8

I'm amazed this question hasn't been asked here. There are many discussions about it out there and even a way to remove the blue glow. Of course I've already filed my complaint with apple...

Is there a way to have the old expose on Snow Leopard? Or maybe a mix of both.

The only thing I like on the new one is viewing minimized windows, but not always.

I'd prefer just being able to tweak it a little bit, but having the old expose would be fine as well.

Bad Expose

bad expose

16
  • Not sure why you were downvoted, but I'm going to guess that the answer is no on this this one.
    – fideli
    Mar 12, 2010 at 6:38
  • @fideli yeah me too. But I'm hoping for a no with a good explanation. ;) As for the downvote, I just said elsewhere - mutant powers! :D
    – cregox
    Mar 12, 2010 at 13:18
  • 1
    awesome hack! thanks really a lot !!! I hope we will be able to so something similar in Lion Mar 26, 2011 at 16:37
  • 1
    Nope, 10.4 Exposé, filed in december 2005 as #4394897. Don't know how 10.5 Exposé behaved, but 10.6 (new Exposé) distributes windows over multiple rows, starting with 3x2 at 6 windows. From my bug: "Expected Results: I expected to see the windows [distributed] all over my screen (9 windows in 3x3 arrangement, for example) [...]. Actual Results: All windows in one single row (9 windows in 9x1 arrangement). [Notes:] It seems all windows must be full [height] and belong to the same application."
    – Daniel Beck
    Mar 26, 2011 at 20:43
  • 1
    @Daniel anyway, seems like 10.5 expose would be a more ideal name for this hack.
    – cregox
    Mar 26, 2011 at 21:01

3 Answers 3

7

Solution

Download OriginalExpose and run Install Script.app. That's it.

Background

Ok, summing up, I did my own version of the very good result (the DockHack) out of a macrumors topic, by psid, and I want to share with you guys directly here, as this is a very proper and simple solution.

The only problem is we still need to download the files, which are extracted from a Dock.app remainescent from Snow Leopard beta, that still used the Original Expose from Leopard (and before).

Since there's a file to download anyway, I've added a Install Script to it, which will apply something similar to the following commands below (except it won't move itself anywhere). You can optionally replace "SL-bak" to anything you want to backup your "Snow Leopard" dock to:

mv ~/Download/OriginalExpose ~/
sudo cp -R /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app.SL-bak
sudo cp ~/OriginalExpose/Contents/MacOS/* /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/MacOS/
sudo cp ~/OriginalExpose/Contents/Resources/* /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/
killall Dock

update: Looks like Lion will have a better expose and I hope this whole post becomes useless after it. But, meanwhile, this still works perfectly fine even with 10.6.8! :)

Good Expose

I can't imagine how this would look on the bad one:

good expose

5
  • hi, I did this and I really like it. the thing is (and please tell me if you experienced this or not) is that sometimes screen is kind of out of resolution or blurry or not focused, even after selecting a window in exposé, is it normal? another thing; sometimes CPU hogs up to 150% cpu, did you experience this side effect ? May 21, 2011 at 7:46
  • 1
    @user10826 nope, nada. I've been running this for about 1 year now, and re-applying it after every snow leopard's update since then, and never had any such weird issues. Also CPU stays unaffected and if you mean each window can become unreadable with fuzzy fonts while on the expose view, that is normal. But graphics and video are quite viewable without losing that much quality.
    – cregox
    May 21, 2011 at 12:22
  • 1
    hi, does this trick work in OSX Lion? Aug 30, 2011 at 8:06
  • @flow I just installed Lion yesterday and I the trick both doesn't work and I'm glad to say I don't care about it anymore. Mission Control is good enough and has a lot of advantages! I believe at very least most 10.5 expose users will be as pleased with Lion's MC as I am.
    – cregox
    Oct 26, 2011 at 0:32
  • yes, i agree, mission control is much better (for me) than leopard's exposé and of course snow leopard's one Oct 26, 2011 at 7:44
1

We cannot use this hack with Montain Lion 10.8, but Apple provides standard OldExpose feature.

http://takahar.blogspot.jp/2013/05/oldexpose-on-mountain-lion-108-within.html

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  • Kindly elucidate. May 2, 2013 at 8:50
  • 1
    +1 anyway. It's a good point but I think this would go better as a comment unless you want to replicate your post as an answer (not that big blog post anyway). But then it would better fit another question or a new one. The question here was always intended to be with Snow Leopard and the current answer even already has a comment about how I don't care about Old Expose since Mission Control. The only thing I would add is that Lion 10.7 does not provide the feature on the System Settings nor can we use the hack (also have been already commented).
    – cregox
    May 2, 2013 at 11:11
  • As a final note, you've got a couple of easy-to-fix typos @takahar: "montain" and "OldExplse".
    – cregox
    May 2, 2013 at 11:14
0

There is a solution indeed to it posted in your second link. You really should have read it completely.

Edit:

Ok, to be fair, I did not read it fully either. But the first place to look for an answer is the last page and the answer is written there. (Or at least there are some more links describing a way to get it back.) It’s a little bit of a hack which needs the installation of a previous beta version of Dock.app, therefore I did not want to give a direct link to it and rather enforce that you read about the consequences and the current status before trying it yourself.

One of the problems with this solution is, that it also removes the advantages of the Snow Leopard Exposé. That is, it’s not possible anymore to activate it by pressing the icons in Dock. Also, the nice black transparent menus are removed.

And it’s currently English only.

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  • There are 9 pages with a LOT of text... I never read through every forum topic I find with much more than 2 pages, and I'd bet neither do you. I'm (right now) reading this one, since you said so. But why didn't you just tell me if you actually read it too, or used some way to search that I'm not familiar with? And why not pointing to the specific post you've found to be useful and quote it here?
    – cregox
    Mar 14, 2010 at 17:04
  • 1
    Here: forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=9333516&postcount=211 That also changes the Dock behavior, but well, it's not a bad solution at all! I still hope for a better answer, tho.
    – cregox
    Mar 14, 2010 at 17:36
  • Please see Are answers that just contain links elsewhere really “good answers”? at meta.stackexchange.com/questions/8231/… Thanks!
    – Arjan
    Mar 14, 2010 at 18:16
  • You didn't really need to tell anyone that you never read anything before posting. Mar 14, 2010 at 18:41
  • Debilski, that's what I meant - it does remove the good points of SL Dock and Expose, which are minor comparing to how it looks. But I still can activate it from the Dock, just put Expose.app there. And it's so nice to have the old expose back anyway!
    – cregox
    Mar 15, 2010 at 15:43

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