Witch and duplicated TotalFinder windows in the switcher

With the release of Witch 3.6.3, one of the described fixes was:

A problem causing TotalFinder’s windows to appear twice in Witch has been fixed.

Unfortunately, due to the length of time between when we submitted the 3.6.3 update to the App Store and its approval, both Peter and I forgot that this fix is disabled by default, and that it must be enabled via a hidden preference. I’ll explain why in a bit, but for now, here’s how to get Witch 3.6.3 working with TotalFinder:

  1. Disable Witch (uncheck Enable Witch) and quit the app (App Store version) or close System Preferences (independent version)
  2. Open Terminal (in Applications > Utilities), copy and paste the following text, then press Return:
    defaults write ~/Library/Application\ Support/Witch/Settings "Work Around TotalFinder" -bool YES
    (That’s one long line; just select it and copy, and it should paste fine.) You won’t see any response from Terminal (other than a new command prompt), but Witch is now set up to work properly with TotalFinder.
  3. Restart Witch.

So why did we make a bug fix a hidden preference, and disabled by default? Because of the way we had to code this particular workaround, we were concerned about possible other issues with TotalFinder windows. We tested as best we could, but we still weren’t confident that we’d tested everything possible, so we decided to ship with the setting disabled.

Now that Witch 3.6.3 is out, we can ask all TotalFinder users to try this fix, and let us know if they experience any other issues with it. If none are reported, then we can enable it by default in a future bug fix update.

4 Responses to “Witch and duplicated TotalFinder windows in the switcher”

  1. Thierry Lalinne says:

    I just enabled the fix and it works great so far. No more duplicated TotalFinder windows.
    Thanks a lot.

  2. Andreas says:

    Have used it in the past hour, switching a lot between windows, and all seems to be working well. Thanks for fixing it guys! Just one of many tricks hehe ;)

  3. Percy says:

    Will this tweak let me see TotalFinder’s tabs too?

    • Rob Griffiths says:

      No. Those tabs are all within one window, which is all that Witch (or any other such app) will see.

      -rob.