How Do I Reset The Finder Windows Positions?

Normally, you drag them to where you want them and they should then stay there. Is this not happening? What does happen?

As Eric Root says,when you close a Folder window, the locations, size, and arrangement of items in the Folder is generally stored in the Folder's hidden .DS_Store file.

If you are having problems with a Folder remembering this information, you can try removing the .DS_Store in that Folder. The easiest way to do this is via an Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal session

rm -i $HOME/path/to/the/Folder/.DS_Store

Be VERY VERY CAREFUL with the 'rm' command as there is no going back. Files deleted this way, cannot be recovered.

EDLIU wrote:

Hi,

I tried to sudo nano the .DS_Store file, and there's nothing in it...

Thanks.

Ed

Because the information is in the resource fork of the file.

If you you own the folder, you should not need to use sudo. Carelessly using sudo is very dangerous.

ls -daleO@ .DS_Store/rsrc

So what does the commend "ls -daleO@ .DS_Store/rsrc" do?

man ls

ls - list

-d If this is a directory, just show the directory (actually not needed for .DS_Store as it is not a directory)

-a show any hidden files

-l long output format

-e display any Access Control List (ACL) information if it is attached to the file (man chmod)

-O display any file flags (man chflags)

-@ display any extended attributes attached to the file

/rsrc - if there is a resource fork attached to the file, display the information about the resource fork.

You should actually do this to both the .DS_Store and the .DS_Store/rsrc

ls -daleO@ .DS_Store .DS_Store/rsrc

if you want to know everything about the file's metadata.

List files? And, how I edit the file?

You don't, unless you have some kind of tool to access the binary file that the Finder creates.

You original request was to reset your Finder window positions. You delete .DS_Store for each Folder, and the Finder will forget where it previously placed that window.

So I cannot edit the .DS_Store file?

You can try, as I do not know how good you are at working with binary files. When I try to edit a .DS_Store on my system I see:

^@^@^@^ABud1^@^@p^@^@^@^H^@^@^@p^@^@^@^P^L^@^@h^K^@^@

lots and lots of ^@ with occasional other characters mixed in.

So what will it happen if I delete the .DS_Store file? Will my iMac's all Finder Windows be reseted?

The Finder will forget information about that Folder. Where it is positioned on the screen, how the files in the folder are arranged, etc...

If you are concerned, create an experimental folder, put some junk files in the folder (stuff you can delete later). Arrange things in the experimental folder, play with the size of the experimental folder.

Now delete the .DS_Store for that file. See what happens in a safe experimental way. If you like the results, apply the same to folders you want to reset.

"for each Folder", what do you mean?

If you want to reset more than 1 folder, you would repeat the .DS_Store for each folder that you are interested in resetting.

I can "choose" the Finder window that I want to reset? How do I do that?

In a Terminal session start by typing (cd for change directory, followed by a space)

cd

Now in the Finder Click and Drag the desired folder icon to the Finder. This will put the path to that folder as a text string on the command line after the 'cd ' you just typed on the Terminal.

Do I enter the following command?

>>rm -i $HOME/path/to/the/Folder/.DS_Store

How and what should I enter in the command(to select the folder)?

Once you 'cd' to the desired folder, you can then just enter:

rm -i .DS_Store

to remove the .DS_Store file.

There are utilities that will allow you toggle the Finder's ability to show hidden files (.DS_Store is a hidden file) if you prefer staying away from the Terminal. Google "Show Finder hidden files" and you will find lots of pointers to different ways of doing this.

Can you be more specific? Do you want me to open the Finder Window, and Click & Drag the folder(which is on my desktop) to the Finder Window?

The Folder that owns the .DS_Store you want to play with has to have an icon somewhere. Click and drag the Folder icon.

If you happen to have the Folder open, then there is a little Folder icon in the Folder's title bar, which you can drag and drop on the Terminal window as well, which will do the same thing.

Again, do all of this with an experimental folder, that way if something goes wrong, it will be for a folder that you can happily throw in the trash.

Another stupid question, if I entered the "sudo nano $HOME/path/to/the/Folder/.DS_Store", will it create a file named ".DS_Store"?

nano can create a file called .DS_Store, but it will NOT be a file that the Finder will understand. By default nano will not create a new file until you enter Control-O Control-X. If the file name you specific does not exist, then unless you enter Control-O, it will not create a flie.

The folder position has not changed...

Then I apologize, as must have been wrong about where position information is being stored.

BTW, when I ran the "sudo nano" a few days ago, it showed a "nano .DS_Store" file. I entered Control-X. Is there any way I can check whether a file named .DS_Store was created.

Use the 'ls' command. You can use the drag and drop the folder icon trick to provide the path to the folder for the ls command to work on.

NOTE: Any Folder that the Finder has opened and displayed, will have a .DS_Store file, so it is difficult to know if you created it or if it was created by the Finder.