess it is what it is, just my OCD showing...

switon · Dec 9, 2012

RE: logging in and out, or rebooting...

JoelBC said:
Agreed, it just does NOT want to work on the "first open" after start up but does work on all subsequent opens...a little frustrating but I guess it is what it is, just my OCD showing...

Hi Joel,

While this technically should not be required, but I would try the following:

(1) Setup the Finder windows as you want them to look.
(2) In the View Options, click the Use as Default button.
(3) Reboot your machine (or you might first try logging out then back in), indicating that it should reopen your windows.

Upon reboot, are your windows now defaulted to how you want them to look?

If not, then you probably have a permissions problem on your ~/Library directory and its subdirectories that is not allowing the Finder's plist to be edited properly. You might try correcting the permissions on your drive using the Disk Utility.

Good luck,
Switon

P.S. So, you are saying that the Finder window that automatically opens upon first login does not have your viewing defaults, but any subsequently opened Finder window does have your viewing defaults? This is a little surprising to me, as it means the initially opened Finder window is using a different plist than the subsequently opened Finder windows. I would have thought that upon login it would use your own configuration plist, not some system-wide plist, but perhaps not. (I just tried to find a system-wide Finder plist on my machine, but could only locate my local Finder plist, so I don't know how your "first open" Finder window is getting configured differently from your subsequent Finder windows.)

Edit: You might check your ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist using a tool such as TextWrangler.app and so if it contains just the viewing options that you have specified. I assume it must, since your subsequent Finder windows default to your viewing options. But perhaps there are other variables that allow for a different "first window" as opposed to subsequent windows -- this is possible, but my Finder plist does not have such variables. Maybe yours does?

Big Stevie · Dec 9, 2012

I think theres an article in this months UK edition of MacFormat magazine that covers how to customise Finder. Though I may be confusing myself with Activity Monitor?

Is there a way of permenantly increasing the size of the Finder window, Id like to make it larger, perhaps even full screen? Ive manually dragged the sides of the window out, to make it larger, but when I reopen Finder the window is back to its standard size.

switon · Dec 9, 2012

RE: Finder window sizes...

Big Stevie said:
Is there a way of permenantly increasing the size of the Finder window, Id like to make it larger, perhaps even full screen? Ive manually dragged the sides of the window out, to make it larger, but when I reopen Finder the window is back to its standard size.

Hi,

If you hover over the bottom right corner of a window and drag it to a larger size, then set as the default viewing options, reboot, and your windows should be larger. Or you can also edit the appropriate "WindowBounds" parameters in your ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist configuration file. You will notice that there may be specifications for particular windows in this configuration file, say the last time you clicked on an external drive icon to open a Finder window for it, then future openings for that particular drive will open at the same location and the same size based upon its configuration in the plist file.

Switon

Big Stevie · Dec 9, 2012

Thanks, Ill give that a try

JoelBC · Dec 11, 2012

switon said:
Hi Joel,

While this technically should not be required, but I would try the following:

(1) Setup the Finder windows as you want them to look.
(2) In the View Options, click the Use as Default button.
(3) Reboot your machine (or you might first try logging out then back in), indicating that it should reopen your windows.

Upon reboot, are your windows now defaulted to how you want them to look?

If not, then you probably have a permissions problem on your ~/Library directory and its subdirectories that is not allowing the Finder's plist to be edited properly. You might try correcting the permissions on your drive using the Disk Utility.

Good luck,
Switon

Hi Switon...

I tried this but to no avail as i) there is no USE AS DEFAULT button because it is already the default...see response to below paragraph...

switon said:
P.S. So, you are saying that the Finder window that automatically opens upon first login does not have your viewing defaults, but any subsequently opened Finder window does have your viewing defaults? This is a little surprising to me, as it means the initially opened Finder window is using a different plist than the subsequently opened Finder windows. I would have thought that upon login it would use your own configuration plist, not some system-wide plist, but perhaps not. (I just tried to find a system-wide Finder plist on my machine, but could only locate my local Finder plist, so I don't know how your "first open" Finder window is getting configured differently from your subsequent Finder windows.)

Bingo...see the 2nd and 3rd images in my original post which is the best way to understand the problem...

switon said:
Edit: You might check your ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist using a tool such as TextWrangler.app and so if it contains just the viewing options that you have specified. I assume it must, since your subsequent Finder windows default to your viewing options. But perhaps there are other variables that allow for a different "first window" as opposed to subsequent windows -- this is possible, but my Finder plist does not have such variables. Maybe yours does?

I have AppleCare on the case as I got lucky and spoke to someone who is baffled by this and promised to look into this...I will keep everyone posted..

switon · Dec 11, 2012

JoelBC said:
I have AppleCare on the case as I got lucky and spoke to someone who is baffled by this and promised to look into this...I will keep everyone posted..

Hi Joel,

Good ... I'll be interested to see exactly what the problem is and how it is solved. As I mentioned, on my MBP there are no variables/options in the Finder's plist to allow the "first window" to be different from all subsequent Finder windows, and I also could not find a system-wide Finder plist that might be used for the "first window" instead of the user's plist. Perhaps your stray "first window" is configured by some "default" code in the Finder.app's code itself instead of being configured by a plist file? Who knows...

Keep us informed what AppleCare has to say about this.

Regards,
Switon

JoelBC · Dec 11, 2012

switon said:
Hi Joel,

Keep us informed what AppleCare has to say about this.

Regards,

Switon

Will do...as soon as I hear from AppleCare I will post the results...again, thanks for all of your help...

tko54321 · Dec 13, 2012

Same Thing with my MacBook(s)

This does NOT happen with my Mac Pro, but it happened exactly the same way with a June MacBook Pro 13-inch I had before getting my current 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display that also does this.

I have Total Finder & the same OSX version on both my MacBook Pro & Mac Pro, so perhaps this is a MacBook-only issue (if it's even an issue). It's odd that it only happens after a restart/shut down and only with the Finder Dock icon. If I use "New Window" in the Finder menu bar, it opens as I want.

Will be interesting to if any solution is found with this.

JoelBC · Dec 13, 2012

tko54321 said:
This does NOT happen with my Mac Pro, but it happened exactly the same way with a June MacBook Pro 13-inch I had before getting my current 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display that also does this.

Interesting that this is an issue with laptops but not desktops...I wonder why..

tko54321 said:
I have Total Finder & the same OSX version on both my MacBook Pro & Mac Pro, so perhaps this is a MacBook-only issue (if it's even an issue). It's odd that it only happens after a restart/shut down and only with the Finder Dock icon. If I use "New Window" in the Finder menu bar, it opens as I want.

Will be interesting to if any solution is found with this.

Agreed that it is odd....

I did receive an e-mail from the AppelCare support person I was speaking with a few days ago and was assured that they are on the case...I will of course let you know what I learn...

One thing...why TotalFinder over PathFinder?

***

Thanks,

Joel

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