Viewing Devices

I've always wanted a way to control the 'View' for a 'Window'. I found it difficult for 'External Drives', DMGs, CDs, CDRs, and other 'Devices' that invariable open with icons on my Desktop.

The simple solution is to use a 'Finder' window, rather than the window provided when you double-click the device to open it. That window will always be an icon-view because that's the default view of the Desktop, and the opened device window inherits that same view.

So, how can you control the View? Start by making sure the Finder will open its own windows in the best way to facilitate what you want. With Finder showing as your current application at the upper-left of the menu-bar, click on "New Finder Window" (or cmd-N) under the File-menu. The window that opens needs a 'Sidebar', which is a panel on the left side of the window with a 'Favorites' list, and below that a 'Devices' list. If you don't have a Sidebar, then under the View-menu, click on "Show Sidebar" to turn it on [which becomes "Hide Sidebar" so you can turn it off, if ever!].

If your Sidebar doesn't show 'Devices" toward the bottom, then open Finder's Preferences, select the Sidebar icon, and then turn ON all the choices under Devices, and close the Preferences window..

Now, mount a Device', listed in the first paragraph above. An 'External Drive' might consist of one or more 'Volumes'. Each will appear on your Desktop as an icon of a 'Disk'. If you double-click a Disk, a window will appear with icons of the Disk's contents. Similar things will happen with DMGs, CDRs, etc.

But instead of double-clicking to 'open' the window, open a Finder window. Under the Devices label you'll see the names of all the mounted items, plus "Network'. The first item should be your 'Computer Name' as given by the 'Shared' item in 'System Preferences'. 'Leopard-Guertin' is my computer name, so that's the first Device listed. If you single-click that in your Finder window, a column-view of all the Devices will appear to the right of the Sidebar. That's because with the Sidebar, the Finder's window is set to column-view.

Single-click any of those devices (except Network) and a column-view of that device should appear to the right. If your device is a disk with folders, clicking on a folder will extend your column-view another step to the right. You can adjust the width of each column by clicking on the lower-right corner of a column, including the Sidebar column, and a marker will appear that allows you to click-drag that corner left or right.

But if you prefer a list-view, then single-click the device in the Sidebar itself. Whatever view it opens with is the default for that device, BUT you can change it from Finder's View-menu by just checking the type-view you desire. In the image below, you can see that the devices are listed twice, in the Sidebar itself, AND in the selected Computer-Name view as a separate column-view. Clicking a device in the 2nd-column will open a 3rd column-view to the right.