The Finder uses visual feedback to let you know what it’s doing. For instance, when you double-click on a folder to open a new window, you get a subtle zoom-out effect. This helps you understand what your machine is doing, but they can also make a not-so-powerful machine feel slower than it is. With a little help from Terminal, you can disable some or all of the Finder’s animations.
Launch Terminal and type the following command:
defaults write com.apple.finder DisableAllAnimations -bool true
This command disables the animations, but to see the changes, you need to restart the Finder. The safest way to do this—to log out and log back in—is also the most time-consuming. Instead, just hold down the option key and then click and hold on the Finder’s Dock icon. When the pop-up menu appears, select Relaunch.
After the Finder has relaunched, you’ll find that window-opening and -closing animations, as well as roll-down and roll-up animations in the Get Info window, have vanished. You won’t gain any real speed increases, but the Finder will feel snappier than before.
Another option is to reinstate the window animations while leaving the Get Info animations disabled. Return to Terminal and type these two commands:
defaults write com.apple.finder DisableAllAnimations -bool false
defaults write com.apple.finder AnimateInfoPanes -bool false
The first command reverses what you did previously. The second tells the Finder to disable only the Get Info animations. Again, you’ll need to option-click and hold on the Finder’s Dock icon, and then relaunch the Finder to see your changes take effect.
To enable the Get Info animations, repeat the last command but type true at the end instead of false , and then relaunch the Finder again.