Do I need these desktop icons?

[slapshot]

I currently have icons on my desktop (if that is what it is called on a Mac) for my Macintosh HD, XP Files (I named that one myself), My Boot Camp, and Firefox. Do I need to keep these there? If not, how do I get rid of them?

 

[petemwah]

those are your partitions/disk images, you can stop them appearing by going to finder preferences and unchecking the boxes on SHOW THESE ITEMS ON THE DESKTOP.

firefox box, drag the application to your applications folder, then select the firefox icon/disk image and push APPLE + E and it will eject the image.

 

[michael.lauden]

You can check in the Applications folder (under Macintosh HDD) to check if there is another icon for Firefox.

However, if you don't run Firefox, i recommend dragging it to the trash bin. It makes no sense to keep apps you don't use. if you use them frequently you should consider dragging them to the dock - OR adding a Recent Applications stack to the dock.

Also, I have a similar folder for backup word documents for my mom on my computer (she is stuck using XP on an old Dell)

but instead of keeping the folder on the desktop - i keep it under the user destination so i can keep things running quick and have them uncluttered.

 

[michael.lauden]

OH if you still have the installer's mounted (white icons)

another thing you could do is...

right click, or command apple click and select "Eject"

 

[slapshot]

Alright I got all of them to go away except for the Firefox one. Each time I open Firefox it keeps appearing. I know it is because I did not do something correctly but I have no idea what. I put it in my Applications folder and I checked it and there is an icon there so now what do I do?

 

[petemwah]

your icon the dock is linking to firefox in the disk image. drag that icon out the dock and drag the firefox from your applications folder into the dock and all will be sorted.