10.11.6 from bad to worse - El Capitan is a mountain of problems

I use it and I've never had to disable SIP. Of you course you don't use it and know you need to disable SIP. 😁

Well, I don't know about all the features of all. Xtra Finder for example is the only one, I think, that sorts folders first (see the old thread of some time ago) and that is one feature that needs fs access.

As I said previously, I thought you were thinking of TotalFinder or XtraFinder. Both are Finder "enhancers" and do need SIP disabled for some of their features to work. PathFinder is a different program altogether. Just because they all end in "finder" doesn't make them the same.

Try rebooting into safe mode ... hold the control-option-shift keys when starting and before the gray screen and then release after the apple appears.

It works for me but of course, major things no longer function under safe mode such as the video card (uses my cpu video, instead) on my early 2011 MacBook Pro quad core i7. Nasty, laggy video!

They've really blocked me in because even though I have the older installer, it won't verify on the app store so it won't let me install to earlier El Capitan (pre-security update).

My first problem was that my Elgato Thunderbolt doc wouldn't work?

That was followed by periodic, frequent complete machine crashes. A few are reproducible so I can test stuff.

Fortunately, I have an old Mountain Lion Installer as well as a Yosemite installer and the computer works perfectly with either of these running it.

Too bad I listened to AppleCare Support because they insisted that I update my previous 10.11.1 drive (which worked normally!), telling me that it must not have had the unknown, incompatible software on it so it would be fine. I was stupid to have trusted them! Instantly upon running the update the crashing returned! Worse, that was my only copy of the older ElCapitan so, now I'm screwed unless Sierra fixes it but I doubt it will?

This was a $3,600 Mac that they've killed and I can't afford to replace it!

I can at least access my files with the older Yosemite and Mountain Lion boot discs but most of the stuff won't run on older apps because Apple changed the library formats on photos, etc.

This really *****!

"They" have killed nothing.

10.11.6 works fine for the vast majority of users.

The fact that it works in Safe Mode is a clear indication that some software you have installed is responsible.

If you insist on using the machine in the current instalation you are determined to not get rid of the problem.

Do a clean install on a separate drive and test. You are bound to see that it works just fine.

Running Etrecheck on the affected machines usually gives a number of good suspects - among them old and incompatible software, antivirus and so-called "cleaners".

You have an antivirus "ESET Cyber Security". Antivirus are not needed on the Mac.

Incredible answer and advice !!

Who are you to say this foolish thing ?

And who are you to doubt him?

One (among lots of others doing the same job), who's fixing all year long Mac environement with no security and antivirus.

As well as one who has given no help to anyone on this forum, unlike Luis.

Off topic. No relation with my initial comment.

😁