I have a few questions regarding icons

[EV0LUTION]

I have a few apps that I run all the time and do not want to show up on the dock. How do I do this if it is even possible?

I also want to remove the hard drive icon from my desktop how do I do that, can I just hit delete?

 

[Jaffa Cake]

To remove the hard drive icon, in Finder look under Finder/Finder Preferences/General in the menu bar – there's a tick box to show hard disks, external disks and other stuff on your desktop.

 

[EV0LUTION]

To remove the hard drive icon, in Finder look under Finder/Finder Preferences/General in the menu bar – there's a tick box to show hard disks, external disks and other stuff on your desktop.

Thank you!

Can anyone answer my first question?

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

Quit the app then find it in finder. Right-click and choose "show package contents." Open the Contents folder to find a Info.plist. Open this in TextEdit and at the end, right before it says:

</dict>
</plist>

add this:
<key>NSUIElement</key>
<string>1</string>

so the end of the document reads like this:

	<key>NSUIElement</key>
	<string>1</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Be aware that you cant close this app without Force Quitting it via the apple menu, and to open a new window if the app is open and all windows are closed you must open it from Finder or a stack again.
I did this to peerguardian because it has a menubar icon and there is no need for it to be taking up dock space.

 

[sickmacdoc]

Another way to do it (which is suspect is actually just a simple to use GUI implementation of the method that NoSmokingBandit suggested) is a free little program called Dock Dodger that has worked fine for several icons on a couple of my systems (one Tiger, one Leopard). Certainly worth checking out!