MacOS – Closing a window in OS X Yosemite causes other windows to be made active

macoswindow-manager

I have a Chrome window and this Chrome window covers the whole screen (not in the full screen mode, though). I also have 5 Finder windows under this Chrome window. So I can't see any Finder windows. Now I need a Finder window, so I use Mission Control. Everything works well, but when I close this Finder window, other all Finder windows show up on top of the screen, I don't need them, I only need one window.

How can I prevent this?

This is happening all apps. Not just in Finder and I am using Yosemite 10.10.

Best Answer

This is the Apple paradigm - all windows belonging to one app are part of a single process, unlike Windows, which is, as the name suggests, windows-based. Apple is App-based. What you are seeing is intended behaviour.

The simplest 'workaround' - though to me an indispensable way to use the machine - is to enable Spaces & the associated hot-keys, then put 'important' apps on a Space of their own & switch using the hot-keys.

[I'm in the middle of teaching someone how to use that method right now in meatworld - a Windows migrant learning the new paradigm - so if you're interested, I'll try to flesh out exactly how to go about it.]

Related Solutions

MacOS – Bring all windows of active application to top

You can assign a keyboard shortcut to the "Bring All to Front" menu item from System Preferences:

The activate AppleScript command also raises all windows:

activate application (path to frontmost application as text)

If you are assigning keyboard shortcuts to opening applications, you can use scripts like this:

tell application "TextEdit"
    reopen
    activate
end tell

reopen opens a new default window if there are no open "default" windows, like a text editor window in TextEdit. If all default windows are minimized, reopen unminimizes one of them.

It is also possible to use AppleScript to click the "Bring All to Front" menu item:

tell application "System Events" to tell (process 1 where frontmost is true)
    click menu item "Bring All to Front" of menu 1 of menu bar item "Window" of menu bar 1
end tell

MacOS – Windows Get Stuck in Top Left corner after upgrading to Mavericks

There is a way to get the windows back to normal without quitting the app, but it's not ideal.

If you move the dock, the applications will move back into place, the easiest way is to click the  and go to dock, then change the position, then repeat to put it back to where you had it originally.

https://discussions.apple.com/message/23766770#23766770

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MacOS – Bring all windows of active application to top

MacOS – Windows Get Stuck in Top Left corner after upgrading to Mavericks

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