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Firefox icon on desktop help

jmre5150

jmre5150

macrumors member
Original poster
Just got my Macbook Pro (new to macs) and installed firefox. But obviously I'm a noob, and dont know what I'm doing. It left a firefox icon that looks like a drive on my desktop. It wont let me get rid of it.

Can someone explain what I'm doing wrong and how can I get it off my desktop?

Thanks and sorry for being a noob.
 
Open that drive image and take a look at the icons inside it and the background. It's telling you to drag the Firefox application to the Applications folder. Once it's been installed, you can eject the drive image and delete it.
 
Hmmm, its installed (using it right now) but it wont let me eject it. Says "This disk is currently in use". And thats even after I close out of firefox.
 
jmre5150 said:
Hmmm, its installed (using it right now) but it wont let me eject it. Says "This disk is currently in use". And thats even after I close out of firefox.
Click to expand...

If i had to guess you are probably running firefox off of the disk image.

Try quiting firefox then ejecting the disk image. Then try to restart firefox. If it does not work you did not actually install the application you are just running it off the .dmg
 
prostuff1 said:
If i had to guess you are probably running firefox off of the disk image.

Try quiting firefox then ejecting the disk image. Then try to restart firefox. If it does not work you did not actually install the application you are just running it off the .dmg
Click to expand...

Is there a way to check what is running in the background, like you can on a PC? Even though I'm closed out of it, it must still be running behind the scenes.
 
jmre5150 said:
Is there a way to check what is running in the background, like you can on a PC? Even though I'm closed out of it, it must still be running behind the scenes.
Click to expand...

Look for activity monitor in the applications<utilities folder.

That should show you what is running.
 
Ok, making headway...


I stopped the firefox process through the activity monitor. Then it let me eject the desktop disk icon.

But when I went and clicked on the firefox icon in my dock, the disk icon reappeared on my desktop again.

Should I just uninstall it?
 
That's because the Dock icon is pointing to the Firefox application inside the disk image. Drag that off of your Dock and let it disappear...we'll fix that in a minute.

Let's take this step-by-step.

1. Do you have Firefox installed in the Applications folder of your hard drive? Rather than using a Dock icon or anything, navigate to it using Finder and try opening it from there. Does it work? If so, you can "eject" the Firefox drive icon and delete the original .dmg file that was downloaded. Once you're sure that you're running the Firefox application in your Applications folder, you can right click on the Dock icon and select the "Keep in Dock" option to give you easy access to it.

2. If Firefox is not in your Applications folder, you need open the Firefox drive icon (double clicking the original .dmg file if necessary in order to make the drive icon appear), then drag the Firefox icon inside there to your Applications folder. Then go back to Step 1.
 
Those last steps worked like a charm. All is well now. Thank you all very kindly.

One last and final question...

Everytime I open an app, it places an icon on my dock. But after I close out of that program, the icon on my dock stays. Why? and how can I get rid of these unwanted icons and just leave my dock with what I put on it?

For example, I still have the activity monitor on there even though I have been closed out of it for 10 minutes. Hmmm.
 
Clicking on the red button in the upper left corner of an app's windows often does NOT close the app. You need to fully quit the app in order to get the icon to disappear (choose quit from the app's menu, or hit Command-Q).

Some apps will close when you click the red button...System Preferences is the first one that comes to mind. These are usually apps with a single window where the program is useless without a window open. Other more flexible apps like web browsers and iTunes remain open even after closing all windows because you may want the windows to disappear while retaining access to other aspects of the program. You may want to get all of the windows out of the way, but still be able to bring up a new window almost instantaneously, so this is a good way to do it.
 
jmre5150 said:
For example, I still have the activity monitor on there even though I have been closed out of it for 10 minutes. Hmmm.
Click to expand...


Did you really quit out of it though? Not just closed the window like you do in windows but gone to the menu and really quit (apple-q)?

If there is a little triangle underneath that dock icon then you didn't actually quit.

A lot of people have trouble with this at first. You're not alone 🙂
 
Yeah, I'm getting the hang of it though. Now I just right click and quit the extra programs. Actually, I'm really digging this Macbook Pro. This thing will take some getting used to, and the book that came with it sucks, but other than that I'm loving it.

Bye Bye Windows.

Again, thanks a ton for the help, folks.

P.S. Now I know what those little black arrows mean. 🙂
 
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