It seems like each year Apple lets us see less of our filesystem. So after logging in for the first time on a new macOS installation, there are a few Finder preferences that I always change.
Here’s what a vanilla macOS Monterey Finder window looks like and then after the changes:
![default macOS finder window showing little information](https://digitaino.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/vanilla_window3-800x417.png)
![the same finder window after the tweaks have been made. highlighting that filename extensions and other changes are showing.](https://digitaino.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/after2-800x379.png)
The first two changes are in the View
menu. Show Path Bar
and Show Status Bar
![](https://digitaino.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/finder_edit-800x467.png)
Now your Finder window will look like this with the two new bars at the bottom.
![](https://digitaino.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/finder_after1-2-800x57.png)
![](https://digitaino.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/show_view_options-1.png)
Then I go back into View
and select Show View Options
In the show view options window I enable Calculate all sizes
. This will cause macOS to also calculate the size of directories and you will be able to sort by Size (including directories) in Finder windows.
![](https://digitaino.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/calculate_all_sizes-337x800.png)
Before and After setting Calculate all sizes
:
![](https://digitaino.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/blank_size.png)
![](https://digitaino.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/directory_sizes-800x347.png)
The last changes happen in Finder > Preferences
.
I enable Hard disks
and Connected servers
so they show on the desktop.
![](https://digitaino.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/finder_prefs1-1-800x440.png)
And then in the Sidebar
and Advanced
tabs:
![](https://digitaino.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/finder_prefs2_3-788x800.png)
Now Finder should look like this:
![](https://digitaino.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/after-800x379.png)
Check out our other posts on customizing macOS:
Nice! Very helpful