Less awful finder (macOS)

gistfile1.txt

# Making Finder Less Awful (macOS)

## 1. Make Finder open to Home (not Recents)

1. Open **Finder > Settings…** (or **Preferences…**).
2. In **General**, set **“New Finder windows show:”** → `[Your Home Folder]`.

## 2. Fix the Sidebar

1. In Finder **Settings > Sidebar**, tick only what you actually want:

   * Home, Desktop, Documents, Downloads, external drives.
   * Untick Recents, Tags, iCloud, etc. if they annoy you.

## 3. Stop Recents from showing up

* Hide **Recents** from the sidebar (see above).
* Ignore it — it’s just a smart search, not a real folder.

## 4. Force List/Column view everywhere

1. Open Finder, switch to **List view (`⌘2`)** or **Column view (`⌘3`)**.
2. Go to **View > Show View Options (`⌘J`)**.
3. At the bottom:

   * Check **“Always open in List/Column view”**.
   * Click **“Use as Defaults.”**
4. For stubborn folders (like Applications), repeat inside that folder.

## 5. Nuclear Option: Reset Finder Preferences

If Finder refuses to remember defaults:

1. Quit Finder (or `⌥⌘Esc` → select Finder → Relaunch).
2. In Terminal, run:

   ```bash
   rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
   killall Finder
   ```
3. Finder will restart with factory defaults. Reapply the steps above.