It's no secret that Finder in macOS isn't particularly great for file management, so much that I've talked about a few alternatives to it before, with ForkLift being one of my favorites. One option I didn't include on that list was XtraFinder, but after it was recommended to me by one of our readers, I had to check it out.

XtraFinder isn't a Finder replacement, but rather, it modifies Finder itself to add new features and capabilities that make it far better for managing files, especially for people coming from Windows such as myself. It can be a more elegant solution than installing a separate app, though there is some risk involved in using it, so it's not for everyone.

There are a few problems with Finder, especially if you're coming from a platform like Windows. For some reason, pressing Enter over a file or folder doesn't open it, it renames it. XtraFinder lets you fix some of these annoyances. Through the app's settings, you can enable pressing Enter to open a file, which makes things feel much more natural. Another big change you can enable this way is using a Command + X shortcut for cutting items out to paste in a different location, which is much closer to the equivalent shortcut on Windows 11. These two things alone make XtraFinder a very nice tool to have.