A couple of times today I managed to inadvertently ~ mindlessly quit Finder — thereby making all my Desktop folders disappear — via a combination of keystrokes which I can't recapitulate. And once that happens, I've had to restart or re-login to regain the Finder window.

Query: Is there any other means by which to relaunch Finder without having to restart or re-login, preferably via a keyboard shortcut?

Running Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5

I take it you can't simply click on Finder's Dock icon to relaunch it? That works for me. (OS X 10.9.2, but I'm pretty sure it worked that way back in Leopard and earlier.)

Edit: Not sure how you're able to inadvertently quit Finder, though. AFAIK, the only way to invoke a Finder quit event within the normal user interface environment is by adding a Quit menu item to the app via Terminal's defaults write command, which I imagine you've not done. Seems more likely that Finder is quitting on its own, which would be symptomatic of some other underlying issue...

I didn't think you could quit the Finder permanently. To me that speaks of greater problems.

However, to answer your question, Command-Option-esc (that last one is the "escape" key, upper left on your keyboard) will bring up the "Force Quit" dialog. In my experience if you Force Quit the Finder from here the Finder will automatically relaunch. Of course, if you have truly quit the Finder prior to this key combination, it may not show as an option in Force Quit. Still, worth a try.

You can Force Quit applications in a number of ways, starting with Command+Option+Escape to call up the Force Quit Applications window. Since Mac OS X won't let you to do that to the Finder except only transiently, that particular one is called 'Relaunch Finder'.

If you did add a Finder Quit menu item—perhaps through a third party interface-tweaking utility—that could easily be ascertained by going to Finder's Finder menu and looking for, well, a Quit item. If that's the case, then your inadvertent quits would have been invoked, not surprisingly, by the ⌘-Q key combination while Finder was the active app.

That was my first thought when it occurred. But because Finder had quit, it was no longer part of the open items which could be force-quit or, in the case of Finder, relaunched.

By George, I think you've got it ....

I now believe that instead of the application I was trying to quit, I inadvertently was actually in Finder when I hit ⌘-Q.
While formulating this response, I tried it out, and that's exactly what happened.
Your recommendation to click on the Finder icon in the Dock (which I didn't even think of, since it's always there) resolved the problem straightaway.

Merci à tous.

Tinker Tool will do this.

> ...I inadvertently was actually in Finder when I hit ⌘-Q.
While formulating this response, I tried it out, and that's exactly what happened.

Is that new behavior? I'm unable to quit Finder with command-Q in Snowy. (Best I can do is command-H hide it.)

OnyX will as well.

I saw that, but grelber hasn't admitted to having done the deed...yet.

Another way is to create an AppleScript containing the single line:

tell application "Finder" to quit

and saving that as, for example, ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/Finder/"Quit Finder.scpt". While you're in AppleScript Editor, go to Preferences->General and put a checkmark on "Show Script menu in menu bar". Now, whenever you're in Finder, you can choose "Quit Finder" from the Script menu. Bring Finder back by clicking on its Dock icon. I've been doing that at least as far back as OS X 10.4 Tiger, and I think even before that. (I didn't start using OS X until OS X 10.2 Jaguar, and I think that's when I started doing this, but all the pieces were in place and would have worked even on OS X 10.0 Cheetah.)

You can set the whole thing up without ever launching Terminal or any third-party apps. Once set up, it's a simple menu selection. Does that count as "within the normal user interface environment"?

Only if you consider AppleScripting to be "normal."

Perhaps I should have said, "within the default user interface environment." Presumably, if one had compiled such a script, stuck it in the Scripts folder, and enabled the Script menu, one would have a hard time running it unwittingly.

To be clear:
As noted in my earlier post, and as I just performed again (ergo, replicable), I merely have to be in Finder (as indicated in the toolbar at the top), hit ⌘-Q, et voilà, all Desktop folders disappear, the little white dot next to the Finder icon in the Dock disappears.
Then when I click on the Finder icon in the Dock, all folders reappear instantly, as does white dot next to the Finder icon.
I have never done AppleScripting (because I don't know how and have never found a reason to use it).
Perhaps I'm using the wrong terminology when I say I quit Finder, but that's what I mean when I use the keystroke combination ⌘-Q.

But you've never responded directly to

I didn't do any of that (inadvertently or on purpose) and wouldn't even know how.

Sorry, but does that mean that you've looked in your Finder Menu Bar for a "Quit" option and not found one?

No, there is a Quit Finder with keystroke pattern ⌘Q appended to the right of the specification (last item in the drop-down menu). That option came with Lion, and I've never messed with it.
My point was originally that I was unaware of being in Finder when I used the shortcut; I thought I was in some other application (eg, Word) and tried to quit it. My fingers did not do their bidding correctly.

Got it, but now your situation has turned anomalous: You seem to be the only user here with an apparently default "Quit Finder" option in your Menu Bar. (I haven't got one in 10.6.8.)

You might not know how to do any of that on purpose, but almost by definition, you could have done so inadvertently without being any the wiser.

I seem to recall your having installed OnyX a while back. A simple inadvertent click in one checkbox out of multiple dozens is all it would have taken...

I would be very interested in documentation of this assertion. I've never run Lion, but using Google, I have been unable to turn up a single reference supporting it.

Does Pogue provide menu-by-menu coverage of Finder?

You are, of course, right (as usual). I just assumed, now having looked for the Quit Finder command in the drop-down menu for the first time ever, that it was original to Lion.
I installed OnyX some time back and ran bits of it once or twice (and got a tad freaked out by its machinations); it must have installed the Quit Finder command "surreptitiously".
I think I'll open OnyX and see if I can remove that option.


No. That's the first place I checked before posting the query in FTM.

Hah!
I opened Onyx and searched until I hit Parameters > Finder > Finder Menu > Show Quit Finder, which was enabled (apparently by default); I unchecked/disabled the feature, and it disappeared from the menu.
I then tried the Quit command while in Finder, and it didn't quit Finder (as one would hope).
Amen to all of that.

Grelber is not the only one here that has the Finder > Quit (also command+Q). I have had it for several years and honestly do not remember in what version of OS X it began in. FWIW I have found it very useful when some Finder operation gets hung and use it reasonably often. It is a useful tool.

Not by default, no. OnyX reads the current state of each of those parameters, then displays those states as the presence or absence of checkmarks in the relevant checkboxes. So when you launched OnyX, the app noted that the Finder Quit menu item was already enabled on your system, and thus displayed a checkmark in the checkbox.

Otherwise—if OnyX applied a set of default parameter values whenever it was opened—you'd have to go through and reset all multiple dozens of them (or however many you'd changed from the defaults) before closing the app, or all your preferred tweaks would be undone.

It is a useful tool, but I don't believe it was introduced in any particular version of OS X. As I said earlier, I believe the only way to add a Quit menu item to Finder is via Terminal's defaults write command

defaults write com.apple.finder QuitMenuItem -bool true

or via a third-party utility which provides a GUI front end to that command. This appears to have been available at least as far back as OS X 10.2 Jaguar.

Then that's all the more a puzzlement. I've never used (and wouldn't know how to use) Terminal's defaults write command, and I can't think of any other app/utility I've got which might install such.
But it's gone now, and I hope it stays that way.

Terminal commands or any other such which could conceivably bugger up the OS I avoid like the plague, since I wouldn't have a clue what I'm doing.

For lack of an alternative, I'll guess that you checked that OnyX box at some point and just plain forgot about it. (It's not like it's something I've never done myself. )

I'm not questioning "Quit Finder's" usefulness; I've had this AppleScript


hot keyed longer than I can remember, and I use it often enough to appreciate having it.

I was only questioning the command's ever having been default in OS X.

Nope. I never messed with anything in OnyX; only used it a couple times briefly "right out of the box", was disturbed by some of the things it could do, and then left it in "cold storage".

Got me beat!

Unless it came and went, it is not present on my Desktops by default in 10.9.x .

It is entirely possible I might have activated Finder > Quit on my desktop or my wife's desktop, at some time in the past. On the other hand, I have made it a point to keep my Server running OS X 10.9.2 completely unmodified and it has Finder > Quit activated. I also checked my grandson's computer in Florida, also running OS X 10.9.2, as well as several friend's Macs also running 10.9.2 and each and every one of them has Finder > Quit turned on. I have no explanation why it is not showing up on your Desktops and it is on Desktops scattered from Texas to Florida. To quote Yul Bryner in The King and I "Tiz a puzzlement."

I've been unable to find a single internet reference to any default provision of a Quit item in the Finder menu in any version of OS X, yet I've found pages and pages of results explaining how to add such an item via Terminal. When such a result has included comments, not a single commenter has claimed to have had a Finder Quit command as part of a default installation of OS X.

I went looking for evidence from the horse's mouth, but found no references to a Finder Quit command—or the absence of one—in the admittedly meager documentation regarding the Finder at support.apple.com. However, an image search there was somewhat more successful: assuming that screenshots posted by Apple to illustrate fundamental concepts are taken from plain-vanilla installations, there's no Quit to be found in the Finder menu in Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion.

I can only suppose those in your informal survey either share customizing inclinations similar to your own or in fact were at some earlier point persuaded by your exposition of the benefits of having a Quit option in Finder.

"I have no explanation why it is not showing up on your Desktops and it is on Desktops scattered from Texas to Florida."

Your statement provides the answer! Clearly it is a geographical issue and California has not yet implemented the "kill Finder switch".

And the "big one" is coming, so it'll all be moot in time. Las Vegas will be beachfront property.