Did you know you can add the Quit option to the Finder’s application menu? This allows you to easily quit the application. After quitting you can restart Finder by clicking on the Finder icon in the Dock.
Finder
Display the file extensions in Finder
File extensions (.jpg, .txt, .pdf, etc) are normally hidden by default in OS X. You can either set all extensions to be displayed through the following command:
OS X: How to quickly hide the desktop icons
Do you often have to do a presentation on your Mac and don’t want others to see what’s on your desktop? It’s possible to quickly hide the icons on your desktop. Launch Terminal and enter the following command.
Disable ‘Preferences’ menu option in OS X Finder
It is possible to disable the OS X Finder menu option: ‘Finder ▸ Preferences’ (cmd⌘ + ,). This will prohibit setting changes in the OS X Finder application.
Finder: Disable ‘Go to Folder’ menu option
Disable the menu option: ‘Go ▸ Go to folder’ in the Mac OS X Finder menubar.
Activate OS X Finder in Simple mode
The ‘Simple Finder mode’ hides desktop files, and won’t let anyone open a new Finder window. Only applications in the Dock can be launched. Note that Spotlight can still be used for launching items. This command could be a nice alternative for setting up restrictions without a guest user account. Click Finder ▸ Run Full Finder, and then type in your admin password to start Finder in normal mode.
Display full posix path in OS X Finder title Bar
When browsing into the Finder folders, you may lose your current path. You can enable the path view (like View ▸ Show Pathbar) in the title bar of the Finder window. The command show the complete posix path in the title bar.