Getting a shortcut to top-level finder folder, that shows your drives/volumes

[Sean Dempsey]

Simple question -

I want on my dock a shortcut that will open up my root level finder folder, the one that lists your drives, volumes, mounted images.

like what appears when no finder windows are open, and you cilck the finder icon in the dock. I have my sidebar show "blankity blanks computer" with the oldschool imac icon, and thats okay when a finder window is open. But I can't drag that icon to the dock, so if I have bunch of finder windows open, there's no easy way to click to open a window of the drives/volumes/images.

I can't seem to figure out how to do this.

 

[DoFoT9]

hhmmm im afraid i am not aware of any ways to put it in the dock.. if you do +N it should bring up the finder window that you are after tho.

actually, in finder go to....Finder>preferences then hit the drop down box "New finder windows open" and set to "Computer" that will bring up the drive.

you could also just go +Shift+C.

have yet to figure out how to put it in the dock...

 

[Sean Dempsey]

Hmmmm... there's gotta be a way. Your suggestions worked, but only when the finder is in focus.

It's my first instinct... to go to the dock and click a icon that will bring up a finder with the drives.

Maybe macosxhints.com will have an idea?

 

[Porco]

I'm no programmer, and it seems silly I can't find another way to do this, but this should see you right -

Open the Script Editor app (applications/applescript/script editor) -

Paste this exactly as shown:

tell application "Finder"
	activate
	make new Finder window to computer container
end tell

Save it as an application (call it OpenComputer, or whatever you like), put that where you want and drag it to your dock. Feel better?

 

[Sean Dempsey]

I'm no programmer, and it seems silly I can't find another way to do this, but this should see you right -

Open the Script Editor app (applications/applescript/script editor) -

Paste this exactly as shown:

tell application "Finder"
	activate
	make new Finder window to computer container
end tell

Save it as an application (call it OpenComputer, or whatever you like), put that where you want and drag it to your dock. Feel better?

This actually worked great. Those apple scripts are sorta cool, never heard of it before now. I can think of alot of things I could make it do, there are alot of tasks and such I do every day could automate with that.

I think I'll call it "my computer". Now if I can only find an icon...



edit: interesting... it saves it as a Power PC application. Anyway to make it, you know, universal binary?

 

[kostia]

This is all way overcomplicating things. Why script something that's built into the OS?

You can put ANY folder in your Dock as long as you put it to the right of the vertical divider line, immediately to the left of the Trash.

If you want an icon in your Dock that will open the top level of your hard drive, simply drag your hard drive icon to the right side of the Dock.

As with any folder in the Dock, you can right-click (or control-click) on this folder icon to see and navigate through its contents.

Edited to add: I reread your post and see that you want the computer window, what you get when you command-up arrow from the hard drive. Apologies.

But I think my advice stands. The best way I can think of is to make a "fake" computer window; create a folder somewhere containing aliases of everything in that window, and drag THAT folder to the right side of the Dock. Since it's a folder, you can use Get Info to put any icon on it you want, AND you can use command-J to set its view preferences exactly how you want them.

 

[kostia]

edit: interesting... it saves it as a Power PC application. Anyway to make it, you know, universal binary?

When you do a Save As out of Script Editor, you have a dropdown menu for "File Format." If you select "application," you will get a PowerPC app. If you select "application bundle," you will get a Universal Binary.

 

[Sean Dempsey]

But I think my advice stands. The best way I can think of is to make a "fake" computer window; create a folder somewhere containing aliases of everything in that window, and drag THAT folder to the right side of the Dock. Since it's a folder, you can use Get Info to put any icon on it you want, AND you can use command-J to set its view preferences exactly how you want them.

I could do that, but it still won't show newly mounted disk images. I have drives/images/cd's set to not show on the desktop.

 

[emptyCup]

Option (Apple)-click on the name of any open folder to get the path to that folder. Select the top level and I think you will have what you want.

 

[MacsRgr8]

Tried dragging the /Volumes/ dir to your Dock?

Go into Finder, the press <COMMAND <SHIFT> <G>, and enter "/Volumes" in the window.
Drag that into your Dock.

 

[Sean Dempsey]

Tried dragging the /Volumes/ dir to your Dock?

Go into Finder, the press <COMMAND <SHIFT> <G>, and enter "/Volumes" in the window.
Drag that into your Dock.

That works, but it just shows the "server" icon shortcut (the globe inside the cube) and the names of the volumes, not my sweet custom icons.

The applescript posted earlier works perfect. I've got it down in my dock, it's exactly what I wanted. Saved it as an application bundle, gave it an icon, and put it down in the application area of the dock. Works every time.

 

[cDizzle]

Issue Solved in Snow Leopard

I did a quick Google search for this same request and came upon this thread. I have devised a solution that works great on Snow Leopard (I'm sure it works with Leopard on down to Tiger and maybe earlier, too).

1). In Finder, access the "Go" Menu and select "My Computer"

2). Press "⌘ I" or select "Get Info" from the Menu.

3). In the window that appears, click the icon in the top left and press "⌘ C" to copy the icon to the Clipboard.

4). From the Finder menu, access the "Go" Menu again and this time select "Go To Folder..." (the shortcut to this is ⌘ ⇧G").

5). Enter "/Volumes/" in the dialog box that appears and press Return.

6.) Press "⌘ I" or select "Get Info" from the Menu.

7.) In the window that appears, click the icon in the top left and press "⌘ V" to copy the icon from the Clipboard.

8.) Close the Info window and drag the /Volumes/ icon into the Dock.

Quick Edit: On Snow Leopard, the folder automatically displays as a Stack, so the icon is not immediately visible. Once the above steps are completed, go into the Dock and Ctrl-click on the newly created Stack.

In the options under "Display as" select "Folder" instead of "Stack"

That's it! If you want to remove the computer icon from the /Volumes/ folder for any reason, repeat steps 4-6 and select the icon and press Delete. The Dock icon should remain unchanged until you remove it and add it again.

 

[DoFoT9]

I did a quick Google search for this same request and came upon this thread. I have devised a solution that works great on Snow Leopard (I'm sure it works with Leopard on down to Tiger and maybe earlier, too).

1). In Finder, access the "Go" Menu and select "My Computer"

2). Press "⌘ I" or select "Get Info" from the Menu.

3). In the window that appears, click the icon in the top left and press "⌘ C" to copy the icon to the Clipboard.

4). From the Finder menu, access the "Go" Menu again and this time select "Go To Folder..." (the shortcut to this is ⌘ ⇧G").

5). Enter "/Volumes/" in the dialog box that appears and press Return.

6.) Press "⌘ I" or select "Get Info" from the Menu.

7.) In the window that appears, click the icon in the top left and press "⌘ V" to copy the icon from the Clipboard.

8.) Close the Info window and drag the /Volumes/ icon into the Dock.

That's it! If you want to remove the computer icon from the /Volumes/ folder for any reason, repeat steps 4-6 and select the icon and press Delete. The Dock icon should remain unchanged until you remove it and add it again.

wow! nice man. and only 2 years late!

the sad thing is though that im STILL on here and can reply instantly. how embarrasing

cheers

 

[Arrandale]

have you tried dragging your hd to the documents area of the dock?

 

[cDizzle]

Re: Issue solved in Snow Leopard

@Arrandale:

You could just drag one or more of the volumes located in the "/Volumes/" folder into the Dock, but that would only partially fulfill the original thread request. As an alternative to my suggestion, you could drag an alias of the "/Volumes/" folder to the Desktop. Personally, I prefer having the volumes accessible in the Stacks. There is also a Terminal command to create a "Recent Volumes" or "Favorite Servers" Stack in the Dock. Here's a link to that forum discussion:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071101055329470