How to Change View Options for ALL Finder Windows?

Use as Defaults is supposed to carry over to all newly opened Finder windows, but it doesn't change any previously opened windows. If you want to revert all previously opened windows to that view, follow these steps:

Launch the Terminal app (in /Applications/Utilities/), copy & paste this command into the window that pops up, and hit the return key:

sudo find / -name ".DS_Store" -exec rm {} \;

At the Password: prompt, carefully enter your admin password, since nothing shows up on the screen, and hit the return key. When the default prompt, usually the $ sign, pops up again, quit the Terminal app, restart, and open a Finder window, set it up the way you want, and click on Use as Defaults button. All subsequently opened or created folders should retain that view.

Hello there, GreenAppleCore.

The following Knowledge Base article provides some great pointers in regards to your question:

Mac Basics: Modify your windows

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2487

Particularly:

Change the view and view options

• Depending on your window's view, you can modify how it displays its contents.
• To change a Finder window's view, click the appropriate button in the toolbar, or choose as Icons, as List, as Columns, or as Cover Flow from the View menu. (For more information on Finder window views, see The Finder.)
• To customize the window further by view, choose View > Show View Options.
• If you choose List, Icons, Columns, or Cover Flow view, you can choose whether to apply your settings to only the current window or to all windows. Select the appropriate checkbox at the top of the View options window.
• In each view option you can modify what displayed and viewable. For example, with Columns view you can modify the text size, and icon and preview column visibility. In List view, you can modify the icon and text size, select what file information to display in columns, and more.

Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.

Cheers,

Pedro.

I ended up having to use

sudo find / -name .DS_Store -delete; killall Finder

which is basically the samething you posted, but this one worked, possibly killing Finder was the difference?

running Mavericks

I tried this and can't seem to get it to work... this is the message I get back in terminal:

I"m running latest version of Yosemite on a 27" late 2011 iMac. Any help would be much appreciated thanks guys!

Make sure to have a backup before running any terminal command listed in this thread. One typo and it will erase your hard drive. See After Performing simple Terminal Command Mac 10.10 won't boot properly

Hi Baltwo. I hope you don't mind me latching on here quickly.

Your command above works as advertised for me. What I tend to do for myself and others is make them into Automator applications and embed the command into an Applescript..

Usually in this way when using sudo in one, instead of ;

sudo ******* ******, you might type;

do shell script "******* ******" with administrator privileges.

My problem is when there are quotes in the actual command itself as per below. How might I get around this, (I think the semi colon may present an issue too)?

on run {input, parameters}

do shdo shell script "find / -name ".DS_Store" -exec rm {} \;" with administrator privileges

returreturn input

endend run

Cool, thanks for that. Seems to have half solved things. The semi colon though is an issue.

I get the following message;

Expected “"” but found unknown token.

(The semi is highlighted and appears immediately before the quote mark).

BTW, shall I start a new thread do you think?

sorry to bother you but, does this take a while? I ran the script about an hour ago and so far haven't seen the $ prompt. Here's what I have so far -

Ryans-MacBook-Pro:~ ryanamick$ sudo find / -name ".DS_Store" -exec rm {} \;

Password:

find: /dev/fd/3: Not a directory

find: /dev/fd/4: Not a directory

nfs server localhost:/l9kBnD88pKDocUpXdF3Gh_: not responding

nfs server localhost:/l9kBnD88pKDocUpXdF3Gh_: not responding

nfs server localhost:/l9kBnD88pKDocUpXdF3Gh_: is alive again

Thanks for any help you could offer

Hi baltwo,

just tried the sudo find / -name ".DS_Store" -exec rm {} \; command;

it seems like it somehow messed up my finder, when I launch the finder I find myself in some "upper" directory,

and it didnt do any good in terms of changing the finder view options.

Is there anything I can do to reverse the effects ??

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

ps. I'm using mavericks

All I can suggest is to restore the bootable backup (clone) or Time Machine backup. Yours is the first to mention such behavior. What do you mean by "when I launch the Finder"? When you reboot, the Finder is automatically launched; the Desktop with the top menu bar and Dock is the initial Finder window.

I was referring to the Finder in the Dock. When I start it the first time, it leads me to some upper directory as described before; when i close and reopen it, this doesen't happen anymore - only when I restrat the computer or restart the finder via "force quit applications".

Clicking on the Finder's Dock icon just makes the Finder the top-most app and brings all open Finder windows to the front. It does not launch the Finder. Post a screenshot of this upper level directory, so we can better troubleshoot your issue.

It worked for me on El Cap. I got an output similar to this:

Screen+Shot+2014-12-06+at+7.37.35+AM.png

But when I rebooted and opened a finder window, all directory views had been reset to the default as desired.

Worked for me. Followed your instructions, copy and pasted code to avoid mistakes, and now perfect all windows open as I want.

Using a MacBook Pro 2013, running ElCapitan.

When I first started using Macs, you could not get Folders to display first and the files (as in MS windows), now mine does, has this been now been changed to allow the OS to do this.

I'm guessing the code deletes all the previous memorised display characteristics of each folder, so you are (after running the script) in effect opening each folder for the very first time and it is taking it's view options from the default.

Thanks