OS X – Open a New Window for Folders Instead of a Tab

With the arrival of Mac OS X Mavericks, we were lucky enough to have a plethora of new features, some amazing and others not so great. But one of the best new features that it offered was tabbed window support, which made it so when you opened a new Finder it would launch as a new tab and not a new window. Although this cuts down on clutter when browsing through files, it can also be a bit annoying when you want to be able to view two folders at the same time.

Luckily there are a few ways to work around this fiasco so you can open a new finder as a new window instead of a tab in the OS X finder by utilizing several tricks or by changing the default. We will go over both of the method and then you can decide which one you want to approach to change your settings.

As a side note, there is always the possibility to open a new Finder window by using the hotkeys Command+N at anytime while you have the finder active. This will automatically create a default in launching a new window within your home folder unless you decide to change those settings.

1)     Option+Right-Click to open new Finder window for a folder – The easiest option to open a new window when opening a folder is to utilize the option key as a keyboard modified and then right-click the folder. When you hold down the option button you will see a pop-up box open up that will have an option that says “Open in New Window”. Simply select this option and it will then launch the new folder in a new window rather than a new tab. The best part about this first option is that it does not require you to change the settings of your computer and it is very easy to do.

2)     Create the default setting to open new windows – If you prefer not to have to hold down the option key every time you want to open a new window you can change the default setting on your Mac. It is a fairly easy process but may take a minute to set it as the default.

First you will want to go to the Finder menu and click the preferences option. Then there will be a tab called General; from there you will want to uncheck the box for “open folders in tabs instead of new windows”. After that simply close the finder preferences and you have now set the default setting to open folders in a window rather than a new tab.