Finder help

No Finder never closes. It reminds me of Haratio in CSI Miami: "We never close." However, it's possible to relaunch it if somethings freezes. Holding the Option key and clicking on the Finder icon in the Dock until a contextual menu opens will allow you to relaunch it.

You answered your own question. They are just shortcuts.

Not sure, but I don't think it will continue downloading stuffs when it is put to sleep.

 

explorer is always open in Windows. if you quit it in the task manager any explorer windows open will close and the taskbar will disappear.

you can quit Finder using a hack but its only really useful for old slow Macs which need to squeeze every little bit of power from somewhere.

click the refresh icon in the Downloads window or double click on the Safari icon with the blue progress bar in your Downloads folder to continue downloads that stopped.

 

You can quit the Finder pretty easily by using Quicksilver. I recommend keeping the Finder open at all times unless you want it to relaunch itself.

 

Nope

I dont think so