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Add Quit item to the Finder's menu System
How to add a Quit item in the Finder File menu:
  1. In the Finder, got to your user's Library -> Preferences folder and locate the file named com.apple.finder.plist.
  2. Select the file and in the Finder File menu do a "Duplicate File" and drag the copy somewhere else, just in case you screw up.
  3. Double-click the file to open it in TextEdit, or drag it to your favourite text editor icon on the dock.
  4. Search for a line that says:
    <key>PreferencesWindow.Location</key>
    Below this line there is a tag; below that line, paste this code:
    <key>QuitMenuItem</key>
    <true/>
  5. Save the file and log out / login.
You'll see the Finder's File menu has a quit command! Now, whenever you need the desktop to be free of distracting icons, or need all system's resources, you may quit the Finder application. Note the desktop image is still mirrored from the one set for the Finder.

[robg adds: I could've sworn we'd run this before, but I can't find it ... the closest thing I found was this hint on adding Quit to the Dock's Finder menu, and a general hint on freeing RAM by quitting the Finder ... but no explanation of how to add the command yourself.]


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Add Quit item to the Finder's menu | 13 comments | Create New Account
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The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Add Quit item to the Finder's menu
Authored by: Anonymous on Aug 27, '03 10:53:46AM
One word: TinkerTool.

[ Reply to This | # ]
Add Quit item to the Finder's menu
Authored by: gatorparrots on Aug 27, '03 11:39:09AM
This can also be accomplished with a single command in the Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.finder QuitMenuItem 1

To remove:

defaults delete com.apple.finder QuitMenuItem
or
defaults write com.apple.finder QuitMenuItem 0


[ Reply to This | # ]
Add Quit item to the Finder's menu
Authored by: hamarkus on Aug 27, '03 12:29:05PM

How do I restart the finder after that?



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Add Quit item to the Finder's menu
Authored by: swanksalot on Aug 27, '03 12:46:18PM

to restart finder, click it in the dock



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Add Quit item to the Finder's menu
Authored by: mriannnnnn on Aug 27, '03 12:51:17PM

the dock does not shut down. Unless you have removed the Finder icon from the dock you should be able to restart it from there.

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Ian Sheridan
-- While I have done things that I might regret, I do no forget that I am still alive.
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This won't free any resources
Authored by: deleted_user18 on Aug 27, '03 03:01:02PM

This is not Windows 3.11 or Mac OS 9.

Quiting the finder will help nothing for performance and memory. This is Unix, OS X has a decent memory management.

Stop looking a page hits all the day :-)



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This won't free any resources
Authored by: dr_turgeon on Aug 28, '03 08:16:48AM
Try it. The Finder just builds up cruft upon cruft, so most people find that occasionally quiting Finder can fix strange icon behavior as well as assorted other issues. An occassional logout will help as well...but this hint is MUCH quicker.

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Terminal
Authored by: GalainHH on Aug 28, '03 08:40:27AM

Hello,
what about quitting the finder by killing the process in the terminal ?

I found out, that I quitted the finder several times by mistake, so it could be an advantage take the longer way via the terminal.

Do both things the same, or is killing the process a rude way compared to the "Quit" option in the Menu ?

Greetings
Galain



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Terminal
Authored by: zeb on Aug 28, '03 12:19:33PM
As far as I know, if you use kill -15 then you are essentially sending a "software termination" signal which is like quit. If you want to read more about this, drudge through this thread over at the forums: http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12589

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..:: Zeb ::..

zebellis.com

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Terminal
Authored by: aranor on Aug 28, '03 12:49:06PM
Alternately, you could always do osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to quit'

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Add Quit item to the Finder's menu
Authored by: NetCurl on Aug 28, '03 04:06:48PM

This is exactly what Cocktail does. This is nothing new, and I don't think it's a very good hit.



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Add Quit item to the Finder's menu
Authored by: hamarkus on Aug 29, '03 05:26:09AM

Killing/quitting the Finder via the terminal simply restarts it (kill -15). That is also what Cocktail does. Restarting has its own merits but it does not free up any resources.



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Add Quit item to the Finder's menu
Authored by: tiho on Oct 22, '03 03:06:06AM

It did not work playing with file, maybe because I have 10.2. so I just downloaded Tinkertool and it works fine thanks anyway it was fun and time consuming he he.

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Kravata (tie) origin is in Croatia.



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