How to Add Color to Lion’s Finder Sidebar

Updated April 13th, 2020.


UPDATE, Wednesday, April 20th, 2016: Sorry to say, the Lion Tweaks application is no longer available from fredrik.com. The good news is there’s a very nice app called XtraFinder which does a great job of colorizing things. Works with Mac OS 10.6.8 through 10.10.5. Can be made to work with 10.10.11 via a work-around.


Finally, there’s a simple method for adding color the the Finder’s sidebar in Lion. It comes to us from Norway, thanks to Fredrik Wiker, a 16 year old developer. Click to download his “Lion Tweaks” application. Your Finder windows will go from grey to colorful in just a few clicks.

Step 1 is to download Lion Tweaks. Put it into your Applications folder.
Step 2 is run Lion Tweaks. You will see all sorts of options. The one we’re interested in here is “Enable colour in the Finder-sidebar.” When you click the “Yes” button you’ll be asked whether you have “SIMBL”installed already. You probably don’t, so let Lion Tweaks download it for you.
Screen Shot 2011-12-12 at 9.31.42 PM
Step 3 is to install SIMBL. You just downloaded it so you should be able to find it.
Step 4 is to continue the process with Lion Tweaks. You’ll have to click the “Yes” button next to “Enable colour in the Finder-sidebar” again, but this time you have the SIMBL thing installed, so you can say yes all the way through. At the end, you’ll see this message:
Screen Shot 2011-12-12 at 9.40.00 PM

It really works. Check out the before and after pictures. Pleased to report that reverting to the original Lion grey sidebar is a simple click (and restart of the Finder). Well done, Fredrik!beforeandafter


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Christian Boyce

Christian Boyce is a Mac and iPhone expert with over 30 years' experience in the field. His specialty is teaching people how to get more out of their Macs and iPhones using the software and apps already installed. He is the author of several books, a guest speaker for Mac and iPhone user groups worldwide, and a former rocket scientist. He splits time between homes in Santa Monica, California and Round Rock, Texas.

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