Hacking Finder to Use Macintosh Explorer Classic

[nightstalkerpoet]

Just curious if there is any way to hack the Finder so that any time it is told to open a file management window, that command is passed on to Macintosh Explorer. It isn't quite columns, as it works hierarchically, but it does offer a tabbed option. I still prefer it to spacial, though it could be smaller.

I haven't really seen mention of this before, so I've attached it just in case noone has any clue what I'm talking about.

[OS923]

There's no need to hack Finder. Finder does everything with Apple events. You can override Finder's behavior by installing your own system-wide Apple event handlers. CopyAgent for example, uses this method to replace Finder's file copy and empty trash.

First you must have a good understanding of the event that you want to handle. That seems to be the tough point because Finder makes vague events like select the thing at (x,y) and open the selection. It doesn't make clear events like open the container window of "Startup:System Folder:".

I suppose that you could write an Apple event handler for the open event. There you look first whether the selection can be coerced to folder specifications. If yes then you send Apple events to Macintosh Explorer (I don't know whether this program is scriptable) to open those windows. If no then you call the old Apple event handler for the open event.