Save Finder window size

AFAICT, the OP is running MtnLion which doesn't have that option. Stupidly, Apple's deigned not to update ML with that feature, needlessly keeping it hidden by default.

I've found this in Mavericks general System-preferences:

If you just want to resize the Finder window and have it open in a specific location here is what you do:

-Open a Finder window by clicking on the Desktop and then using Command-N or File>New Window. Keyboard commands are faster.

-Without doing anything else go down to the lower right corner and size the window the way you want. Then grab the top of the window and position it where you want.

-Press and hold Command-W and the window will close. Don't use the red button in the upper left corner. Always use Command-W.

-Wait a couple of seconds and open the finder window again. It should open to where you just positioned it. If it doesn't then repeat the above and wait longer after closing the window.

This will work for any hard drive you have on your dock, I have Finder windows open in different locations for different drives, and using the Picasso Mac in your Dock, the blue smiley face, should open a different window depending on the OS you are using, and how you have your Mac set up. This may reset after a restart. It does with OS 10.6.8.

Nope - doesn't work for me (Yosemite)

I followed the step for saving the list view as a default and then resized the window to what I wanted. But it did not stick until I went to finder>preferences>general and un-ticked the box "Open Folders in Tabs instead to new Windows". Then the folder size stayed the same.

I cant find

Open Folders in Tabs instead to new Windows

In Yosemite

I have had this same problem since "upgrading" to Yosemite, now to 10.10.3. and the steps outlined don't work.

I can't follow the instructions given to create a new folder etc., as the options aren't there, presumably because Yosemite has changed them.

Create a new folder on the Desktop (CMD+SHIFT+N), open it, select View-View Options (CMD+J), set the window to your desired size and type view (either icon or list view: I prefer the latter), select always open, and then click Use as Defaults button. That should retain your setting and every other folder you open for the first time should also inherit those settings.

I can't now follow these parts:

" (either icon or list view: I prefer the latter), select always open, and then click Use as Defaults button."

There is no option for icon or list view. There is a always open in columns view but no Use as Defaults button.

Also, I would like the width of each column to be as wide as the widest text in any given column. Why doesn't OSX do this automatically?

Is there a solution as its a real pain to constantly widen these?

Yes, I get the little window pop up when I hit ⌘J but it doesn't look like the one in your screen grab. Mine is quite minimal. There's several things apparently missing.

I also still haven't found a way to keep the column widths to the longest folder name or file name in a column.

it works for me to have the default window size ... but it is not working accordingly on the external hard drive...

it is still opening the small window size when i double click on the hard drive...

so how can i set the default window size for the external hard drive?...

cheers,

Thanks for the great tip!

There appears to be a simple solution to this which I have found - if you hold down the 'alt' key whilst resizing and repositioning, the Mac seems to remember this when opening next time around 🙂

This doesn't work, or its intermittent at best.

This has been going on for me since 10.7 (I'm currently running 10.8.5), I've tried doing the "set default folder", deleting the .plist file and relaunching the Finder. Resizing, and turning off and on the "remember documents and windows. But whenever I reboot my Mac, when I re-open windows, they 1. never the same size as I had them before reboot. 2. They are not in the sort mode I had left it. 3. They are never in the same spot where it was before reboot. This happens to every window after reboot.

After rebooting, and I set all my windows back to what it was before reboot, I can close and reopen them, and they will pop back up exactly as I just had them before closing them. But as soon as I reboot my system, I have to start all over again for any window. It's like OS X, has a default setting that it reverts to after reboot, regardless of the settings you set as "default". And no, I won't update to 10.9, 10.10, or 10.11. Chances are, because according to others, this still an issue with Mavericks and Yosemite. Apart from this issue, and a couple of other ones, my system is running as I want it too. Not going to chance messing it up by updating. Usually whenever I update OS, it messes something significant for me. I've just learned to never update unless I absolutely need too. Honestly, if I could I would have stuck with 10.6.x. Imo, that was the best Mac OS ever. Most reliable, stable, and with features that were actually useful. Some of those features have since been removed by Apple. And we either deal with not having them anymore, or we have to use third party software to get them back. My Mac feels more and more like a Windows machine. Things that just worked, and took few steps to do, now don't work properly, and takes several more steps to do. Oh Apple.