After loading up OS X 10.6 and giving Snow Leopard a test run, I had some immediate concerns with the new Exposé setup.

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Bring Back the Old Exposé

Sep 7, 2009

Update: Mark Allan of ClamXav has found a temporary solution →

The new Exposé grid layout is pretty, but…

Snow Leopard (10.6) was released a little over a week ago with a limited new feature set, especially on the side of aesthetics. Judging on the price tag for this release, this is justifiable as Apple has already stated that this is more or a less a “Refined, not reinvented” type of upgrade.

One of the new features I had been reading about in the months previous to 10.6’s arrival was a new Exposé, which boasted refined and more convenient window management.

After loading up 10.6 and giving Exposé a test run, I had immediate buyer’s remorse. I told myself to give it a few days. It would be something I would get used to after some use. Well, over the course of the last ten days I still find myself struggling with it. After fumbling through system preferences to see if there was a way to switch between the old and new setups, I scoured Google to see if anyone else had the same idea. I guess I’m not the only one.

So, What’s Wrong?

No, it’s not the silly blue glow that people seem to have issue with (really, that has nothing to do with the usability). I think the key point I see getting lost with the new Exposé it that it seems to have lost its relative nature.

One example is how application windows lose their proportioned size after activating Exposé. It’s easier for me visually to remember my windows based on its original relative size, rather than what’s inside the window — which I think what Apple was aiming for this round. For example, when I use Photoshop, it’s no surprise that it’s usually my largest window open compared to other applications. Before, whenever I activated Exposé to find my buried Photoshop window, I could immediately click on the largest window since that’s how I’ve been accustomed to remembering how my applications are sized and organized. Now? It’s more like a guessing game. That same Photoshop window will only be slightly larger than my tiny Tweetie window, which is usually about a quarter of size when at its original state. This also bring me to my biggest gripe about 10.6 Exposé…

The placement of my application windows are now completely unpredictable. With the old Exposé system, the movement of windows felt more natural as they shifted to make room. I knew that same large Photoshop window would stay relatively close to where it originally sat on my screen. Now? To fit all my windows into the new tidy grid setup, any of my applications could go flying to a completely opposite side of the screen depending on how many windows were active at any given time (this is especially drastic if you have multiple minimized windows). This also means that I have to move my mouse further than before to activate a window. Sure, Exposé will look prettier in screenshots or in presentations now, but realistically it just doesn’t feel like it’s doing the same job.

Just give me an option

We need an option, preferably somewhere in this window

I know there must be some sort of genius programming behind this based on Apple’s research, but whatever optimization engine they had to organize windows before just worked a lot more efficiently for me. It can literally take me up to two to three seconds to find the window I want, which over a course of a day really hampers workflow.

Am I just one of those tech traditionalists that have a hard time letting things go? I don’t think so, as historically I’ve been open to change. And I’m not asking Apple to get rid of this new variation by any means, as I’m sure for some people it works just fine. I just want the option to switch back to the old setup. So, by writing this post I’m just throwing my hat in the “Bring back the old Exposé” virtual protest. Hey, it worked with Facebook before, why not now?

24 comments

Sep 11, 2009 at 2:16 pm

Jens Petter Abrahamsen

I agree totally. Part of the Mac experience is usability and style. Now it is both less usable — I have to stop my train of thought and look for the window — and ugly (as I remember it, the old Exposé dimmed all the windows except for the one the mouse hovered over).

A grid is just a grid. Everyone has it. The old Exposé with relative sizes and a position as close to the original was something different — and useful. Something I did a lot was to drag some item (a file) from one window to another partly hidden window. While dragging I’d activate Exposé to bring the partly hidden window to the top. Then I’m already looking at it, I know where it is, and it is useful that the Exposé does not change the location. But with this new Exposé that arranges everything in a (boring) grid, windows fly everywhere.

I’d also like to mention that in the transition from Tiger to Leopard, the unbelievably cool “fading desktop” transition when starting Front Row, disappeared (in Tiger, when you started Front Row the desktop with windows, icons, dock, would disappear into the background — making people stand in awe). So this is not the first time Apple takes away something cool (and this time around — useful) in an upgrade.

Sep 12, 2009 at 2:29 pm

David Trang

What a shame, Jens. I never used Front Row with Tiger, but it sounds similar to the Exposé issue. If it ain’t broke, why fix (or change) it?

I also agree about the grid. A grid can be good, if things stay consistent. However, Exposé it just one of those things that cannot and never will be consistent in its functional nature, therefore should not be used with it whatsoever.

Sep 21, 2009 at 11:12 pm

Jason Smith

I have the same feeling. First time I saw it I just disliked (hated) the blue glow around a window. You can change it, but old exposé window glow is way better.

I like the new grid in minimized applications and the idea they stole from Windows7 (application exposé when you click and maintain in dock app).

Apart from that I really hate the way exposé handles windows! Seriously, one of the features I loved most in Mac Os… it’s gone!

To make it even worse, I noticed a slow down in speed in my Macbook (early 2008). Before I had a smooth no-lag having my dock hidden. Now seems like they “slowed down” so people can see it easily (but it doesn’t work like that).

Snow Leopard comes with many bugs. Future updates will fix it, but for Exposé… I just hope Apple fix it or somebody manage to find a way to downgrade.

Sep 27, 2009 at 3:20 pm

Gideon Farrell

I completely agree. I’ve been trying to find a way round both the annoying grid and that annoying blue glow instead of highlighting the window. I really don’t know why they did it.

Sep 29, 2009 at 2:17 am

Mark Allan

I’ve got the two side buttons on my mouse dedicated to application Exposé and all-windows Exposé because I use them both all day long, and I agree with you 100% on this.

The blue glow, while daft and not quite as useful as the old shading, doesn’t really bother me – it’s the new Exposé window placement which was driving me absolutely bonkers! As you say, not only is window placement in the grid random and relative resizing gone, but it also brings in windows from other spaces! If I’ve got 4 Safari windows spread across three different spaces then it’s because they correspond to different lines of work or trains of thought. I do not want to see them all when I do application Exposé!

I’ve been battling with the new Exposé and Spaces in 10.6 for over a month now, but last night I decided that I just couldn’t take it any more. It was slowing me down and annoying me too much. Thankfully I remembered to do a full Time Machine backup prior to installing 10.6, so last night I reverted to 10.5.8 and I’m happy again with my Mac.

There is one upside to all of this: My Quad G5 at home has been given a stay of execution. It’s still significantly faster than the dual core intel machine on my desk at work and I was upset at the prospect of replacing it just for an OS upgrade, but I dislike 10.6 so much that I’d actually be much happier keeping it than I would be replacing it. In time-honoured Apple tradition, the new machines will not run the older OS, so I’d like to say “Thanks Apple, you just saved me about 2 grand!”

Sep 29, 2009 at 9:28 pm

David Trang

Guys, I’m happy to see that we’re not alone in believing Apple dropped the ball with this. This post alone is getting my site significant traffic and I see it as a testament to what is wrong with the new Expose in 10.6.

All I can say is, keep the comments rolling, on the Apple boards, here or anywhere just so Apple listens up and creates a patch in the future to at least give us an option to go back to the old setup.

Oct 1, 2009 at 2:09 pm

Patrick K

There is a lot more “white space” on my screen with the new expose. This seems like a sign that it is inefficient. If you have any minimized windows, then the amount of screen space each of your non-minimized windows gets is greatly decreased.

I used Stickies.app previously, but with the new expose, each stickie gets as much screen space as a full sized window… Even if you small-zoom the stickie.

I join your protest.

Oct 2, 2009 at 1:45 pm

Derek G

I’m joining in as well! I’ve bought almost $50k worth of Macs in the last year (mostly dual-quadcore Mac Pros)… and you can bet my rep is going to be hearing about this as well! The new Expose is just plain ridiculous!

Here is what I just reported to Apple via: http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html . If we all join in and report this… we might have a chance. But everyday that Apple leaves it unchanged is worse for us… as people get used to the new way!

—————– Hello… I’m writing about the changes to Expose introduced in Snow Leopard. I’m not exactly sure why Expose was targeted for changes… but we really need the ability to switch back to the old style.

Expose is a core piece of my workflow. I use it literally _thousands_ of times a day… and the changes in Snow Leopard are destroying my productivity. In particular:

1. The “spreading animation” is too fast… not allowing enough context about where the windows came from and went to. It’s also much rougher… where in Leopard it was smooth as silk.

2. The grid of windows forces windows to move further away from where they started… combined with #1 it’s hard for me to predict where the window I want is going to land.

3. Relative window sizes are broken. I usually know the general size of the window I am looking for… and being able to visually filter the windows by size was a big part of why Expose was so fast in Leopard. Now in Snow Leopard that is completely broken. No longer can I just squeeze my mouse and grab my huge browser window… now I have to carefully look through the grid of same-sized windows to see which one was my browser. Same for small windows like iChat.

All in all… I don’t understand the changes. They seem like they are targeted at people who never used to use Expose, which, as a dedicated long-time customer angers me.

Finally… just give us the choice. I know that OSX isn’t big on choice… but in this one section of critical workflow (something many of us interact with every few moments while using the computer) a small amount of customizability will lead to HUGE productivity gains.

Thank you, Derek

Oct 2, 2009 at 5:49 pm

Greg Formager

Agreed. I sent in feedback as well, listing the same issues. It used to be a huge help to my workflow, now it’s a hassle.

Oct 6, 2009 at 12:48 pm

ediedi

For me also, expose was one of the core features diffferentiating OSX. Now, it seems very ‘rough’ and confusing. I especially dislike the incorrect resizing and the lack of an option not to show the minimized windows. Happily, the hidden windows don’t show up on expose…

Oct 17, 2009 at 12:57 pm

Justin Berkovi

We need to spread the word and get Apple to resolve what is a serious issue. I’ve owned Apple products since the LC3 many eons ago and am a total die hard Apple fan – We have what, 5 macs in the house / home office? I can rarely fault Apple. But this new Expose is rubbish for one main reason only.

Expose when introduced was one of those killer apps. After using it I couldn’t imagine life without it. When I looked at a Windows machine I could barely use it because I had become so used to slinging my mouse to the bottom left of the screen to see all my work / windows.

Expose became an incredible way to maximise workflow and work efficiency. It saved me time, effort and ultimately money. It was a groundbreaking feature that became totally ingrained into my brain in how I used my computer.

Then came Snow Leopard. Thankfully I’ve only installed it on my MacBook.

In short the new Expose destroys the entire concept that it first invented. Efficiency.

I now have to work out what I’m looking out. I’m wasting time. I can’t use it properly. I’m gutted.

Please Apple bring back the old logic!

Oct 18, 2009 at 6:21 pm

Drew

If you’re concerned, please send feedback to apple, and feel free to post here as well:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=777760 http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Nov 10, 2009 at 3:59 am

Mark Allan

Any word on whether or not yesterday’s 10.6.2 update fixes this?

Nov 10, 2009 at 7:44 pm

Ram

10.6.2 didn’t fix it :/ Checked the exposé options in system settings… no changes

Nov 12, 2009 at 5:15 pm

BroccoliofDoom

Just figured I’d join in. Sent my feedback to apple, not that I expect it will make a lick of difference.

It may sound silly, but my one major reason for switching from a Windows PC to a mac was the difference in productivity that I gained by using the spaces/expose combination. Think about this for a moment, I knew I was going to be sacraficing productivity as I learned the ropes of a new OS, and yet the way that expose worked (especially in combination with the fancy new multitouch trackpads on the new macbook pros) was intuitive enough and USEFUL enough that I still feel that my overall productivity increased.

After my SL “upgrade” I still stuggle with having to relearn how to do some of the tasks I took for granted in Windows, and I lose the productivity boost that I had gained from expose. AKA this macbook (I bought it before they changed the 13″ers designation to pro) is about to find its way to ebay, and I’m about to find my way back to Windows. Talk about a waste…

Nov 12, 2009 at 5:16 pm

BroccoliofDoom

… I also know that I cannot spell sacrificing …

Nov 22, 2009 at 4:09 pm

Mattingly

I have to agree. Occasionally Apple missteps when they change or add features to a product, and Expose was a clear cut case of this.

I think the better integration of Expose to the Dock is a huge enhancement, and should go a long way towards making OS X easier to use for noobs. Seriously, I think spring loaded icons where you can drag a file to an app and get its windows to instantly pop up is a great new feature. And I think it is a nice visual cue in “app Expose” mode where all other windows duck behind the top layer, rather than just being dimmed out as they used to. However…

If you want to see how ugly this new grid layout for Expose can get, all you have to do is pair a large window with several small ones. Try something maximized – say, iCal – and half a dozen or more sticky notes, iTunes mini player, etc. and you will see how ridiculous the new grid layout is for shuffling through open files. I’m sorry, but throwing everything up on a grid is way too rigid for the many random ways that any user might arrange their windows.

Further complicating its new UI function is a trick that used to be useful for me: hitting the “Expose apps” trigger used to bring all app windows to the front; a quick & dirty way to bring everything within one app to the foreground. This no longer works, as the same trigger will release windows to their “most recently used” layering. Not as useful, to me.

Regarding the blue glow: yeah, it’s tacky, alright. Did that come from an engineer, or a UI designer? If it were the latter, they should fire his ass and get someone with more taste. Have you also noticed that there is occasionally a lag where the glow appears first and an Expose window “catches up” to it? Clearly some design bugs there that will need to be fixed and improved upon in a later release.

Finally… more tackiness to the way Expose handles minimized windows in the Dock. Having them appear in a “mini Expose” is a nice idea, but its implementation does not feel complete, and may have ultimately been hasty a response to the updated Task Bar function in Windows 7. Two flaws as I see it: 1) there is no visual cue to where those mini windows come from; they just sort of appear. In fact, I couldn’t figure that out after I first installed 10.6, and for a bit I honestly thought Expose had a major bug. 2) Expose/minimized windows no longer follow the UI rules of hidden applications/windows. They will always appear, there, even though non-minimized windows in the same app might be hidden, and will not appear in Expose. To me that is a major, major design flaw and creates a more confusing scenario to a user.

Where the hell was Apple’s quality control checking for this OS?! Most of us experienced users are able to find the flaws almost immediately after installing 10.6; they’ve had two years to figure this stuff out prior to its release.

Nov 23, 2009 at 12:02 am

George

Two months after the release of SL and there’s still no official answer from Apple about this issue. What’s going on? Are we, the frustrated expose users, just a meaningless minority?

Nov 27, 2009 at 4:10 pm

Mattingly

Unfortunately, I think those of us who aren’t totally diggin’ 10.6 Expose might belong to a vocal minority. In tech news, there simply doesn’t seem to have been much backlash about the changes. I’m still hopeful that Apple will listen and improve upon (revert?), as they did on a couple of things in 10.5. If MS can greatly improve Win 7’s taskbar, Apple can sure as hell do a better job w/ Expose.

Dec 7, 2009 at 11:31 pm

Jakob

This is what I posted to the feedback form; I’m still hoping for a 3rd party application solution, but maybe it’s too integrated in the OS.

Meanwhile, I am confined to running OS X 10.5, there is no way I can stand the current funky behaviour of Exposé

——- I read and agree totally with the poster of this thread: http://www.indextwo.com/bring-back-the-old-expose/

I’ve bought two copies of Snow Leopard, one upgrade and one bundle with a new computer, and I had to downgrade to Leopard for this single ‘feature’ change that completely messes up my workflow.

please?

Mar 17, 2010 at 10:38 am

Mark Allan

Good news – sort of!

Google found me this Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=127415125652 – join it and get as many people as you can to do so too.

That FB group sent me to the following MacRumours thread which gives instructions on how to turn Exposé back into a usable feature on 10.6 by using the Dock.app from one of the earlier 10.6 beta releases. http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=869611

Apr 28, 2010 at 2:25 pm

Peter Gassner

That MacRumours link is GOLD! Gosh, how I hate the SL Exposé and how that beta Dock makes me feel at home again.