Comments on: Remove Finder from the Command+Tab Application Switcher in Mac OS X

By: Stefan Bernerer

Stefan Bernerer — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 13:52:54 +0000

Thanks for the article!

Do you know of a way to hide other apps in this way?
There are some background-apps I would like like hide.
I know of tools like WindowFlow etc. I’m only interested in hiding certain apps when using Command Tab.
Thanks for your feedback.

Regards, Stefan

By: John

John — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 15:17:37 +0000

@Vincent Yeah… I thought I’d like this, but the side effects are more annoying than hitting Cmd+tab an extra time.

The other problem with the Desktop is a deal breaker for me. Any items that are in your Desktop folder no longer show up.

Using the hot corners or a keyboard shortcut to display the desktop to work with files/folders on your Desktop is a totally broken workflow with this enabled.

By: Vincent

Vincent — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 19:21:16 +0000

@Philip Harrison: Same Problem. I dont have the Finder Menubar when i’m clicking on Desktop.. shit!

By: anti

anti — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:34:09 +0000

So I did this for the sake of quicker cmd-tab switching and while it did remove Finder from the App Switcher, when I deleted the two lines of code that I wrote to reverse the process I know get the dreaded “The application Finder can’t be opened. -10810″
So now I’ve got no access to folder hierachies or any of my files really, just apps.
Also my top bar is blacked out (mostly transparent) until I open an app like Firefox or iTunes in which case it will appear and function like normal but close the app and it returns to its negative state.

On a possibly related note (since Finder is everything) I have tried multiple ways to reformat my MBP and it just hangs on the Mac OS X Installer screen until I have to Hold-Power-button-to-kill like on my good ol’ Windows PCs.

Any advice or is it Apple Store Genius Bar time!!

By: Philip Harrison

Philip Harrison — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:14:01 +0000

This has annoying consequences. You cannot cmd+h (hide) the last app standing and you can’t make the finder active in the menu bar by clicking on the desktop.

By: Juan

Juan — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 21:27:26 +0000

I use Alfred for most of my file searches and navigation, but I can’t help but notice. It seems like Finder isn’t running? The dock icon has no indicator under it and clicking on the desktop doesn’t change the Menu Bar to Finder. I can still open Finder windows with no problem, but I was just wondering, what happened to the little light?

By: Stephen Dwyer

Stephen Dwyer — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:45:20 +0000

Finder is basically an application, why wouldn’t you want to access it? You can always quit out of the file system if you don’t use it.

By: Mohammad Badi

Mohammad Badi — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:47:42 +0000

Wonderful tip. the finder was an item there that cannot be closed by cmd+Q which was pretty useless. More space!

By: Michael Spencer

Michael Spencer — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:21:13 +0000

Why would using a laptop (or not) matter? Not tying to pick a fight, just want to understand your idea more thoroughly.

I use the excellent Show Finder, which might work for those times you need the Finder running?

There’s also the (much) easier process of simply quitting the finder. You can add command-Q through a number of utilities.

By: Nando Vieira

Nando Vieira — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:17:08 +0000

@designdisorder: just did it. I never navigate files/directories from finder. I do it from the terminal, then when I need to do something visually, just run `open .`.

Also, I’m using Alfred a lot to navigate files.

By: designdisorder

designdisorder — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:17:20 +0000

I am wondering why anybody USING a laptop would want to do that. I am not talking about casual users here. They will not be able to turn this feature off anyway.