FinderPop Is The Tool Apple Forgot To Put Into OS X.

The Mac is chic and successful again, and that means higher prices for Mac software, right? Yes, of course. That’s how a capitalistic society works.

So, just when you were afraid there would be no more free utilities for Mac OS X, along comes a pintware Classic tool, updated for Leopard.

Yeah, baby. FinderPop is back and it’s a shagalicious as ever and still pure pintware. If you’ve ever wanted your Mac’s Finder to do a few things in fewer steps, check FinderPop. It’s what it does to the Finder that makes pintware software worth, well, whatever a good, cold drink is worth.

If you’re new to the Mac, you may never have heard of FinderPop, the quintessential Mac utility of yesteryear. Free, functional, fabulous. Did I mention that it’s free? Well, FinderPop is as close to free as you can get and stay sober, one of the few remaining members of the pintware generation.

FinderPop was loved by Mac users in years past as the little utility that could, and did, by adding a pint or two of additional functionality to the Mac’s Classic Finder. OS X users have a better Finder than Mac Classic, and more tools, yet somehow, developer Turlough ‘Turly’ O’Connor has added functionality and kept the price to pintware.

What does FinderPop do? A little of everything that you Mac’s Finder doesn’t do, those nifty, handy, dandy, triple-distilled functions Apple conveniently forgot to put into OS X.

Why, because they were certain Turly would develop them anyway, thereby saving them millions of dollars on development costs, by keeping Turly satisfied to live his life out surrounded by friends of the not-quite Cracklin’ Rosie genre.

FinderPop adds new contextual menus to your Mac’s mouse in the Finder. Right click on something in the Finder and you get a menu with things to do. FinderPop gives you more things to do.

Things like Delete, Copy, Move, Open, Preview, QuickLook and more. How much space does FinderPop take up? It’s so space saving that you can’t even find it unless you look. Instead of taking up valuable real estate in the Menu Bar, just click any open space in the Menu Bar and FinderPop, well, pops up in early 21st century hierarchical goodness.

It’s the zero-real-estate launcher for the rest of us. FinderPop also has a Quick Process Menu built-in. Click in the unused Menu Bar space and you get a menu of functions. Command-click in the same location and you get a look at what’s running on your Mac.

Shift-click on the unused part of the Menu Bar and you get a look at what’s on your Mac’s desktop and a list of any disks connected to your Mac. If you have a gazillion windows open on your Mac, FinderPop makes it easy to see what’s on the Desktop without going there.

Wait. There’s more. Operators are standing by to take your order, and if you download now, you’ll also get the ability to extend your FinderPop menu to include whatever you want to include as part of a built-in launcher.

FinderPop launches Mac software wherever you are (on your Mac, not down at Taco Bell or while walking the dog).

Drop a few often used Aliases into the FinderPop Folder and they instantly show up in the FinderPop menu as easily and quickly accessible icons-- a built-in launcher that you control.

Many Mac users lament the day when the Mac came with only a one-button mouse. FinderPop of old defeated the lack of a multi-button mouse by using a clever ”click and hold” to bring up additional functions. It still works.

Click and hold down the mouse button for a second in the Finder, let go, and FinderPop’s hierarchical menu pops up.

FinderPop is one of those wonderfully simple, highly elegant, very configurable little utilities that blends in to the Mac’s Finder. Once you use it, you’ll love it.

Click the image to see a close up of the FinderPop system preferences, and Click Here for another view.

Of course, there’s that nagging conscience issue, since FinderPop is mostly free, but highly Pintware. Turly indicates often that he loves his pints.

You’ll love FinderPop almost as much as some Mac software developers love their pints.

Got another favorite “pintware” Mac utility that you can’t live without? Share your experience in the Comments section below.

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