New Path Finder 4: Replace Leopard’s Finder With A Single Click
Cocoatech’s Path Finder 4, the venerable supercharged Finder replacement for Mac OS X power users, has been updated to support Leopard, including Quick Look, and finally, at long last, it can truly replace the Finder.
For a full rundown on Path Finder’s feature set, check out our earlier review. The most notable thing in the new version (aside from Quick Look support) is that Path Finder can now truly replace the Finder.
To use Path Finder as your default file browser program, just look for the new preference setting under the “Reveal” tab. This tells Path Finder to intercept application calls to the Finder, which means, for instance, that downloaded files in your web browser can now be opened in Path Finder straight from the browser’s downloads window. Previously, doing so was only possible in some applications and required kludgy hacks.
While the release notes say that this feature won’t work in every case, I haven’t encountered any where it doesn’t. The features is of course less Path Finder’s doing than Apple’s since Leopard exposes the file browser call to the outside world, which means that the new feature won’t work for those still using Tiger.
I’ve been a Path Finder user for years, but with the advent of Leopard I attempted to ditch Path Finder in the hopes that Apple’s file browser had finally reached some kind of partial feature parity. I knew the very handy drop shelf would be missed, but Quicksilver can replace that to some degree. Unfortunately, aside from Quick Look, the much vaunted Leopard Finder failed to deliver and as soon as the Path Finder upgrade appeared I jumped right back on the bandwagon.
As anyone who reviews software for a living can tell you, software pretty much sucks. The less of it you need to use, the better off you are, which is why I like Path Finder, it’s like the Finder, Preview, Terminal and more, all rolled into one.
Path Finder 4 costs $35 with upgrades from earlier versions available for $18. This incremental update is free for licensed users and a 21-day demo is available.
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