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Get Finder to sort like Windows Explorer a la terminal
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README.md

Get Finder.app to sort like Windows Explorer a la terminal, because Automate all the things!

A snippet from my Ansible OS X workstation playbook (repo soon). Tested in OS X 10.9.2 Mavericks

Results

Results Note: I've left folder dropdowns. I think I like them for moving files between subfolders, we'll see.

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osx-finder.sh
# Use list view in all Finder windows by default
# Four-letter codes for the other view modes: `icnv`, `clmv`, `Flwv`
defaults write com.apple.finder FXPreferredViewStyle -string "Nlsv"
# Set item arrangement to none (enables folder dropdown, 'Name' if you want to remove them)
defaults write com.apple.finder FXPreferredGroupBy -string "None"
# Sort list view by kind in ascending order (Windows style)
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set :StandardViewSettings:ListViewSettings:columns:kind:ascending true" ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set :StandardViewSettings:ExtendedListViewSettings:columns:4:ascending true" ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
# Sort Folders before files hack (Windows style)
FILE=/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/InfoPlist.strings
# Backup InfoPlist.strings first if no backup exists
[ -f $FILE.bak ] || sudo ditto $FILE $FILE.bak
# Convert InfoPlist.strings to XML
sudo plutil -convert xml1 $FILE
# Add a space in front of 'Folder' string
sudo sed -i '' 's/g\>Folder/g\> Folder/' $FILE > /dev/null
# Convert InfoPlist.strings back to binary
sudo plutil -convert binary1 $FILE
# Remove all .DS_Store files to reset folder specific view options
sudo find / -name ".DS_Store" -depth -exec rm -f {} \;
killAll Finder
@nimbling
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nimbling commented Nov 19, 2015

This performs the "space before folder" hack, does it? Handy!

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