Windows Explorer for Mac OS X

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Morning y'all....

I am kinda tired of using finder in OS X and was hoping there was a free application out there that was more like Windows Explorer.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
 
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Macintosh Explorer.

PathFinder

These are the only viable options I know of for OSX.

I don't understand how you'd get tired of Finder and want Windows Explorer...I get so frustrated at work trying to deal with Explorer.

Anywho, good luck.
 
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surfwax95 said:
I don't understand how you'd get tired of Finder and want Windows Explorer...I get so frustrated at work trying to deal with Explorer.

I wish I could find something MORE like the Finder to replace Windows Explorer on my Windows machines....
 
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No friggin' joke. It's so slow and counterintuitive....and ugly.
 
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Are Finder and Explorer even that different? I have no problem going back and forth between the two.
 
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Finder confuses me. OS X is unix. Okay, fine, unix with some pretty colors. Same thing. In unix, the way to denote a "hidden" file is to precede the file name with a period. That's it. But, for some reason, finder considers some additional files to be "hidden" as well. I also can't find a way to view these hidden files (or actual unix-style hidden files, preceeded by a period) in finder. Apparently the only way to navigate my file system for real, and without third-party software, is to open up a terminal and do it the old-fashioned way.
 
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You can enable the hidden files to show up in the finder through the terminal I believe.

OS X is not just UNIX... it's unix with classic Mac OS baggage, which means there are some unconventional ways of doing things, as well as the traditional unix stuff. (Resource forks are, I believe, a leftover "feature" from the old classic Mac OS days).
 
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RChickenMan said:
Finder confuses me. OS X is unix. Okay, fine, unix with some pretty colors. Same thing. In unix, the way to denote a "hidden" file is to precede the file name with a period. That's it. But, for some reason, finder considers some additional files to be "hidden" as well. I also can't find a way to view these hidden files (or actual unix-style hidden files, preceeded by a period) in finder. Apparently the only way to navigate my file system for real, and without third-party software, is to open up a terminal and do it the old-fashioned way.

To view hidden files, just open Terminal and type:

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

Then, to reverse it, just change "TRUE" to "FALSE".

You'll have to relaunch Finder to have it take effect. Just type "killall Finder" in a Terminal window.
 
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surfwax95 said:
No friggin' joke. It's so slow and counterintuitive....and ugly.

Well, Finder definitely is the part of OS X that needs the most improvement (hopefully with 10.5), but saying it is counterintuitive, in comparison to Explorer, is a bit exagerated.
There's nothing much intuitive in Windows in general, and only because you're used to "the Windows ways" for years doesn't mean it's intuitive, you just got used to the way it works, and adapted to it. Therefore learning something different, like the Mac OS (X and pre-X) seems strange and confusing...but that's with all new things.
The slogan "Think different" wasn't chosen randomly, and it still applies to anyone who wants to try something new, thus different.
 
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Avalon said:
Well, Finder definitely is the part of OS X that needs the most improvement (hopefully with 10.5), but saying it is counterintuitive, in comparison to Explorer, is a bit exagerated.
There's nothing much intuitive in Windows in general, and only because you're used to "the Windows ways" for years doesn't mean it's intuitive, you just got used to the way it works, and adapted to it. Therefore learning something different, like the Mac OS (X and pre-X) seems strange and confusing...but that's with all new things.
The slogan "Think different" wasn't chosen randomly, and it still applies to anyone who wants to try something new, thus different.

I think surfwax was replying to bagss' comment about replacing explorer with something more finder-like. He was saying Explorer is counterintuitive.
 
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Correct. ^

Explorer is counterintuitive, slow, and ugly. Not Finder. :)

I've never owned a Windows computer. I am only forced to work on a Windows machine at work and I know just enough to open the Adobe apps I need and shut it down (although it does it on it's own often enough). ;)
 
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Avalon said:
Well, Finder definitely is the part of OS X that needs the most improvement (hopefully with 10.5), but saying it is counterintuitive, in comparison to Explorer, is a bit exagerated.

Ok, we've skated around this question before, but never really discussed it. What in the Finder is it that everyone seems to think needs so much improvement? Maybe I've been using Macs for so long I just don't see it, so can someone please fill in the blanks here?
 

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Baggss, I love Finder overall, but I am sure they can improve a few things if they wanted to if you know what I mean. Nothing is ever perfect, but I will say this, Finder to me is a lot better than Explorer and I have used windows since 3.0. I started using Macs later. There are a few little things they can improve on, but if they ever make Finder like XP's explorer, I will not buy it nor use it. Overall of anything I have used including OS2, Amiga, Atari ST, probably 50 different versions of Linux, every Graphical Windows ever made, I find OSX the most friendly and easy to use overall of anything I have ever tried. I never got to mess with NextStep but from the video I saw of it being run, It would be nice also, like OSX is now!
 
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My one *big* complaint is that Finder cannot exit a network gracefully. If it loses the network (wirelessly anyways) Finder totally locks up and a force relaunch is necessary.

A better way of viewing exif data and info items.

That's about all the complaints I have.
 

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Surfwax, I have noticed that Network problem is a lot better after the last major update, 10.4.7 I believe. It used to sit there for maybe 40 seconds on my iMac G5, but after that update, 5 seconds or so and it asks me what to do. I have tried it over and over, and it's fast now on this machine.
 
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surfwax95 said:
My one *big* complaint is that Finder cannot exit a network gracefully. If it loses the network (wirelessly anyways) Finder totally locks up and a force relaunch is necessary.

A better way of viewing exif data and info items.

That's about all the complaints I have.

Yes, that is also my major complaint. And also automatically refreshing a Finder window on a network volume is way too slow, even on a gigabit network. When network connection is abruptly lost, Finder just hangs for a while with the spinning beach ball, and that is simply way too Windows Explorer-like. :cool:

And sorry I misunderstood your earlier post... :eek:neye:
 
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dtravis7 said:
Surfwax, I have noticed that Network problem is a lot better after the last major update, 10.4.7 I believe. It used to sit there for maybe 40 seconds on my iMac G5, but after that update, 5 seconds or so and it asks me what to do. I have tried it over and over, and it's fast now on this machine.

Hmm, have to try that. Thanks for the heads up. :cool:
 
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I wish the finder had an "up" button like explorer does instead of a back button. I know there's the path button to view, and go to, higher folders, but just having a simple up button would be so much simpler IMO.
 
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avcabob said:
I wish the finder had an "up" button like explorer does instead of a back button. I know there's the path button to view, and go to, higher folders, but just having a simple up button would be so much simpler IMO.
you can also hit cmd + up arrow
 

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