Stop Finder windows from popping up

Question

Level 1

9 points

Stop Finder windows from popping up

Is there a way to stop Finder from popping up or bringing to the front another Finder when you close a Finder window?

I tend to have 3 or 4 Finder windows open at one time, and usually they're hidden behind a larger window I have open such as my web browser. So for instance I may have my Pictures folder, my Movies folder and my Documents folder open. If I bring the Documents folder in front of my web browser or whatever large window and then close it, another one of my open Finder windows pops the the front so then I have to click the web browser or whatever to rehide that Finder window behind it.

Having to do this every time I close a Finder window drives me absolutely nuts as I'm constantly opening and closing Finder windows and to constantly have to rehide the windows is very annoying.

I've looked through the System Prefs and the Finder prefs but can't seem to find anything to stop this action from happening. I'd be forever indebted to someone who could help me stop this from happening.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Jul 12, 2008 1:06 PM

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Answer 1

mrowlinson Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 13, 2008 10:35 PM in response to Barney-15E

Generally I use expose to select the Finder window to the front that I want to access. This strange thing is is that if it's popping up because I am activating the Finder application, why don't all the open Finder window come to the front as opposed to just one?

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Answer 2

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Jul 12, 2008 1:12 PM in response to mrowlinson

None that I know about. When you close a Finder window, you're also telling the system to make the Finder the active process which makes all of its open windows pop up. All I can suggest is to quit closing those windows or send Feedback or send bug reports and enhancement requests to Apple via its Bug Reporter system. Join the Apple Developer Connection (ADC)—it's free and available for all Mac users and gets you a look at some development software. Since you already have an Apple username/ID, use that. Once a member, go to Apple BugReporter and file your bug report/enhancement request. The nice thing with this procedure is that you get a response and a follow-up number; thus, starting a dialog with engineering.

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Answer 3

V.K.

Level 9

56,174 points

Jul 12, 2008 1:28 PM in response to mrowlinson

no built in way to do that as baltwo says. I can only suggest using commandoptionw to close all finder windows at once. might not be applicable at all times but i find it to be a time saver.

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Answer 4

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,542 points

Jul 12, 2008 1:50 PM in response to mrowlinson

As you have activated the Finder to get the window to the top, you still have to do something to activate that other app to bring it frontmost. Is there some way you get the window in front without activating the Finder?

If the window is in the background when you close it, you will stay in the foreground app. This would require you to place the window in a position that you could hit the close button from behind the frontmost app window.

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Answer 5

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Jul 12, 2008 2:54 PM in response to Barney-15E

Nice!!

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