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Finder - get lost
- Thread starter ShikariMR
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you might want to explain what you want better. the Finder is the main screen on your mac, the computer boots up to it. then you go where you want.
you could add Safari to your Login Items (in System Preferences, Users & Groups) so it opens when you startup your mac.
you could add Safari to your Login Items (in System Preferences, Users & Groups) so it opens when you startup your mac.
I suspect it's something else doing that, but, please explain why you think it's Finder.
First, my gratitude to those who respond so thoughtfully on Apple.
All I can say factually is that Finder comes up top left, but it is then a real prblem getting it out of the away to allow use of Safari. or anything else, for that mattter. Long periods of rotqting colour wheel is about it. If I select Hide Finder it might go briefly, but it recurs with no logic time after time, and blows away what I am doing via Safari or iA, or Favourites. If I can spot the logic of this I can no doubt work round it. It seems to have begun with ElCapitan. ProbablyI am missing some great value and relevance of Finder but for the kind of use I make of a computer (professional writing) it seems to serve very little purpose that I can see - so far!
Many thanks for assistance so kindly offered..
All I can say factually is that Finder comes up top left, but it is then a real prblem getting it out of the away to allow use of Safari. or anything else, for that mattter. Long periods of rotqting colour wheel is about it. If I select Hide Finder it might go briefly, but it recurs with no logic time after time, and blows away what I am doing via Safari or iA, or Favourites. If I can spot the logic of this I can no doubt work round it. It seems to have begun with ElCapitan. ProbablyI am missing some great value and relevance of Finder but for the kind of use I make of a computer (professional writing) it seems to serve very little purpose that I can see - so far!
Many thanks for assistance so kindly offered..
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command + Q will now quit Finder in El Capitan.
command + tab (then tab-tab-tab) will allow you to scroll through open applications, including Finder.
You can also hide Finder by hitting command + H.
You can minimize Finder by hitting command + M.
command + tab (then tab-tab-tab) will allow you to scroll through open applications, including Finder.
You can also hide Finder by hitting command + H.
You can minimize Finder by hitting command + M.
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When all windows are closed, how can Finder block you from doing anything else?
You can switch to Safari or whatever you want by switching to it in with the Dock. You can use the other application even if Finder is hanging.
If Finder is hanging a lot, you might want to to try to find the root cause for that. It could be a failing hard drive or corrupted file system.
Wow...
You can't quit Finder with Cmd-Q, at least on a default install of OS X.
You can hide a finder window, but it's only temporary, and doesn't affect what the OP is reporting.
You can minimize a window, but that does not "minimize" the Finder - which makes no sense at all.
@ShakariMR = if you choose to click outside of app windows, the Finder will come to the front. That is how it works.
Try it out: Open your fav word processor, or Safari, or whatever else you wish.
Have your app window, or Safari browser window, etc, open. In the example of Safari, Top left menu next to the will say Safari. Click anywhere outside of that window, and the menubar will change to something else, likely Finder.
So, the Finder is now in front.
Click again inside your chosen app window, and notice that Safari comes back to the front (Safari next to again)
Finder doesn't return on its own accord - outside of your request (clicking outside of your chosen app window.)
Another tip that may help you is to learn to use "Command-Tab" (Try it!) to whatever other open apps you have open at that moment.
You can't quit Finder with Cmd-Q, at least on a default install of OS X.
You can hide a finder window, but it's only temporary, and doesn't affect what the OP is reporting.
You can minimize a window, but that does not "minimize" the Finder - which makes no sense at all.
@ShakariMR = if you choose to click outside of app windows, the Finder will come to the front. That is how it works.
Try it out: Open your fav word processor, or Safari, or whatever else you wish.
Have your app window, or Safari browser window, etc, open. In the example of Safari, Top left menu next to the will say Safari. Click anywhere outside of that window, and the menubar will change to something else, likely Finder.
So, the Finder is now in front.
Click again inside your chosen app window, and notice that Safari comes back to the front (Safari next to again)
Finder doesn't return on its own accord - outside of your request (clicking outside of your chosen app window.)
But you do need to know why it pops out at you from time to time, and keep your "clicking" under control. The finder will let you work that way, too!
Another tip that may help you is to learn to use "Command-Tab" (Try it!) to whatever other open apps you have open at that moment.
Yes, command +Q will quit Finder in El Capitan. It functions the same as the "quit" option in the old Activity Monitor. By quit, I mean all drives will disappear from the desktop, all Finder windows will close. command +Q now functions as it does for any other application. This has been the case from day 1 on my 2015 iMac with no modifications.
If you click on the desktop, a window will reappear, but that's just the system acknowledging you clicked into Finder again (via the Desktop). Hiding an application is as permanent as the user wants. Windows should not appear without activating the application again.
If a window is in the way (as the OP said), minimizing allows access to windows that may be sitting behind a Finder window.
Could we get a screenshot of this behavior (Command + Shift + 5)?
Edit: Command + Shift + 3!
Edit: Command + Shift + 3!
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On my system (El-Cap10.11.2) cmd+Q does nothing to a Finder window, whereas it quits most all other applications.
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err maybe (cmd+shift+3)
Maybe this is something unique to Late 2015 and beyond hardware? I was surprised to see this happen when I first got the machine. command + Q has worked from day 1.
Trolled by my own computer! The delay between pressing the command made me think that 5 was correct.
Not on my El Cap system. It's not a default action in the system. It would be a setting that you have turned on. OnyX allows you to turn the finder Quit command on, for example.
I don't have a brand new Mac (2012 mini), so can it be a standard function with newer hardware? I don't know the answer to that question.
agreed, and your explanation is better than mine...
Still not sure if that is the issue that the OP has, I was doing a bit of grabbing at straws, your impression may be correct, particularly if the OP has a small screen/MBAir or MacBook.
However, after checking, the OP SEEMS to have a 2008 iMac, which should not be a "small screen" issue at all.
So, quite old hardware, running El Cap. Maybe just a problem with the hardware getting in the way of the software, where the graphics card may be giving the OP some challenges with the UI.
What an amazing unseen army... maybe I have been suffering from Windows 10 fall out I am always amused (at muyself) when I find that some difficulty I have has been foreseen by Apple and the answers are all there. To put it brefly, I have made some suggesgted changes and now Finder comes up but will connect to Safari or iA or Scrivener immediately with one touch. I have to say that the help I am being given on here is a thousand times more relevant and useable than anything I find in the various commerciialy published 'manuals'.
To have such generous advice coming from so mahy widely separated places is amazing, inspiring, and as Eliza Doolittle might say in My Fair Lady "Bloody marvellous!" Thank you one and all
To have such generous advice coming from so mahy widely separated places is amazing, inspiring, and as Eliza Doolittle might say in My Fair Lady "Bloody marvellous!" Thank you one and all
Again my sincere thanks. It seems in part to be a question of ensuring that all the start up chain is as it should be; or to put it another way realisiing that the Aple Mac intellect is really as good as it seems. if the user gives it even half a chance.
outside of the command-tab switcher, that isn't default behavior. perhaps you're running a third-party app to do that?
Hide and Minimize shortcuts have always been there, or for at least as long as I have used OSX. The Quit command was functional out of the box on my 2015 iMac.
how do you use this? if you're in the finder, and hit command-Q, what happens?
All windows close, external drives disappear from the desktop, the dot under the application dock icon disappears. It quits, permenently, like any other application. No relaunch. I just unistalled Onyx, because I remember Finder working this way before I installed the application. Finder still quits. I didn't activate anything by command line. This is a 2015 iMac bought in November.
The finder is not "like any other application". The system will pop finder right back up when needed.
Test it by "quitting" Finder.
Click anywhere on the desktop. Finder will immediately show as active.
There will be many common situations that will call for Finder to be active. The only way to avoid that is to disable the Finder, or just continue to work in one app.
I think even the app switcher (Command-Tab) requires the Finder to work. I could be wrong about that, but the Finder won't stay away for long on a standard OS X system.
Test it by "quitting" Finder.
Click anywhere on the desktop. Finder will immediately show as active.
There will be many common situations that will call for Finder to be active. The only way to avoid that is to disable the Finder, or just continue to work in one app.
I think even the app switcher (Command-Tab) requires the Finder to work. I could be wrong about that, but the Finder won't stay away for long on a standard OS X system.
Finder now appears to operate like any other application. Quitting does not relaunch the application, neither does clicking in the desktop. The application switcher still works for me.
not to burst your bubble or anything, but...i enabled command-Q for the Finder just now in onyx. and...works. when i went to 'revert to defaults', that functionality disappears.
can anyone else confirm? i still think command-Q is NOT a default Finder option...