Finder is one of the Mac's most underappreciated apps. At first glance, it appears to be a simple app that displays your files, but there's a lot more to Finder than that. This is an app that Apple has refined over decades, with hidden features to explore and third-party apps to install. With these 10 Finder hacks, you'll be able to add many of its most powerful features to your daily workflow.

Add frequently used folders to Finder's sidebar for instant access

The left pane in the Finder app has quite a few shortcuts. You can think of these as bookmarks that let you access various files and folders. However, you can personalize this list to fit your workflow. To start, drag any item in Finder's sidebar to reorder the list, which includes sections such as "Favorites" or "Locations." You can also drag individual items in a section to prioritize folders you access frequently. The best feature is the ability to remove stuff you don't use. To try it out, click the Finder button in the menu bar at the top of your screen, and select Settings > Sidebar. Uncheck items you don't need, such as Recent Tags (a feature I never use on my Mac). You can also drag any folder to the Favorites section in the sidebar, which is a faster way to open folders you access frequently.

Change Finder's default search location to the current folder

Whenever I use the search box in Finder, it defaults to showing all the results from my Mac. I prefer to view results from the currently open folder, which takes a lot less time than going through all my files. You can make this happen by going to Finder Settings > Advanced and selecting the drop-down menu under "When performing a search." Here, select Search the Current Folder. While you're at it, you can also try out the hidden advanced search mode in Finder to add multiple search filters. This makes it easier to find a specific file in a massive, unorganized folder. After you type a query, hit the "+" button below Finder's search bar to reveal these filters.

Make your Mac's Trash clean itself up automatically to avoid running out of space

When you delete files, they're sent to the Trash on your Mac. This folder takes up storage space, which can quickly become a problem for those of us with base model MacBooks. You can solve this by automatically deleting those files after 30 days. Go to Finder Settings > Advanced, and enable "Remove items from Trash after 30 days."

Automatically delete zip files after expanding an archive to avoid clutter on your Mac

When you unzip a compressed file, your Mac pastes the contents in a new folder, but it doesn't automatically delete the original archive. You can make it automatically delete these files to clean up the mess. For this, you can press Command-Space, search for Archive Utility, and open the app. Next, click the Archive Utility button in the menu bar, and head over to Settings. Click the drop-down menu next to "After expanding," and choose "move archive to Trash."

Use this plugin to view folder contents on your Mac without opening them

Quick Look is one of macOS' best features. It allows you to preview any file without actually opening it. However, this feature doesn't let you preview the contents of folders, which means that when you select a folder and press Spacebar, you'll only see the size of the folder and how many files it has. To fix this, you can use a plugin called Folder Preview ($1.99), which does allow you to preview the contents of folders. There's a better version of the app called Folder Preview Pro ($9.99), which lets you copy, paste, and even preview files from within a folder preview.

Use this shortcut to cut and paste files in Finder

Those who switch from Windows to Mac will immediately miss the lack of an obvious cut-and-paste workflow for files. Your Mac does ship with this feature, but it's not easy to discover. You can first copy a file by pressing Command-C, or going to the Edit menu and selecting "Copy." Next, open a different folder, and press Command-Option-V to move it, as opposed to pasting it. You may also use the Edit menu and select "Move Item Here." In case this option doesn't show up there, you can right-click an empty space in the destination folder, and hold Option to reveal "Move Item Here."

Use Quick Actions to remove an image's background without opening it

Finder supports unique actions for each file type, so you can perform tasks without even opening a file. For instance, you can right-click any image in Finder, and select Quick Actions > Remove Background. This will create a new image file without the background present in the original. The Quick Actions menu shows multiple actions for some file types, so you should explore it to find other useful functions.

Show all filename extensions to protect your security

By default, Finder doesn't show file extensions, which means that a file name looks something like, "Lifehacker." If this is a harmless image file, there's nothing to worry about. But if it's a malicious app, you could end up with some unwanted computer trouble. To save yourself the hassle, you can force Finder to show file extensions, which will change the aforementioned file name to something like "Lifehacker.jpg." This way, you can be sure of the type of file you're opening. To set this up, go to Finder Settings > Advanced, and enable "Show all filename extensions."

Customize Finder's toolbar to instantly reveal file paths (and more)

Finder's toolbar has a set of buttons that cover the most common functions users need, but there are more that may prove to be useful for some people. Right-click an empty space in the Finder toolbar, and click "Customize Toolbar" to reveal these options. For example, you can drag the "Path" button to the toolbar, and select Done. You can now click "Path" any time to see the full folder path of any location in Finder. Similarly, the AirDrop button lets you select files and instantly opens the AirDrop sharing menu, which otherwise takes three clicks.

Use this hidden setting to change the background of Finder windows

If you're tired of the standard white or black backgrounds that Finder defaults to, you can change the background color or even replace it with a wallpaper of your choice. This feature only appears when you use the "Icons" view in Finder. To check it out, open any folder in Finder, and press Command-1 (or click "View" in the menu bar, and pick "as Icons") to switch to the Icons view. Now press Command-J (or View > Show View Options) to open a pop-up window. Under "Background," you can select "Color" to set a new background color, or "Picture" to add a wallpaper. Note that the wallpaper won't automatically scale to fit the window, so if you resize windows often, you'll be left with a blank white space at times.