[Ozzpot]

THIS IS DRIVING ME MAD!

For about 3 days now, the Finder keeps forgetting my windows view options. The Applications folder is the most frequently affected, reverting to unarranged, unsorted jumble of size 32 icons on a white background up to 10 times a day. Other folders are doing it to. Whether I tell a folder to obey "This Window" or "All Windows" rules seems to make no difference. I have restarted several times to no avail.

It all seemed to start after I tried (unsuccessfully) to make an Applescript App to clear the recent items lists in the Finder and empty the trash. I know next to nothing about Applescript, and am worried that my trial-and-error approach may have deleted some important preference file or something.

Can anyone help? Thanks in advance.

[electropura]

I had this happen once. I fixed it by deleting the .DS_Store file at the root level of my boot drive (it rebuilds itself, much as the old Desktop DB did in OS9).

Its a little tricky to find and delete. The easiest way is to download TinkerTool and use it to enable display of hidden files. Then double click on your HD icon...in the finder window, you will see a file called ".DS_Store". You then need to rename it something else without the ".", or else you will not be permitted to trash it. The OS will create a new one.

Log out, then log in. Set your finder windows the way you want them and see if the settings stick.

There are other ways to accomplish this...if you are terminal savvy, I am sure you can do it there too.

[Ozzpot]

Originally posted by electropura:
The easiest way is to download TinkerTool and use it to enable display of hidden files. Then double click on your HD icon...in the finder window, you will see a file called ".DS_Store". You then need to rename it something else without the ".", or else you will not be permitted to trash it. The OS will create a new one.

Thanks, I have TinkerTool, and have found the file... but it will not let me rename it even though I have changed the permissions. How do I get round this?

::EDIT::

Hey! I just had a poke around in Cocktail (to see if it has an option to delete invisible files) and it turns out it has a specific option to delete DS Store files! You just select the folder to zap and it trashes the DS Store file in it!

Seems to be working so far. Thanks for your help.

[electropura]

"but it will not let me rename it even though I have changed the permissions. How do I get round this?"


Yeah. I forgot, I used BatChmod to delete the hidden .DS_Store file. Glad Cocktail did the job for you.

[Dr. Smoke]

An easier way to delete .DS_Store files is with Cocktail:

(1) Download the donationware application Cocktail.

(2) Launch Cocktail.

(3) Select the Files icon in the Cocktail toolbar.

(4) Select the DS Store tab.

(5) Select the Chose button.

(6) In the resulting window navigate to and select the affected disk, volume, or folder. For example, you might want to select your Mac OS X startup disk, or your Home > Desktop folder. There is a .DS_Store file in every folder telling Finder how to display the folder's contents.

(7) Select OK in the resulting confirmation window.

Cocktail displays a sheet indicating when it has completed the task.

[ReggieX]

Turn off the toolbar too.