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How can I maximize a window in Finder without using third-party software? I read this post but none of these tricks seemed to work.

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  • 1
    Many of those tricks are third-party appellations which would work fine. What problem did you have?
    – jtbandes
    Commented Aug 8, 2011 at 19:38
  • Related: apple.stackexchange.com/questions/9659/…
    – ghoppe
    Commented Aug 8, 2011 at 20:35
  • Thanks, I was looking for native solution, not a third-party..
    – jrara
    Commented Aug 9, 2011 at 5:33

3 Answers 3

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Move the mouse to the corner of the window where it becomes a resizing arrow and option double-click to fill the screen.

A double-click on any side or corner will move that side/corner to the edge of the screen. Adding option will affect the opposite side as well.

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  • More details: double click on any side to move that side to the edge of the screen, and add option to affect the opposite side as well.
    – Andy Swift
    Commented Aug 9, 2020 at 6:03
  • That is brilliant! All these years and I never knew that! I've added your comment to the answer.
    – benwiggy
    Commented Aug 9, 2020 at 7:49
  • I have been using Apple computers since the Lisa, and I found the shortcut a couple of days ago on this page: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24091707, but the poster didn't really realize what it could do.
    – Andy Swift
    Commented Aug 9, 2020 at 11:35
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I bought Moom by Many Tricks to solve the Finder's inconsistent zoom behavior. Get it from their website for a free trial and 60-day money-back guarantee. It's been a great solution for me, not just for the Finder problem, but for all my work on a 30-inch Cinema Display.

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  • It's on the App Store as well, no trial of course. BTW, I personally think Moom is the best of it's genre. You should make it the first one you check out.
    – John
    Commented Aug 8, 2011 at 23:30
  • Buy Witch ( manytricks.com/witch ) while you're there. It finally makes Alt+Tab work properly.
    – Fake Name
    Commented Aug 9, 2011 at 0:01
  • So there is no way doing this without a third-party application?
    – jrara
    Commented Aug 9, 2011 at 5:34
  • Don't think so, but Moom is really, really good. One of those apps that should just be integrated into the OS.
    – chrismanderson
    Commented Sep 21, 2011 at 23:33
  • This question is asking for a solution without third-party software.
    – Nathan Greenstein
    Commented Sep 23, 2011 at 2:48
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  1. Launch /Applications/Utilities/AppleScript Editor.app and turn on the preference: General » "Show Script menu in menu bar"

  2. In Terminal, type or copy/paste

    mkdir -p ~/Library/Scripts/Finder

    cd ~/Library/Scripts/Finder

    curl --remote-name http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18414/ase/MaximizeWindow.scpt

  3. Go to Finder, open a new (non maximized) window

  4. In the menu bar, look for the the "Scripts" item, then look for Finder, and then MaximizeWindow

Select that, and Voilà!

p.s. - please note that I am not the original author of that AppleScript. I found it at http://olivierfabre.com/shortcut-to-maximize-the-finder-with-applescript and simply tested it and found it worked really well. It appears to be designed with hard-coded values for the screen-size, but if it can't make the window that big, it simply maximizes it.

p.p.s. - the scripts menu isn't all that convenient, but there are ways to assign keyboard shortcuts to them, etc. If you were not averse to 3rd party solutions, I would immediately recommend FastScripts and mention that it is free for up to 10 scripts :-)

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