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Is Launch Pad gone or simply not part of the default apps on the bottom row?

Luba

Luba

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 22, 2009
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The bottom row of apps, idk the name of that feature, but it used to have a called Launch Pad where you could click on a big icon and launch an app. I had it all organized into 5 pages of apps. Is it now hidden somewhere or deleted from macOS 26?

Can't believe it's gone, a majority of users thought it was useless and now it's gone?
 
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It is gone and replaced with the "app drawer", which is the applications "tab" in Spotlight. There is some terminal command stuff you can use to get it back, but who knows how long that will last for, since this is something that Apple has decided to do away with.

There was a fair amount of discussion about it during the beta.

I feel like everyone who says the app drawer is fine, or to just pin the Applications folder on the dock for a suitable replacement... these people didn't really "use" LaunchPad.
 
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Apple decided that despite pushing consistency between macOS, iOS etc on other factors, that they'd *remove* the consistency here, and remove our ability to have a visual app launcher. It is gone. You need to Spotlight search for the app now - and of course find it amongst all the other things in the postage-stamp sized popup window.

Note, as many have said here, I also Spotlight half the apps on my iPhone. With that logic maybe we should also get rid of the iOS Home Screen and folders on iPhone too.
 
PotentPeas said:
It is gone and replaced with the "app drawer", which is the applications "tab" in Spotlight. There is some terminal command stuff you can use to get it back, but who knows how long that will last for, since this is something that Apple has decided to do away with.

There was a fair amount of discussion about it during the beta.

I feel like everyone who says the app drawer is fine, or to just pin the Applications folder on the dock for a suitable replacement... these people didn't really "use" LaunchPad.
Click to expand...
i used launchpad all the time on my MBA, loved it. but am not missing it at all, fine with the new system, just took me a few days to get used to it.

a quick trackpad swipe, or command-spacebar, start typing an app name; it pops up, i hit return, and get on with it.
 
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IJustWannaTalk said:
I have never used Launchpad. Did people find it easier than command-spacebar and typing the name?
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I did for a couple of reasons...

1. Muscle memory. (I can put specific apps in specific spots and access them quickly with the touchpad gesture to pull open LaunchPad, without even having to touch the keyboard.)

2. I have a lot of apps and I don't always remember their names. But if I have all of my i.e. video processing apps in one "folder" in LaunchPad, then I can find the one that I want quickly.

I'm also adjusting and getting along well enough, but I would have rather LaunchPad had not gone away. (...I actually haven't upgraded to Tahoe yet, but I turned off the LaunchPad gesture to force myself not to use it in preparation.)
 
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Yeah, I'm firmly in the "this app drawer/spotlight thing sucks" camp. I also had my apps on 5 Launchpad pages organized by function. I could get to any app with a trackpad four finger squeeze and a swipe or two. It worked perfectly for over a decade.

Now I not only have to know the exact name of the app and/or the exact spelling, I have to scroll past dozens of app I don't need to find the one I want. It's a frustratingly needless time suck, and in no way more efficient than Launchpad.

I understand trying to "innovate" and progress, but this app drawer isn't that. We should have at least been given a choice to toggle it off and used Launchpad instead.
 
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lotones said:
Yeah, I'm firmly in the "this app drawer/spotlight thing sucks" camp. I also had my apps on 5 Launchpad pages organized by function. I could get to any app with a trackpad four finger squeeze and a swipe or two. It worked perfectly for over a decade.

Now I not only have to know the exact name of the app and/or the exact spelling, I have to scroll past dozens of app I don't need to find the one I want. It's a frustratingly needless time suck, and in no way more efficient than Launchpad.

I understand trying to "innovate" and progress, but this app drawer isn't that. We should have at least been given a choice to toggle it off and used Launchpad instead.
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i don't really get this: i always go to open the app i want to open, and i always know the spelling. how many apps do you have, and how many of those do you use regularly?

the new system seems simpler (to me) than scrolling thru "5 Launchpad pages". anyway, you could create folders referencing different needs (or those 5 pages), drag apps into those (creating aliases), and put the folders (or a parent folder) in the dock. just an idea
 
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fisherking said:
anyway, you could create folders referencing different needs (or those 5 pages), drag apps into those (creating aliases), and putting the folders (or a parent folder) in the dock. just an idea
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I am doing something similar to this, but I am using "Xmenu" (free App Store app) to expose those alias folders, so they are available from a drop-down in the menu bar and are not further cluttering up my dock.

In my case, the number of items in my Applications folder is 192. Some of those are folders containing multiple apps. I do not use most of them "regularly", but I use my system for many, many different types of things (software development, database work, systems management, physical-to-digital archiving, image/audio/video work, never mind retro console emulation and games...), and there aren't many apps that I feel like I can delete. (I keep the vast majority of them updated with Homebrew Casks, very handy.)
 
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fisherking said:
i don't really get this: i always go to open the app i want to open, and i always know the spelling. how many apps do you have, and how many of those do you use regularly?

the new system seems simpler (to me) than scrolling thru "5 Launchpad pages". anyway, you could create folders referencing different needs (or those 5 pages), drag apps into those (creating aliases), and put the folders (or a parent folder) in the dock. just an idea
Click to expand...
Using this logic, do you also advocate for the removing of app icons and folders on iOS? If so, why not? I use swipe-down Spotlight on iOS 99% of the time to find an app there.
 
fisherking said:
i don't really get this: i always go to open the app i want to open, and i always know the spelling. how many apps do you have, and how many of those do you use regularly?

the new system seems simpler (to me) than scrolling thru "5 Launchpad pages". anyway, you could create folders referencing different needs (or those 5 pages), drag apps into those (creating aliases), and put the folders (or a parent folder) in the dock. just an idea
Click to expand...
My app folder shows 122 items, and that's counting the Utilities folder as one.

My (actually 6) Launchpad pages were organized like this: Most used (safari, messages, mail, pages, etc...), studio (photo, music, video, production and playback), gaming, astronomy, utilities, and maintenance. So my workflow was very organized for almost 15 years.

So after installing Tahoe I needed to convert, rename, and upload several files to a server, and I do this weekly. I had to sort though apps 3 times for apps I had already sorted to be where I needed them in Launchpad.

That is not efficiency, and it's definitely not making my Mac more accessible.
 
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lotones said:
So after installing Tahoe I needed to convert, rename, and upload several files to a server, and I do this weekly. I had to sort though apps 3 times for apps I had already sorted to be where I needed them in Launchpad.
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am not following; after installing tahoe, you have to do weekly uploads? that you didn't do before? can you elaborate?
 
fisherking said:
am not following; after installing tahoe, you have to do weekly uploads? that you didn't do before? can you elaborate?
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sorry... I upload large audio files to a server every Monday. This week I upgraded to Tahoe beforehand, and hilarity ensued...
 
PotentPeas said:
It is gone and replaced with the "app drawer", which is the applications "tab" in Spotlight. There is some terminal command stuff you can use to get it back, but who knows how long that will last for, since this is something that Apple has decided to do away with.

There was a fair amount of discussion about it during the beta.

I feel like everyone who says the app drawer is fine, or to just pin the Applications folder on the dock for a suitable replacement... these people didn't really "use" LaunchPad.
Click to expand...
I used it the same way I use the launchpad in Gnome with Linux: invoke it, start typing the first 2 or 3 letters of the app and choose the app. It's simple, quick, and it's the same in Spotlight, Windows whatever-it-is-called, Linux/Gnome
 
fisherking said:
what's changed? am not getting it. is it OS-related? or something like dropbox?
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It was the need to search through a list of apps 3 times, for 3 different apps, on the new app drawer. Apps that I had sorted onto one Launchpad page.

As far as I can tell, unless I'm missing something in the app drawer you can't even organize the apps into preferred groupings. And the wonky way the App Drawer sorts isn't helping...
 
lotones said:
It was the need to search through a list of apps 3 times, for 3 different apps, on the new app drawer. Apps that I had sorted onto one Launchpad page.

As far as I can tell, unless I'm missing something in the app drawer you can't even organize the apps into preferred groupings. And the wonky way the App Drawer sorts isn't helping...
Click to expand...
check out that app, QAL Pro...
 
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JoeSilver said:
I used it the same way I use the launchpad in Gnome with Linux: invoke it, start typing the first 2 or 3 letters of the app and choose the app. It's simple, quick, and it's the same in Spotlight, Windows whatever-it-is-called, Linux/Gnome
Click to expand...
Fortunately, this flow has not been disrupted. The old LaunchPad gesture now launches the app drawer and I believe you can start typing once that is up.
 
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