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User profile for user: Community User
Community User Author

New to HS. Help with Finder and Desktops

Am a slow starter. Just upgraded from El Capitan to High Sierra. All fine except from a couple of things that drives me up the wall.


First: How can I make Finder NOT open new windows in a tab of a previously opened folder? Option in Finder preferences "Open folders in tabs instead of new windows" is duly unticked.


Second: The "desktops" (called "spaces" or something in High Sierra). I have two screens. In El Capitan, I used four "desktops". Pressed e.g. Cmnd + > to change, and the pair of them (one on each screen) did exactly that. The Mac top menu bar remained on the same screen in all cases. It was beautiful.


On Hight Sierra, it's absolute chaos. The desktops need to be changed one by one. The Mac top menu bar jumps randomly from one screen to the other if I have windows for the same program open in both. Switching program with Cmnd + tab fails every other time as the required program simply won't show up. Etc, etc, etc....


Can someone please help out? Or are there any third party with some app that can help?

Mac Pro, OS X 10.11

Posted on Sep 8, 2021 9:39 AM

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User profile for user: BDAqua
BDAqua
User level: Level 10
239,273 points

Posted on Sep 8, 2021 12:56 PM

Hi Dan,


On the Desktop, Sys Prefs>Mission Control, uncheck the top 4 boxes.


On the first problem...


Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode? Could take 10 minutes.


Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.


To find out if it's system wide or user specific, try this...


Open System Preferences>Users & Groups, unlock the lock, click on the little plus icon, make a new admin account, log out & into the new account.


Does it work in the new account?

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User profile for user: BDAqua
BDAqua
User level: Level 10
239,273 points

Sep 8, 2021 12:56 PM in response to Community User

Hi Dan,


On the Desktop, Sys Prefs>Mission Control, uncheck the top 4 boxes.


On the first problem...


Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode? Could take 10 minutes.


Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.


To find out if it's system wide or user specific, try this...


Open System Preferences>Users & Groups, unlock the lock, click on the little plus icon, make a new admin account, log out & into the new account.


Does it work in the new account?

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User profile for user: Community User
Community User Author

Sep 8, 2021 10:49 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi BDAqua, and thanks a mill for reply!


Unchecking those four boxes in Mission Control made the difference. Phew. Did I check them by sheer ignorance or were they checked from start as default? If the latter, why on earth...? Never mind, problem solved.


Regarding new windows opening in tabs despite unchecked option to do so: Eventually, I found a contradicting option (!) in Sys Prefs > Dock where I changed "Prefer tabs when opening windows" from "Always" (default) to "manually".


So, all well again!


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