You can make icons semi-transparent in Quick Look, with previews of the folder’s contents in the folder. defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableXRayFolders 1 Once run, and the Finder is killed (or a reboot performed), Quick Look ends up looking something like this: To undo it, simply change the 1 to a 0 from earlier: defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableXRayFolders 0