disable full screen mode entirely in Lion

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Level 1

5 points

disable full screen mode entirely in Lion

Hi,

Question: Is there a way to completely disable full-screen mode in Lion? That is, remove the arrows in the upper right corners of all windows, remove the possibility of having menus and red/yellow/green buttons disappear, etc?

Background: My father is incredibly intimidated by computers, but he switched and is thrilled. Mac really is simpler. But full-screen mode is feature-creep, another bell and whistle. Since it's required that one be able to use the computer outside of full-screen mode, requiring users to understand full-screen mode as well means users must learn two things to function in a mac environment. That's horrible design for a newbie, not at all "for the rest of us". People should be able to enable full-screen mode when they are ready for it. Or something. Of course when I showed him how to do things, I completely ignored full-screen mode, hoping it would never happen, but he accidentally got mail.app in full screen mode a few times, and as he describes it, "the red button disappeared".

Anyway, he can deal with it now, in that I've taught him how to escape it, but is there a better solution? Alas reverting to Snow Leopard has its own issues, so that's not what we're looking for.

Thanks,

Michael

Mac OS X (10.7.1)

Posted on Oct 9, 2011 7:44 AM

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Answer 1

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Oct 9, 2011 12:06 PM in response to mw.overflow

Don't' have an answer for you, since Lion is Apple's attempt to make computer's mimic iOS devices, but if you want to report this issue to Apple's engineering, send a bug report or an enhancement request via its Bug Reporter system. To do this, register as an Apple Developer—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 or enhancement request. You'll get a response and a follow-up number; thus, starting a dialog with engineering.

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Answer 2

Oct 9, 2011 10:10 PM in response to mw.overflow

I kind of like full screen, but it is a bit confusing and I 100% agree with what you saw about complicating things for new users. I remember years ago, Apple had a "simple finder" that reduce the complexity for beginners. I think your request is a valid one.

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Answer 3

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Oct 9, 2011 10:51 PM in response to John Springer

Full screen on a 24" or 27" display except for an occasional video clip is a total waste of screen real estate and is mind boggling. While maybe appropriate for hand-helds, it's overkill on desktop machines.

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Answer 4

Aug 28, 2012 7:09 AM in response to baltwo

Do you know if Apple has now come up with a way to permanently disable full screen mode? I'm having a similar problem with my mother-in-law, who will inadvertently put something into full screen mode and then can't figure out how to get out of it. It's a feature I'd like to disable since she has no need for it.

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Answer 5

Sep 13, 2013 11:22 AM in response to Mac and PC user

+1 for me.

This feature frustrates my father so much, he's using his Mac less and less because of it. He's called me many times saying he's lost all his menus, and can't use his computer anymore, and I always have a hard time helping him, because I don't know where to tell him to click to disable it, and he has trouble with keyboard shortcuts (which key is command? etc. )

I wish Apple would have an option so to Disable the avilability of this feature. Surely there's a Terminal Trick?

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