ColorfulSidebar
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(15) 4.4

Make Lion's grey Finder sidebar icons color again.   Free
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ColorfulSidebar offers a simple but pleasing visual modification for OS X 10.7's Finder.

OS X 10.7 brought greyscale icons to the Mac OS X Finder window sidebar, but if you'd rather have some color back in your desktop window sidebars, you can get this done easily through a third party plugin.

If you've been following some of our other Lion tips, you may already have SIMBL installed, otherwise it's a small download.

Installation Instructions
  • Download and install SIMBL, which you can get here
  • Download
What's New
Version 1.1.2:
  • Add the target application to Info.plist.
  • PowerboxInjector is no longer required when used in EasySIMBL1.6 or more.
Requirements
  • Intel
  • OS X 10.7 or later
  • SIMBL



MacUpdate - ColorfulSidebar



ColorfulSidebar User Discussion (Write a Review)
ver. 1.x:
(15)
Your rating: Now say why...
Overall:
(15)

sort: smiles | time
burypromote


nutella59UCLAedu9864 reviewed on 25 Nov 2013
Is there a way to get back the color also for the mailboxes in Apple Mail?
[Version 1.1.1]


burypromote

+4

Dale reviewed on 24 Oct 2013
I sure hope this is updated soon for 10.9 Mavericks so I can get the color back in both my favorites and tags.
[Version 1.1]

6 Replies

burypromote

+36
Sergesouszero replied on 26 Oct 2013
In any case, you can use XtraFinder, wich provides the same function and many others for the same price.
burypromote

+4
Dale replied on 26 Oct 2013
No, XtraFinder doesn't fix the color for the tags. It also does the same thing as TotalFinder in that when it's running you lose all the stuff we got with 10.9.

Though I haven't tried it yet, there's another tweak called SideEffects that's supposed to work with 10.9 i.e. provide color for both the favorites and devices as well as the tags.
burypromote

+4
Dale replied on 26 Oct 2013
OK, I just found out that unlike TotalFinder, XtraFinder allows you to turn the tabs off which allows you to keep all the 10.9 stuff. But the icons for the tags still remain colorless.
burypromote

+26
cmotdibbler replied on 30 Oct 2013
I remember using this some time ago and it worked. When 10.9 came out again with the gray favorites SideEffects appeared first and it works. Does anyone know if there is a difference between SideEffects and ColorfulSidebar?
burypromote
+2

+30
Tipp-Flo replied on 30 Oct 2013
SideEffects installs ColorfulSidebar.
"... Combines the work of several developers in an all-in-one installer. Installs SIMBL, ColorfulSidebar and PowerboxInjector."
burypromote

+4
Dale replied on 30 Oct 2013
OK, so it's finally updated and I can't download it. Is anyone able to get this thing?
burypromote

+176
Aargl commented on 23 Oct 2013
Actual site is:
http://cooviewerzoom.web.fc2.com/colorfulsidebar.html
Current version is 1.1.1 and supports OS 10.9.
(haven't tried it myself yet)
[Version 1.1]


burypromote

-6

Kranboll reviewed on 09 Sep 2013
No longer works, oh wait, sometimes it does. If anyone has a straightforward solution that an ordinary mortal can grasp, please post.
[Version 1.1]


burypromote
+1

+124

Brooklyn_Al reviewed on 16 Jun 2013
Trying to bring back color in finder on Mavericks works fine except color is lost on the individual tags but all other items in the sidebar have good color. Will this be updated for Mavericks?
[Version 1.1]


burypromote


katdev reviewed on 18 Apr 2013
THANK YOU, cooViewerZoom. I'm still shocked that Apple removed the colors. What a pointless downgrade. So nice to have my colors back. I'm having one issue with it that I've had on multiple computers, even after clean installs: I keep shortcuts to my network shares in the sidebar under Devices, and they disappear when this plugin is running. Has anyone else seen this? Know of a workaround? I have since put shortcuts to the shares in a folder and put the folder on the sidebar, but this is not ideal.
[Version 1.1]


burypromote


MarckyG reviewed on 05 Dec 2012
I am using this since Lion. I love it.
But since Mountain Lion 10.8.2., is anyone else experiencing extreme delays until the sidebar becomes colorful after a boot?
[Version 1.1]


burypromote


bthoma6 reviewed on 16 Nov 2012
Thank you so much for Colorful Sidebar. It was so easy to install and immediately, I had the colors and icons back into my sidebar, just as they were before I installed Mountain Lion. Now if you could just get Quicken to work on Mountain Lion, I would be a happy camper. Quicken Essentials for Lion and Mountain Lion stinks!
[Version 1.1]


burypromote
+1

+368
B. Jefferson Le Blanc commented on 28 Jul 2012
Except 1.1 doesn't work reliably, unlike version 1, which worked like a dream.
[Version 1.1]

4 Replies

burypromote

+113
Gary30 replied on 29 Nov 2012
I am using this EasySimbl under ML 10.8.2 and also had initial problems. After I scrubbed the caches and restarted a couple of times it came alive and has been reliable ever since. Since this is a bit of a hack, you may anticipate a little more work than you would with a more "legal" app. Ether way, best of luck to you!
burypromote

+368
B. Jefferson Le Blanc replied on 29 Nov 2012
@ Gary30: I've had an interesting development. I stopped running RelaunchFinder in my startup items because it didn't seem to be working. For awhile I had to relaunch the Finder manually several times to get colors in the sidebar. Then, recently, ColorfulSidebar began working without relaunching the Finder. Perhaps I purged the cache or caches that were holding things up. I can't say for sure because I use Cocktail for routine maintenance and purge caches on a regular basis. Could it be that OS X is finally launching SIMBL in a timely manner? YMMV.
burypromote

+113
Gary30 replied on 03 Dec 2012
@ B. Jefferson Le Blanc: I don't use RelaunchFinder or SIMBL so I have no feedback on these. The plugin resides in the ~/Library/Application Support folder. Except for the EasySIMBL app in the Applications folder, all of the EasySIMBL bits are confined to ~/Library/Scripting Additions and the preference file is at ~/Library/Preferences. I am not at all sure how this stuff works but it always seems that after a major System update, cleaning the caches and restarting a few times seems to sort things out and at least result in behavior that is predictable if not desired. In this case, I am happy I have both and ain't gonna mess with it any more.
burypromote

+368
B. Jefferson Le Blanc replied on 03 Dec 2012
@ Gary30: You may not have manually installed SIMBL, but as you say you use EasySIMBL you are using SIMBL and the ColorfulSidebar plugin in the SIMPLE/Plugins folder. From the directions for using EasySIMBL: "Reads plugins from ~/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins only." I haven't tried EasySIMBL because it seemed redundant to me. But I'm not suggesting you change anything if your current arrangement works. Clearly there's more than one way to do this. Perhaps the controlling element in my case is the net.culater.SIMBL.Agent item I found in the Library/LaunchAgents folder (using Find Any File because Spotlight is useless for these kinds of things). This remains to be tested.
burypromote
+1

+36

Simbasounds reviewed on 27 Jul 2012
Thanks cooViewerZoom.. you are a genius
[Version 1.1]


burypromote

+9
Lik had trouble on 30 Nov 2011
Download doesn't work for me?
[Version 1.0]




MarckyG rated on 05 Dec 2012

[Version 1.1]



+9

Dochoz rated on 07 Dec 2011

[Version 1.0]


Downloads:14,672
Version Downloads:1,629
Type:Utilities : Desktop
License:Free
Date:20 Dec 2013
Platform:Intel 64 / Intel 32 / OS X
Price:Free0.00
Overall (Version 1.x):
Features:
Ease of Use:
Value:
Stability:
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ColorfulSidebar offers a simple but pleasing visual modification for OS X 10.7's Finder.

OS X 10.7 brought greyscale icons to the Mac OS X Finder window sidebar, but if you'd rather have some color back in your desktop window sidebars, you can get this done easily through a third party plugin.

If you've been following some of our other Lion tips, you may already have SIMBL installed, otherwise it's a small download.

Installation Instructions
  • Download and install SIMBL, which you can get here
  • Download the ColorfulSidebar SIMBL plugin (direct link) or visit the developers home and mount the DMG file
  • Move the ColorfulSidebar.bundle into the following SIMBL plugin folder:~/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins/
  • Either login and logout of Mac OS X, or just kill the Finder through the Terminal to relaunch it: killall Finder
One oddity about this solution is that you may need to kill the Finder again to bring the color icons back after a full system reboot, otherwise this works trouble free.

If you ever want to get the grey icons back, you just need to remove the ColorfulSidebar.bundle file from the SIMBL plugins folder and then relaunch the Finder again.

On a somewhat related note, you can also bring back the personal folders in your OS X Lion Finder window sidebars. Those icons will gain color again too.


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