Permanently disable the Finder
Jul 27, '06 07:30:01AM
Contributed by: Anonymous
I don't know about all of you, but with the advent of Spotlight, I find myself using the Finder less and less. After a lot of searching, I finally figured out how to kill it so it does not restart.
- Open Terminal, found in /Applications -> Utilities, and then type sudo mv /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app /Applications/ -- this will move the Finder into your Applications folder. (You will be prompted for your password.)
- Still in Terminal, type killall Finder -- this kills the process named Finder, and it should not restart! Note that this does not affect the Dock or Exposé.
To start the Finder manually, just search for it in Spotlight, add it to your Dock, or configure it to start when you login. If you want to undo everything and get the Finder back to the way it was, open Terminal (using Spotlight or your Dock) and type:
sudo mv /Applications/Finder.app /System/Library/Coreservices/
This will move the Finder application back to its original location. After logout, it should be automatically started again on the next login.
[robg adds: Just after 10.0 came out, this hint explained how to replace the Finder with any other application -- I'm not sure if that still works or not. Somewhat more recently, this hint explains how to fully replace the Finder with Path Finder.]
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