02-06-2012, 06:05 AM

Hi All,

Does anybody know of any way to stop Finder from automatically executing a search before I've entered my criteria?

Here's what's happening now (which I want to stop):

I type in a term like "icon" and then Finder starts churning away filling itself with tens of thousands of files that contain that word. After a few seconds, when it decides to relinquish some control, the drop down menu appears letting me tell it to search filenames only. A few more seconds, and I can add some additional criteria like filetype and whatnot.

It gets faster with each subsequent filtration (naturally), but it's still really annoying. What I'd love to do is input all my search criteria simply, neatly, quickly at the beginning of the process and then execute the search.

Is that possible? Natively or with an app?

Thanks in advance,

Z

PS: 2.8GHz Core i7 Macbook Pro (late 2010), 8GB RAM, OS X 10.7.2

02-06-2012, 10:10 AM

There's no way to accomplish this from within Finder that I know of. There are 3rd party search tools that will act to your liking. EasyFind is rather outstanding. Find Any File isn't free, but is a good alternative. In fact, you can set a hot key to launch it any time, either globally or just while Finder is active. You can even set CMD-F to launch FAF in place of Finder's pane for search.

02-07-2012, 08:44 AM

Thanks for the tips. They're much appreciated.

Z