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

PeterMac

I would tell Apple if that were a solution.

Apple is clueless. They probably think 38 pages of users support is only opinions as well.

Here's some helpful info to the forum. Command Control "O" will open a new window.

But it's slow, tedious and lame compared to double clicking. Fact.

As I said, contact Apple feedback. None of us can pop around to your house and perform magic.

Cheers

Pete

One easy workaround to have the natural* behaviour of opening folders in new windows with toolbars visible is to use AppleScript.

* To everyone who used a Mac for the last 25 years

Open the AppleScript Editor and write this:

tell application "Finder"

open selection

end tell

Then save the script as an application. To use it, place (command-drag) the script icon to the toolbar. When you want to open a folder in a new window, select it and then click on the script icon on the toolbar.

This is not as convenient as the LostFinderNewWindow SIMBL plugin, but it's less intrusive since it does not require any other software to function.

P.S. I don't know if anyone else suggested this, and I'm not about to read though 38 pages of posts. And I don't see a topic-specific search function anywhere (thanks Apple).

P.S.#2 Apple, if I wanted the Windows Explorer functionality* as the default behaviour in the Finder, I would use Windows, not a Mac.

* Which is user-customizable unlike the Finder i.e. you can choose "open in new window" as the default behaviour when double clicking on a folder.

Thanks for your Applescript suggestion. That helps although I still feel, that Apple should finally fix this nasty bug.

I am reporting the bug at each and every new OSX update, just to keep them pointing at the bug that crippled the Finder, that had been just fine for about 25 years, until Mavericks was born, making it an irritating, time-demanding, frustrating piece of software.

You should note that the Finder DOES have a way to customize it's behaviour.

In Finder menu -> Preferences -> General tab I keep making sure the checkbox 'Open folders in tabs instead of new windows' is UNchecked.

In my opinion that should mean: 'Open folders in new windows, not in tabs'.

It is that option that doesn't work. Instead of opening a new window the Finder keeps destroying the window I was double-clicking a folder in, overwriting it with the contents of the folder I just double-clicked on.

Adam van Gaalen wrote:

You should note that the Finder DOES have a way to customize it's behaviour.

I am aware of the checkbox you mention, but it only works in 10.8 or older. In newer versions, this option does not exist. It is replaced by the "Always open in Tabs" option, which has different functionality.

I am reporting the bug at each and every new OSX update, just to keep them pointing at the bug that crippled the Finder, that had been just fine for about 25 years, until Mavericks was born, making it an irritating, time-demanding, frustrating piece of software.

I used to do that for iWork after Apple nerfed it. Made no difference. Apple is not going to listen to us. Get used to it.

By the way, apart from the LostFinderNewWindow SIMBL plugin, there are two other utilities that "fix" the Finder. Most users will know of them already, but I felt it was useful to mention them anyway:

TotalFinder is a powerfull Finder customizer with many features.

XtraFinder is more modest if features, but it does allow opening new windows via clicking the middle mouse button. And its free.

"In newer versions, this option does not exist. It is replaced by the "Always open in Tabs""

It DOES exist in 10.10.3! And it's UNchecked! And it doesn't give NEW WINDOWS...

The bug-report has never been closed by Apple, it's still 'under investigation', so there's hope for all of us that have been using MacOS for about 25 years... Like me... Since I had a Macintosh 128k...

Adam van Gaalen wrote:

It DOES exist in 10.10.3! And it's UNchecked! And it doesn't give NEW WINDOWS...

The bug-report has never been closed by Apple, it's still 'under investigation', so there's hope for all of us that have been using MacOS for about 25 years... Like me... Since I had a Macintosh 128k...

OK, I checked Mac OS X 10.8.5, 10.9.5 and 10.10.2. Here are the Finder preferences:

As you can see, from v10.9 onwards, there is no option to open Finder folders in a new Window. It has been replaced with the option to open folders in a tab.

So the way I understand it, Apple has deliberately removed the option to always open folders in a new window, regardless of the toolbar visibility.

The statement "Open folders in tabs instead of new windows" does not imply that folders will always open in new windows.

So it is not a bug, just a design choice (which I think is a very bad one, but that's not the point.)

My first Mac was a Mac Plus with an 20MB SCSI hard drive (yes, MB not GB). So I understand how you feel about it. But this is not a bug, just Apple being Apple.

Ehm, interesting…this is 10.10.3 Beta:

I come from The Netherlands and english is not my native language, but...

In my opinion UNCHECKING the box 'Open folders in tabs instead of new windows' means:

I DON'T want folders to show in tabs, but in new windows.

CHECKING the box should mean (never tried that because I don't want it that way):

I want folders to open in tabs, NOT in new windows.

So, it's either 'tabs' or 'new windows'... Now 'new windows' don't do new windows here!

All 'new windows' does is it destroys the current window, overwriting it with a view inside the folder that has just been double-clicked.

That check box is nothing new. It's the same preference since Mavericks. This is Yosemite, 10.10.2, but Mavericks is identical.

Acyually, there's nothing wrong with the logic behind the checkbox.

But it the labelling is not good. If you checked the box, every folder shoild open in a new tab, right?

NO!

you will find that every folder opens in the same window still.

Wat hat that checkbox actually changes is the behaviour of what will happen when you CMD-double click.

But the user interface around that checkbox does not give any hint that this is what it actually does.

So in the end, were missing a checkbox that toggles the behaviour of a normal double click.

One could say that Apple could've put both a checkbox for toggling the double click behaviour as well as the CMD-double click behaviour, but they actually threw out the first in favour of the second and made same-window navigation the I changeable default for Mavericks and up.

Although I think this his is the more correct interpretation of what Apple has done since Mavericks, what remains is that this Behaviour is crap and should at least remain changeable, like in Mountain Lion and earlier.

You've just re-explained what has been posted numerous times in this topic. We all know this. It's what the entire topic is about.

And what setting do you set to make it work without using two hands - just double clicking the mouse to open a new window? That's what I'm looking for - the behaviour that the Mac has had for the previous couple of decades.

There is a new Simbl available. I haven't tried it yet.

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/56755/mysimbl

This is my first post, username "convince me" was already taken. I'm just coming over from windows - where the double click to a new window speeds my workflow seamlessly - but I'm not sure I'm going to stay. I think there's a different version of intuition here that I don't get. Why change an elegantly functional feature like this?? I'd have no gripe if Apple did it, but allowed me to do a penance contortion once (globally) to opt in to a capability that they don't especially want to promote. That would be kind to the early Mac-adopter-responders who populate this board. But I'm experiencing this "my way or the highway" sensibility at multiple points throughout the platform. It's not intuitive to me.