Launchpad!

[KALLT]

It is very easy to organize Launchpad. Just drag the icons.

I didn't say that it was hard, but that it's annoying. If you have lots of apps, organising this will take forever and you know that it could be a lot easier. At best you reorganise a few apps and leave it at that. Doing more than that is a chore. That's not why we have powerful computers if we still need to resort to mundane manual tasks.

The OP is absolutely right.

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

I hope not. It's not like it's forced upon the user at all like the metro Hom screen was. I know that at least some people find it useful, for me it's the quickest way to launch an application not on my dock.

Windows 8 implementation was terrible.
Did you try the iPad Air 2 attached to a keyboard. It's amazing with the new shortcuts.

 

[hojx]

I have pretty much ignored Launchpad as far as I'm concerned. It has been such a beach for me to drag an app into a folder that happens to be the last one in a particular row. It simply bumps off the folder to the next row without a proper delay. I do bother keeping it neat though but it has never been a pad I use to launch apps.

I typically just launch apps from Spotlight. I just Cmd+Space, type the app name, Enter. I don't have to move my hand from the trackpad to the keyboard and back. Technically I don't even have to use the left side of my dock—its mostly just there to frame my desktop. Other than that, I have a shortcut to my Applications folder at the right side of my dock so if I want to browse through all my apps I can do that.

As for App Store uninstalls I usually drag them from my Applications folder to Trash. I don't download App Store apps and delete them that often to bother. Usually if I actually download something I tend to use and keep it for a long while.

Anyway for those using Launchpad regularly and aren't already: try Launchpad Manager—makes it way easier to manage your Launchpad.

 

[Shirasaki]

Ti

That is a good point, but it doesn't take away from the ease of launching applications

Is it due to the App Store having standardise install methods, but other apps having non standardised installs where data is left in random places in libraries etc? Making it harder for a standardised delete toll, where as the App Store apps would have one way of deleting due to the data all being in the same place for each install?

To be honest I don't dig into Mac OS X such far, but I will search every library folder across the system to delete any possible grabs files left by apps I have deleted. This is not straightforward but it is fine for me.

 

[KALLT]

To be honest I don't dig into Mac OS X such far, but I will search every library folder across the system to delete any possible grabs files left by apps I have deleted. This is not straightforward but it is fine for me.

I can recommend the app Trash Me. It's on the App Store. It will look for related files and present you a list of items you can select individually and delete in one go. It won't touch protected files (although you can disable that) and it has a pretty good find rate compared to other apps. It'll also log the results for you. Just be sure to check what you are removing, but that is of course always necessary.

As I said, apps you download from the App Store are deleted more thoroughly when you remove them with Launchpad. That's definitely a big help.

 

[Skoal]

One issue is the inconsistency in removing or deleting apps which has been mentioned. There is no way to adjust settings per user preference. I can delete apps installed from the app store but yet iWork apps, even though I downloaded the most current versions on the app store will not let me remove them from launchpad. Why can't I only have the apps I use most often appear and remove others? iDVD? I NEVER use it. Etc etc! I can put all the apps on another page to get them out of view but that's it.

There is a terminal command to remove individual app icons from launchpad so it is possible to do this and Apple could easily implement it into the GUI. Like others have stated, Spotlight does the same thing and more so why leave a half baked function in the OS that just adds clutter?

 

[KALLT]

One issue is the inconsistency in removing or deleting apps which has been mentioned. There is no way to adjust settings per user preference. I can delete apps installed from the app store but yet iWork apps, even though I downloaded the most current versions on the app store will not let me remove them from launchpad. Why can't I only have the apps I use most often appear and remove others? iDVD? I NEVER use it. Etc etc! I can put all the apps on another page to get them out of view but that's it.

There is a terminal command to remove individual app icons from launchpad so it is possible to do this and Apple could easily implement it into the GUI. Like others have stated, Spotlight does the same thing and more so why leave a half baked function in the OS that just adds clutter?

You should put them in a CrApp folder. That's what people do on iOS too. ;-)