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definitive

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Aug 4, 2008
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I've tried Command+Option+Control + Left Click on an icon, and it just launched the application. I think only TextWrangler was the only application which showed an "x" over the icon like in iOS.
 
I've tried Command+Option+Control + Left Click on an icon, and it just launched the application. I think only TextWrangler was the only application which showed an "x" over the icon like in iOS.

Only App Store Apps can be removed from Launchpad as far as I am aware. Any other App has to be deleted from the Applications folder.
 
Only App Store Apps can be removed from Launchpad as far as I am aware. Any other App has to be deleted from the Applications folder.

What the? Then what's the point of this thing if it's so limited? To my understanding it was just a folder where you could add/remove shortcuts to apps. Does it uninstall an App Store app if you click on its "x"?
 
What the? Then what's the point of this thing if it's so limited? To my understanding it was just a folder where you could add/remove shortcuts to apps. Does it uninstall an App Store app if you click on its "x"?

I don't really understand it either. Launchpad is useless to me. And yes, if you click on the X, it uninstalls the App.

Why Apple have fragmented the way the user manages apps is beyond me. It was so simple before.
 
Ok, so it's not just me. I do like the concept, it just needs some more detailing and control and then it'll be nice, but really, the whole mess of adobe junk is kind of annoying. They really should be treated like shortcuts that you can add/modify/delete at will. I think of launchpad as my app folder replacement, or would like to anyways.
 
I think launchpad is intended to be a hub from which you can access ANY application, regardless of where it is on your Mac. So yeah, if you don't want it in Launchpad, don't have it on your Mac (or hide it in a folder within Launchpad - this doesn't affect the location of it within your applications folder, for example).
It's far from perfect, but it is a handy way of quickly getting to applications (after the dock and spotlight of course..). I guess it's a feature for new Mac users already familiar with the iOS interface.
 
I found the launchpad to be a wholly unnecessary addition to the OS when it was announced. Now to find out you can't even have basic control over it? Oy...
 
Surely we should be able to say what we do or don't want to be displayed on our launchpad though, without having to completely uninstall things from our computers? I hope Apple will correct this..
 
In my view, Launch Pad should be fully customizable, put in there what you use often. Basically, the Dock for things you ALWAYS use, LaunchPad for those plus things that you use often but not ALL the time. And then the Apps folder for everything. This way you can make it smooth and slick. But it doesn't work this way. :(

Worst part is, I did an upgrade from Snow Leopard and ended up with double icons of the default Applications. iDVD, Chess, etc . . . and NO WAY to remove them. I was at the Apple store yesterday and they also have no idea how to remove them, spent about an hour searching for them and couldn't find a way to get rid of them. :(
 
If you have duplicates in your Applications folder it will show duplicates in LaunchPad.

If you need to completely reset LaunchPad see here :)
 
Hopefully Apple will release an update so we can remove apps from Launchpad. In the meanwhile you could always just create a folder named "crap" or something and put apps you never use in that folder :p
 
None of the work arounds have worked for me yet. I put them all into a folder, upon reboot they were all back to normal (i.e. screwed up). I then deleted ~/Library/Application Support/Dock/*.db and killall Dock. After it rebuilt, two of some apps still. :(

I haven't tried the DB modification method though, this is the biggest problem so far.
 
I think you're all missing the point:

Launchpad is primarily aimed at less experienced users, possibly coming from iOS devices, who do not understand how the filesystem works.

If you could delete applications from Launchpad without deleting them from the computer, it would defeat the whole purpose of it - a place where all the applications on the mac are accessible - just like on an iPhone / iPad.

Launchpad means users don't have to open finder and go digging through the Finder applications directory and possibly sub-directories (I'm looking at you, Abode / Microsoft) to open applications, or add them to Launchpad - nor do they have to keep everything they'll ever want to open in the dock.

Just like on an iPhone, if there's crap in there you'll never need, just bury it in a 'Crap' folder, as so many do with Stocks etc. on iPhone - or just delete it from you Mac altogether.
 
I think you're all missing the point:

Launchpad is primarily aimed at less experienced users, possibly coming from iOS devices, who do not understand how the filesystem works.

But in the iOS you can delete item and move other things to folders. For some reason, in my case, with LaunchPad, I can't do either. I create folders, reboot and they are back to the way they were before. I cannot delete things, even though I have two copies of them.

Yes it is supposed to be like iOS but it doesn't work that way yet.
 
I think you're all missing the point:

Launchpad is primarily aimed at less experienced users, possibly coming from iOS devices, who do not understand how the filesystem works.

Quite frankly launchpad seems more like it was written by someone who never used a mac and only has an iphone. :rolleyes: Utterly useless.....
 
Just like on an iPhone, if there's crap in there you'll never need, just bury it in a 'Crap' folder, as so many do with Stocks etc. on iPhone - or just delete it from you Mac altogether.

The whole purpose to hide something on the Launchpad isn't to hide apps themselves but "sort-of-apps" than are actually cores or framework that are used by other apps. As i used as an example, Adobe CS5 as many side apps called "naib", if you try to open them, they will just automatically close as they are being used by Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, etc. Why would you even want those to show in your Launchpad? It be nice to be able to hide them!

I think you are missing the point here!:cool:
 
Launchpad is intended to address the problem that novice users (your "Dad") can't launch it if it isn't in the Dock. (And needless to say,these users are also incapable of customizing their Dock.) It does this reasonably well.

John Siracusa's take on this is, if you are advanced enough to find Launchpad's limitations significantly annoying, you are advanced enough to use the Finder, the Dock, Spotlight, or a third-party launcher, like Dragthing, instead of Launchpad.

And my take on this is, if you are really advanced, you don't have to come gripe about Launchpad here, first. ;)
 
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Another thing I noticed with Launchpad is that when you delete an app from within LP, the app doesn't go to the Trash, it is just nuked permanently. Not sure if this is intended, or a bug. I would hope it's a bug since it could be a pain if you accidentally deleted an app through LP and had to totally reinstall it instead of just retrieving it from the Trash.
 
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