John Dorsey

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

I am old and set in my ways.  I like having the Finder open a new window when I double click a folder.  Since 1984 I've arranged Finder windows in positions and sizes that suit me and I have never seen any reason to change.

 

In Mavericks however there does not seem to be a way to default to, "double click opens new Finder window".  My choices under Finder preferences are, open in the same window; or open in a tab.  I don't care for either.

 

Does anyone know of a way to restore the traditional Finder behavior in Mavericks?  Thanks in advance.

Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9), 18 GB RAM

Posted on Oct 22, 2013 5:54 PM

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

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  • by Kurt Lang,

    Kurt Lang Kurt Lang Jan 8, 2014 8:13 AM in response to John Dorsey
    Level 8 (37,999 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 8, 2014 8:13 AM in response to John Dorsey

    But this just isn't true.  The defaults are the same, but until Mavericks the user always had the option to revert to the prior folder behavior.  Mavericks removed an optional user setting that (apparently) many users were employing.

    Oh for crimminy's sake! Sorry, while it may seem like it, I'm not trying to be a weenie. I just haven't been paying close enough attention. I've despised the entire sidebar and toolbar thing since its inception and simply won't use it. Waste of screen real estate that duplicates other functions. Every folder I use regularly I collapse to an OS 9 type of folder in List view.

     

    Apple swapped out the old Finder preference of "Always open folders in a new window" with "Open folders in tabs instead of new windows". Nothing you don't already know.

     

    So, like the Save As debacle in Lion, someone, or a group of programmers at Apple decided for themselves that "No one needs this." Sure, let's not ask the users if they agree, or make it a switchable option.

     

    I went back to Snow Leopard to see where this option was stored. By clicking the Finder window option on and off, the state is saved in the user account preference file com.apple.finder.plist as the key:

     

    <key>FinderSpawnWindow</key>

         <true/>

     

    "False" if you've got it off.

     

    You can get this key into the preferences by opening Terminal and entering…

     

    defaults write com.apple.finder FinderSpawnWindow -bool true

     

    …but Mavericks ignores the key. Even if you restart, or quit the Finder to force it into reading and loading the preferences again.

  • by John Dorsey,

    John Dorsey John Dorsey Jan 8, 2014 8:22 AM in response to Kurt Lang
    Level 2 (427 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 8, 2014 8:22 AM in response to Kurt Lang

    Actually I wish I could keep the sidebar and lose the toolbar.  I think we used to be able to do that too in an earlier version of OS X.  The sidebar is very handy for quick access to mounted volumes and favorite folders without having to find a clear path to the desktop where the volumes are otherwise accessible.  E.g., mount a .dmg, click to it from the sidebar of an existing Finder window, run the installer (or whatever's there) and then click back to where you were before.  It's also good for dragging files to favorites.  The toolbar is useless.  (Well - sometimes I use the search field.)

     

    Your point about the com.apple.finder prefs is really the most telling part of this whole thing, because it means that Apple didn't just unthinkingly substitute one preference for another in the Finder prefs, but affirmatively removed the capability from the Finder.  It was a decision, not an accident.  And getting them to "revisit a decision" is a tougher row to hoe than "fixing an oversight".

  • by Scottish Crossbill,

    Scottish Crossbill Scottish Crossbill Jan 8, 2014 9:11 AM in response to John Dorsey
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 8, 2014 9:11 AM in response to John Dorsey

    Thanks for the link. I too have filed a complaint - completely baffling loss of functionality for, so far as I can see, no gain whatever. After the iOS7 debacle I am beginning to wonder if Apple employ anyone in a design capacity who is over 25.

  • by ChoreoGraphics,

    ChoreoGraphics ChoreoGraphics Jan 8, 2014 12:48 PM in response to Scottish Crossbill
    Level 2 (220 points)
    Jan 8, 2014 12:48 PM in response to Scottish Crossbill

    Its not just Apple, I am seeing the same problem wide spread. I have been doing Graphic/Web design for over 25 years on Mac-only and have over 100 repeat corporate clients. Most of the companies I deal with apparently run little more than a "jobs" program. These new employees (mostly kids with a piece of paper as evidence that they were indoctrinated) have to impress the boss to keep their job - so every week they have to make it look like they have done something. In this case, someone conciously changed the Option Key modifier to the Command Key modifier for absolutly no reason (there can be no justification for that). Then they went on to reverse the Default behavior... why (nothing gained but confusion).

     

    I have made a 6-figure income for many years with the Mac OS and "professionals" that make their living with a Mac get in to a routine to where you play the keyboard very much like playing chords on a piano with their left hand. These finder keyboard and default changes are the equivalent changing the finger position for chords on a guitar after you are an accomplished musician. Someone(s) kept a job or got a promotion over making these bird-brain decisions when they should have been fired, but you can't just pay people to sit there and do nothing as they are hired to fix something that isn't broken under the guise of making an improvement!

     

    Bottom line is the new people in charge simply lack "experience", so we all have to suffer from their incompetence. Again, not just Apple - I am seeing this in almost every Company (including the Government), and I don't see it improving in my lifetime.

     

    All the defenders say in defense, is "un-install" and go back to what you like. The question is what consumer was complaining about having to use the Option Key instead of the Command Key in the first place? Not one. A "upgrade" should add or improve functionality, not just jumble things up for the **** of it.

  • by wakazashi,

    wakazashi wakazashi Jan 8, 2014 10:12 PM in response to ChoreoGraphics
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 8, 2014 10:12 PM in response to ChoreoGraphics

    100%

    +1

    Like

    Etc...

     

    Apple needs to revert this BS. Bring back the old way of using the finder!

  • by petermac87,

    petermac87 petermac87 Jan 8, 2014 10:17 PM in response to wakazashi
    Level 5 (7,402 points)
    Jan 8, 2014 10:17 PM in response to wakazashi

    wakazashi wrote:

     

    100%

    +1

    Like

    Etc...

     

    Apple needs to revert this BS. Bring back the old way of using the finder!

    FEEDBACK    http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

     

    Pete

  • by FootFun,

    FootFun FootFun Jan 9, 2014 1:08 PM in response to John Dorsey
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jan 9, 2014 1:08 PM in response to John Dorsey

    Hold option and double click on the folder and it will open it in a new window.

     

    Hope that helps!

  • by Kurt Lang,

    Kurt Lang Kurt Lang Jan 9, 2014 1:20 PM in response to FootFun
    Level 8 (37,999 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 9, 2014 1:20 PM in response to FootFun

    Yes, pretty much everyone already knows that. It has been mentioned numerous times in this topic.

     

    The complaint is that before Mavericks, you didn't have to hold a modifier key to open a nested folder when the sidebar and/or toolbar is active.

  • by ChoreoGraphics,

    ChoreoGraphics ChoreoGraphics Jan 9, 2014 1:30 PM in response to FootFun
    Level 2 (220 points)
    Jan 9, 2014 1:30 PM in response to FootFun

    If you hold down OPTION and Double-Click, it does "appear" to launch a new window (rather than just repopulate the already opoen window), but the only difference I see in using the OPTION key is that you lose the "Back" button in the upper left of the new window - not sure why anyone would want to do that???

  • by John Dorsey,

    John Dorsey John Dorsey Jan 9, 2014 2:01 PM in response to ChoreoGraphics
    Level 2 (427 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 9, 2014 2:01 PM in response to ChoreoGraphics

    You mean, why open into a new window versus the same one?

     

    There are quite a few reasons.  If you open folders into new windows, you can arrange the different windows in different places and with different characteristics, and keep these windows closed until you need them.  One window might be tall, and open in List view to show the last 40 or 50 documents or folders you've worked on.  Another might open in icon view to allow you to identify and open photos by sight and not filename.

     

    When you open a folder into a new window, you can see both the files in the original window and the files in the nested folder, at the same time - you don't have to switch back and forth.

     

    It's also easier to copy or move documents between different Finder windows than it is within the same window.

     

    Also when you've got a new window, the back button is sort of superfluous.  There's no "back", because the prior window is still right where it was before.  And the new window is easily closed with a mouse click or cmd-w keystroke (which has remained unchanged since the dawn of Macintosh and is pretty well baked into a lot of fingers).

     

    Those are just some things that come to mind.

  • by Adam Woodhams,

    Adam Woodhams Adam Woodhams Jan 9, 2014 2:44 PM in response to FootFun
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Jan 9, 2014 2:44 PM in response to FootFun

    FootFun wrote:

     

    Hold option and double click on the folder and it will open it in a new window.

     

    Hope that helps!

    Yes... but the original window that was open disappears... the previous behaviour was one that allowed the windows to remain open and allowed what I described as 'organic' navigation.
    All of the changes have resulted in linear navigation being the only way of handling your files. Unless of course you go the route of hiding the toolbar (and therefore massively reducing functionality) and you apply that change to every folder one-by-one.

  • by cmaus,

    cmaus cmaus Jan 9, 2014 3:05 PM in response to Adam Woodhams
    Level 1 (16 points)
    Jan 9, 2014 3:05 PM in response to Adam Woodhams

    That's the classic behavior!

     

    Classic behavior:

     

    Double click: Open folder in new window

    Option-Double click: Open folder in new window, closing the previous one

     

    Why did Apple get rid of the first behavior but still kept the second?

    Stupid!

  • by petermac87,

    petermac87 petermac87 Jan 9, 2014 5:22 PM in response to cmaus
    Level 5 (7,402 points)
    Jan 9, 2014 5:22 PM in response to cmaus

    Use the Finder Tabs. You can always Command - Double click and then control - open in new window. Or untick that option for Tabs in finder preferences and just command - double click. That will give you a new window.

     

    Not te same I know, but the classic function is simply not there at present.

     

    Cheers

     

    Pete

  • by BLBo,

    BLBo BLBo Jan 9, 2014 6:40 PM in response to John Dorsey
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 9, 2014 6:40 PM in response to John Dorsey

    I've been using a Mac since 1988 and this is the biggest mind job in it's OS history! I'm constantly closing windows by accident because I'm mind set on more than 1 window being open. I then have to go to... reopen... reopen... then i motot memory click my track pad to close and it's the same bad story! Maverick needs to fix this option. I clicked on Mountain lion install and had a finder message that I couldn't install it over Maverick.

  • by petermac87,

    petermac87 petermac87 Jan 9, 2014 6:51 PM in response to BLBo
    Level 5 (7,402 points)
    Jan 9, 2014 6:51 PM in response to BLBo

    Correct. You need to erase your drive and reinstall the backup you made before choosing to install Mavericks. You have never been able to install an old osx over a newer one.

     

    Pete

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