This is something that’s been bugging me lately, so I went hunting for a fix. .DS_Store files are left behind in every directory you look at using your Mac…including network shares. They hold information about how the Finder window looked when you were there last (size, position, etc).

You don’t notice these files on a Mac, because files beginning with a period are hidden, but if you browse a network share with a Windows machine after being there with a Mac, they’re visible. They don’t hurt anything, but they annoy me.

Here’s the fix:

1. In a terminal window, enter the following command and press return:

defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true

2. Restart your Mac.
3. Clean up your network shares, and try to regain some sanity.