Mavericks Finder - how default to "double click opens new window"?

I haven't been on these pages in ages, but this new Finder behavior got me searching Google and I finally came here to see what people were saying. I, too, have sent Apple feedback requesting that a simple double click of a folder within a folder results in a new window. Having to play with tabs or hold down a key or even use the back button in the window, all are counter-intuitive and time consuming. I've been using Apple computers since '96, and I've been using OS X since 10.0.2, and every OS along the way has allowed for the double-click to open a folder into a new window. I'd like to know what brainiac decided that twenty years of finder behavior needed to become MORE complicated, not less. I can only hope that a check box will appear in an update that will allow us to go back to simply opening folders within folders with a double click.

Oh, and if some mod here (one of the reasons I stopped coming here is that what had been an open, helpful forum became a place for quick-fingered censoring and people trying to run up their post counts) feels that my use of the term "brainiac" is a reason for deleting this post, oh well.

Right.

Send feedback, feedback feedback!

This is not Windows! 😠

I have given up and reinstalled mountain lion. For me what little mavericks brings to the table are negated by the things it takes away or breaks. Mountain lion does what I need and is stable, there is only do much u can improve on something and then the rest becomes change for the sake of change or it starts a becoming buggy bloat ware. I am do happy to be back on mountain Lion and no longer have to deal with this anymore

This may be the best suggestion i've gleaned from all this " key this and key that and stand on your right foot and shake your left" stuff.

Hi Phillipboston,

Let Apple know what you've done,and why.

I am waiting to see what,if anything,Apple might do when they release an update. Since installing Mavericks I've encountered restarts that fail,and 90 second waits before the computer sleeps. And then there are the appalling changes,such as the double click folders lunacy,and the abysmal beyond belief dots that have replaced coloured labels.

I have submitted my feedback already. I don't like the new labels either. Like I said and it bears repeating, Mavericks brings very little useful features for most people in my opinion and is unstable, which is bad enough, but then it takes away useful BASIC features. It feels more like a downgrade. At some point in a product lifecycle, esp with software, you'll reach the point where you've added all the features you need and made all the improvements, at that point, it starts becoming bloatware with unnecessary features that maybe a small minority finds useful for the sake of justifying it's price, maybe that is why Mavericks going forward is free. Apple has probably come to the same conclusion, there is only so much you can improve/add to what is essentially an Operating System that provides basics functions to make a computer work, how much can you improve on this concept before there is nothing else left but adding useless stuff and change for the sake of changing? I think OS's have reached that point 5 years ago like word processors did 10 years ago.

Couldn't agree more..For me OSX peaked for usefulness with Snow Leopard.

Two things:

1. Not being able to open finder folders by double-clicking really makes me angry. My first Mac was purchased in the early summer of 1984--the original 128K Mac. Finder windows opened by double-clicking even then.

2. I haven't found any instability with Mavericks. For those who have, do a safe boot. Start your Mac and hold down the shift key until you get the gray slider bar at the bottom of the screen. It will take a while, but log in. Wait a minute or two for things to catch up after the desktop appears and then reboot normally. It's possible the shutown will take longer than normal. Caches will be rebuilt and your hard drive will be subjected to a better-than-normal directory check.

The problem with going back to Mountain Lion is that the under the hood stuff in Mavericks is pretty impressive. There will be a longer battery life with all Mac portables along with better use of whatever RAM you have in your Mac because of the compressed memory feature in Mavericks. Also, your Mac should run a little cooler and feel a little snappier because apps that are in the background won't use as much of your CPUs.

The battery life and compressed ram features work in theory, but in my case I didn't notice any improvements. I looked at the RAM usage in Maverick and it is about the same as Mountain Lion. The longer battery life is great, but it was advertised as "up to" an hour extra. In the days of 5 hour battery life, that is alot, but I'm running a MacBook Air with Haswell and that thing gets 15 hours already, so not a big deal in my opinion and in my case even worst, because the fan turned on a lot more under Mavericks whereas before I barely ever heard the fan go off in Mountain Lion. The final straw was when it crashed the Finder on top of all the other issues.

I put in my feedback. First time ever. I'm overwhelmingly upset with what is really just the tip of the iceberg for a user since the mid/late 80s. IOS 7 design, looks as sterile as the windows PC did in those days, and now this operating system change that almost Exemplified the PC of those days is not even a preference we can change. It seems utterly ridiculous that it should upset me this much...but it is something I do Constantly and is just the straw that has broken this loyal user's back.

Something is missing, at the heart of Apple design, and I don't know if it can be a Polyanna thought of the "rigidity" and ceasless drive of what I have heard was Steve Jobs (I only know what I have read, never actually met him) when it came to the details, but that is what it seems to me...the Overall Big picture, and the details.

I took my brand new Macbookpro out the box today, which I had been waiting and saving for for literally Years, and there was no Apple smell. And...The box seemed like it was a shirt box from JCPenny. Nothing against JCPenny, but I don't want my new computer unboxing to feel like that. I had even called a friend to be "semi" with me, while I unboxed it, to share the experience...So disappointing...Okay, so i'm a fanatic...who else notices and looks forward to the smell and joy of opening their exquitely packaged Apple products...maybe just me...but i'll bet not.

When I opened my New iPhone 5S...It Flew out of the box and onto my counter, as I got the top off. it was balanced so precariously on the tiniest of a ledge at the top of the box, I couldn't believe it. All the extra cords and headphones were all snuggled safely down inside the box while i'm scouring my brand new phone looking for cracks and thanking God that It landed on the counter and not my tile floor.

And as long as i'm at it...almost the exact same thing happened when I opened the new Airport Extreme "tower". it sat so High and off balance, when I took the huge cover off the top of the unit, it too Flew off of its Tiny pedestal ledge and fell all the way to the floor (carpeted in that room at least). I couldn't believe that this was an Apple Product so Poorly thought through in its packaging that it could come tumbling out on to my floor. It had to be the same person or idea...Look how nicely this displays on a shelf...as long as no one touches it/them.

I have talked about Apple packaging and design details my whole adult life, and marveled at every beautiful piece of design that came through their doors...right down to the smell, as I said before. Who is watching out for those things now. The smell could be something that only someone as passionate as I am for my Apple products can appreciate (but most people do "understand and appreciate New Car Smell and this is like that to me), but the Huge flaw that was the packaging of my two very recent items, and now this almost laughably absurd inablity to open multiple windows as we have Always been able to do...are just very sad to me.

I hope I enjoy my computer far more than what I'm feeling right now...I don't buy it because it is just the best tool for the job, it is a part of me...and at least i know this part Can be fixed if they choose to do so. I'm just a little worried and disheartned about what might be next. It is after all only a computer, but for some reason, they just didn't feel like that before.

I feel a little better, just getting this out of my system. : )

jpmindstorm....

hi...hope you are feeling alittle better....

Hi Hope108,

It actually did help, and Yes, I feel much better. Thank you. 😉

I'm too... phillipboston

After 3 days with Mavericks I went back to Mountain Lion... Not because ML is so good but because Mavericks is so bad! The first time after 24 years of Mac doing I will not update to a new system version...!!

No professional work, Apple!

LOL...yeah everyday, I think I will go back to Snow Leopard.

It is fun, however to be on the cutting edge.

Rarely has it ever been that I have actually had the latest system, in almost 20 years on a computer.

So that is fun.

For me, Snow Leopard's Mail is so much different. Those who kept upgrading to Lion and ML, at least have stayed up to date.

Basically relearning Mail and the issue of movie openings and previews, so far, have been the major hurdles for a video professional.

Plus, on the 2yr old 2011 iMac, I have, things are definitey running slower now. Guess one has to buy all new programms that are optimized for this new system.....sigh

I want exactly the opposite, but that's not possible either. I want every new folder, no matter from where I initiated the opening, to be openend in a new tab. Even from other spaces, for example out of iTunes ("Open in Finder").

At the moment, even the trash bin opens a new window. No possibility to change that behaviour. The new tab feature is definately unfinished.