Path Finder by Cocoatech

Path Finder 5 has an integrated and secure purchasing system that allows you to easily buy or upgrade to Path Finder 5. It supports purchasing via credit card as well as Paypal, and automatically registers the application once you have completed your purchase.

Path Finder should automatically detect if you are a registered owner of a previous version of Path Finder and charge you the upgrade fee instead of the full license price. This only works for single upgrade copies, however - if you own multiple licenses of Path Finder, you will need to contact us directly to purchase your upgrade.

Manually Entering your Registration: You can manually enter your registration in the About Path Finder window (Path Finder > About Path Finder).

You may be running a version of Path Finder that is incompatible with your operating system. Path Finder 5 requires Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard or higher, and there are separate downloads for Leopard and Snow Leopard. If you are running Mac OS X 10.4, we offer unsupported earlier versions of Path Finder for download. Please download the appropriate version for your OS.

If you are already running the correct Path Finder version and you are still having crashing or launching issues, please get in contact with us and we'll do everything we can to help you troubleshoot the problem.

The vast majority of applications support Path Finder with absolutely no compatibility problems, but some applications go one step further and had special integration built in.

A small list of examples include:

• A-Dock
• Quicksilver
• Butler
• Name Mangler (free, powerful bulk file renamer)
• DragThing
• Default Folder X
• LaunchBar
• Change Desktop
• PathFinderHack

Some applications do require Apple's Finder to work properly as they are hard-wired this way. If you would like to see compatibility added for one of your favorite apps, visit our forum and let us know!

Before removing Path Finder make sure to reset the Preferences that tell the system to use Path Finder by default. Those settings are…

• Path Finder > Finder > Show Finder Desktop, check this to make sure you can see the Finder desktop.
• Path Finder > Hide Path Finder Desktop, check this to make sure Path Finder's desktop is not obscuring the Finder's desktop.
• Path Finder > Preferences > Reveal and uncheck “Set Path Finder as the default file viewer”, to make sure any system broadcasts of “Reveal in Finder” go to the right place.
• Path Finder > Preferences > General uncheck, if they are checked…
  • Launch Path Finder automatically after log in
  • Quit the Finder automatically at launch
  • Hide Finder's desktop

To remove all traces of Path Finder, delete the following (some of these may not be on your system)

• File: /Applications/Path Finder
• File: /Users/(username)/Library/Contextual Menu Items/Path Finder CM.plugin
• Folder: /Users/(username)/Library/Application Support/Path Finder
• File: /Users/(username)/Library/Preferences/com.cocoatech.PathFinder.plist
• Folder: /Users/(username)/Library/Caches/Path Finder
• Folder: /Library/Application Support/Path Finder

While this used to be possible, Path Finder can not completely replace the Finder on Leopard or Snow Leopard. Path Finder is unable to duplicate some of the functionality that is embedded in the Finder, such as automatic Time Machine backups, so quitting or removing the Finder will break these features. A few applications are hard-wired directly to the Finder and are unable to communicate with any other file browser.

That said, Path Finder includes a handful of options to help you become less dependent upon the Finder:

• Set Path Finder as the default file viewer - If this option is enabled in Path Finder's Reveal preferences, applications that include a “Reveal in Finder” function will use Path Finder instead. This option adds a special key to every application's preferences file requesting that the application recognize Path Finder as its file browser. While this should work in most cases, it is unfortunately only a suggestion and some applications may ignore it.
• Launch Path Finder automatically after login - If set in Path Finder's General preferences, this will start both Path Finder and the Finder upon user login.
• Enable Finder's 'Remove from Dock' - Choose this menu item from Path Finder > Finder to allow the Finder icon to be removed from the dock, whether or not it is running. Once the option is enabled, right-click or control-click on the Finder icon in the Dock and choose “Remove from Dock.” This will allow the Finder to run silently in the background.

Unlike Microsoft Windows, OS X's open and save dialogs are a core part of the operation system and do not belong to any particular file browser, despite mimicking the appearance of the Finder. There is no way for Path Finder to override this behavior.

Note that this is not supported by Cocoatech, so proceed at your own risk.

The Dock sends an internal “hey you!” (called an AppleEvent) specifically to Apple’s Finder. The solution is to make OS X think Path Finder is the Finder. (Note: This may cause some problems if the AppleEvent that is being sent isn’t supported by Path Finder; results may be unpredictable.

• Right click on Path Finder and select ‘Show Package Contents’.
• Go into the ‘Contents’ folder and edit the PkgInfo document.
• Edit the PkgInfo file with a text editor and change it to “FNDRMACS” (without the quotes)
• Save.
• Quit Path Finder and relaunch.
• Quit the Finder (see command in Path Finder menu).
• If you change your mind later, repeat the above procedure but be sure to change the PkgInfo file back to the original value of “APPLPFdR” (without the quotes)

Unfortunately, the dock trash is “hard-wired” to Apple's Finder, so clicking on the trash icon will not display a window with the items currently in the trash, and the “Empty Trash” dock menu item does nothing.

A quick workaround is to use Path Finder's dock menu (click and hold, or control / right + click on the Path Finder icon in the dock) - there is an “Empty Trash” menu item there that will empty the trash. Or, use the quick key to empty the trash: Shift + Command + Delete.

With a little configuration, Path Finder can support the Mac OS X built-in desktop changing mechanism.

First, you'll need to set Path Finder's desktop to transparent. You can do this by:

• Show the Path Finder desktop (Path Finder > Show Path Finder Desktop)
• Bring the desktop “forward” (click on it and make sure it is the frontmost item)
• Open the view options palette (View > View Options or Command+j) - you should see “Desktop Options” at the top
• Click on the “Set Colors…” button, select “Desktop” in the drop-down menu, and make sure that “Show Desktop Background” is NOT checked.
• Now you'll need to deactivate the Apple Finder's desktop. In Path Finder, open (Path Finder > Preferences) and switch to “General”. Uncheck “Hide Finder's desktop” and relaunch the Finder when asked.
• Now set your Desktop Background preferences in the System Preferences application as you like and the automatic changing mechanism should work with Path Finder.

If you prefer a more elegant solution, we recommend the fantastic freeware program ChangeDesktop by Brian Bergstrand. Not only does it integrate perfectly with Path Finder, ChangeDesktop also has a lot more features and functionality than Apple's Desktop preferences. It's great!

Mac OS X has a built in application called “Activity Monitor” that can take a sample from Path Finder, even when it's frozen, and tell us what it's doing. It is very easy to run and can help tremendously in tracking down bugs. Please see the instructions on taking a sample.

Look in the menu bar and select the menu with the name “Path Finder”. In that menu choose “Hide Desktop Trash Can”. If you would like to show the trash can later, repeat the above steps.

On OS X, most applications and some documents are special folders called “Packages”. A package is a regular folder, but since it’s marked as a Package, it is treated like a file.

Path Finder has a setting in the View menu called “Show Package Contents”. Choosing this option tells Path Finder to ignore the Package attribute and treat packages as ordinary folders. You must have turned on this setting. Go to the View menu and choose “Hide Package Contents” and all of your applications will now work as expected.

Show Package Contents is a great feature when you want easily navigate into an application or document to examine its contents.

I'm afraid not, the open and save dialogs are a core part of the operating system and don't belong to any particular file browser, despite mimicking the appearance of the Finder.