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Disable fullscreen mode
- Thread starter Baklava
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Well, you can either hack every app to remove the little button in the top right corner, or find the part of the system that controls Full Screen and delete it.
The first is time-consuming, and may affect code-signing of your apps; the second may break some critical part of the WindowManager. And it will get re-applied by system updates.
The first is time-consuming, and may affect code-signing of your apps; the second may break some critical part of the WindowManager. And it will get re-applied by system updates.
The problem is, some of my "old folks" clients don't know that they accidentally entered full screen, don't remember how to get out if they get in, and keep calling me because "the menu and dock disappeared."
Yes, I do keep telling them how to fix it. Yes, I have written it down for them.
Is there a way to just permanently disable full screen mode across system wide?
Thanks,
Rob
Fair enough. I do customer training at an Apple Premium Reseller and I do come across the same thing a lot!
As far as I know, however, there's no way to disable it... at least not without significant modification to the OS.
The problem is that other icons, such as the floating Jing icon linger right at the full screen hot spot. Just have the mouse pointer out of position by one pixel or click one millisecond too soon, and you are forced into Googling an arcane keystroke that you forgot. Life should not be this difficult, especially for a feature that some folks don't want/need in the first place.
There's a really good reason for wanting to disable fullscreen mode for me. I use DVD Player, a lot. When an app enters the "Apple" fullscreen mode, it switches back and forth as if it were a Space, but the problem is when CMD-TAB switching the window that was open previously in the Fullscreen app is not restored. Until you press the key combo for fullscreen mode again.
In DVD player particularly this causes tremendous problems resuming playback if for any reason you need to switch out while in fullscreen mode. I didn't have this problem in Snow Leopard as it was seamless - CMD-TAB back and forth no worries. Now if I want to switch back to DVD player and continue watching my movie, I have to hit CMD-F once to make the app come out of fullscreen mode (the screen does not change even though the app is supposedly out of fullscreen mode), and then I have to hit CMD-F again to finally get back to my movie, and even then it's glitchy.
This is why I hate Fullscreen mode as it is in Lion and later. Is there honestly no way to just kill it completely? It's very frustrating having Apple shove things down my throat when they don't even work right.
In DVD player particularly this causes tremendous problems resuming playback if for any reason you need to switch out while in fullscreen mode. I didn't have this problem in Snow Leopard as it was seamless - CMD-TAB back and forth no worries. Now if I want to switch back to DVD player and continue watching my movie, I have to hit CMD-F once to make the app come out of fullscreen mode (the screen does not change even though the app is supposedly out of fullscreen mode), and then I have to hit CMD-F again to finally get back to my movie, and even then it's glitchy.
This is why I hate Fullscreen mode as it is in Lion and later. Is there honestly no way to just kill it completely? It's very frustrating having Apple shove things down my throat when they don't even work right.
I also *hate* full screen mode
most apps have the shortcut defined as "Enter Full Screen" so you can map that to some random key combo that you're unlikely to ever hit.
via System Preferences:
System Preferences -> Keyboard -> App Shortcuts -> All Applications -> + -> "Enter Full Screen" -> finger gymnastics
via Terminal:
> defaults write -g NSUserKeyEquivalents -dict-add "Enter Full Screen" "$~^@F"
(I have mine mapped to shift+control+option+command+F.)
meta key legend:
@ = Command
$ = Shift
~ = Option
^ = Control
most apps have the shortcut defined as "Enter Full Screen" so you can map that to some random key combo that you're unlikely to ever hit.
via System Preferences:
System Preferences -> Keyboard -> App Shortcuts -> All Applications -> + -> "Enter Full Screen" -> finger gymnastics
via Terminal:
> defaults write -g NSUserKeyEquivalents -dict-add "Enter Full Screen" "$~^@F"
(I have mine mapped to shift+control+option+command+F.)
meta key legend:
@ = Command
$ = Shift
~ = Option
^ = Control
Last edited:
It's inconsistent
In 10.9.5 (Mavericks), clicking the green window button just maximizes the window. In 10.10 (Yosemite) it puts the app in full-screen mode. I just tested it on two Macs side-by-side. This type of inconsistent behavior is likely the reason why so many of us hate full-screen mode. You never know when you're going to get it or why or why not.
In 10.9.5 (Mavericks), clicking the green window button just maximizes the window. In 10.10 (Yosemite) it puts the app in full-screen mode. I just tested it on two Macs side-by-side. This type of inconsistent behavior is likely the reason why so many of us hate full-screen mode. You never know when you're going to get it or why or why not.
The biggest issue I have with fullscreen mode is the inability to have other apps 'overlay' on top of the fullsceen app. For instance the DirecTV plugin likes to now use OSX fullscreen mode for watching TV in the browser, which then means I cannot use other software to overlay on top (like my bike workout trainer software).
I am pretty much forced to install Windows 7 on my Mac Mini in my workout room now as there is now no way I can watch TV and display my current workout progress on the same screen under Mac OS. And the DirecTV plugin does not seem to have any option to not use OSX fullscreen mode that I can find.
Apple should make this feature optional, so you can have fullscreen apps simply display a fullscreen window in the current space and not require a whole new space.
I am pretty much forced to install Windows 7 on my Mac Mini in my workout room now as there is now no way I can watch TV and display my current workout progress on the same screen under Mac OS. And the DirecTV plugin does not seem to have any option to not use OSX fullscreen mode that I can find.
Apple should make this feature optional, so you can have fullscreen apps simply display a fullscreen window in the current space and not require a whole new space.
I use VLC for this reason (although I haven't upgraded to Yosemite yet) and it's great for this reason. It has the option to go fullscreen without the Apple fullscreen mode, so it simply covers the whole space, doesn't create a new space. Don't know if you can link it to your online TV or not, but maybe worth a try...
Have you solved it?
I have googled and everybody talks about Option+Green button. **I don't want to press Option, I just want to press the green button**
The fullscreen mode is one of the worst implementations ever. That and the removal of "Save as".
I strongly agree with both of these. What is up with Apple taking away two frequently-used, useful features? If I wanted fullscreen mode to be the default, I'd use Windows. And lack of Save As has caused me to overwrite the wrong file more than once.