Help Your Older Mac Feel Snappier – Disable Finder Media Previews [OS X Tips]

The OS X Finder keeps getting cooler and cooler, with animated window minimizing and live media previews. When you’re in icon view, the Finder updates all the image and video thumbnail previews in real time, making stuff easier to identify. This does take a toll on performance, however, which is important if you’re rocking an older Mac, like many of us.

One solution to help the Finder feel snappier is to turn off the image and video preview feature, and here’s how to do just that.

Head to the Finder by clicking on the icon in the Dock that looks like a little happy face. IF a window doesn’t automatically open, open a new window by hitting Command-N on your keyboard, or selecting the New Finder Window from the File menu. Click on the View menu, then choose Show View Options, or just hit Command-J on your keyboard.

Now, uncheck the box next to Show icon preview, and will stop the Finder from creating media previews of both images and videos. You should see a significant increase in the responsiveness of your Mac when using the Finder, and it may even help it feel snappier across many other applications that use the live media preview system.

You’ll still be able to use Quick Look if you want to see a live preview of any Finder item, as well, as this will not affect that system.

• Via OS X Daily

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