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Hide any program's dock icon
Desktop
Thanks to the recent version of Launch Bar (IMHO the finest App Switcher+ I've ever had the pleasure to use), their instructions for hiding the icon in the Dock appears to work for any application:
In order to get rid of the dock icon, you must modify the file named 'Info.plist' inside the Application's package (i.e. Sherlock.app/Contents/Info.plist). Open this file in your favorite text editor and add the following section (if it's already present simply change the 0 to a 1 in the string tag:
[KEY]NSUIElement[/KEY]
[STRING]1[/STRING]
NOTE: I substituted the standard square brackets for the purposes of posting here; you must substitute the angle brackets when editing. So far I've hidden my Sherlock and System Preferences icons. With the System Prefs you will have to write-enable the 'Info.plist' file by changing the permissions in a Terminal window:
sudo chmod 464 /Applications/System Preferences.app/Contents/Info.plist
Enjoy!


Panther broken!
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Hide any program's dock icon | 23 comments | Create New Account
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The following comments are owned by the person who posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Problem with logging in
By: dsaponaro on Mon, Jul 2 2001 at 9:25AM PDT
Works great except if I have things set to start up at log in the icon appears in the dock. I have to quit the app then restart it.

Anyone know a work around?
Cocoa Only
By: PhilMarshall on Mon, Jul 2 2001 at 4:32PM PDT
This tip only works with Cocoa Apps. Carbon apps don't have a file called 'Info.plist'.
It removes access to the menu bar as well
By: WinStop on Tue, Jul 3 2001 at 2:00PM PDT
I thought this one was good for iTunes, which really doesn't need a dock icon anymore because of the iTunes docklet. But with this hit you can't access iTunes' menu bar anymore. It there any method to hide the dock icon without toughing the remaining functionality? Thanks for any hint!
Panther update...
By: robg on Fri, Nov 21 2003 at 10:44AM PST
Submitted as a new hint:
According to the Launchbar application's website:

Modifying the "Info.plist" file to remove the LaunchBar icon from the Dock no longer takes effect immediately. Mac OS X 10.3 now seems to cache the corresponding information. In order to invalidate this cache it seems to help to move the application to a different location after the modification (e.g. move it temporarily to the Desktop, then back to the Applications folder).

I verified this and it works... yeah!
Hide any program's dock icon
By: capitano on Tue, Feb 10 2004 at 9:58AM PST
After I entered the code to the Info.plist, the Sherlock icon just jumped in the dock a few times and disappeared. However I couldn't find the app running anywhere? Where have I done wrong? thx
Hide any program's dock icon
By: hansning on Thu, Nov 30 2006 at 3:34PM PST
same problem as capitano. Quicksilver works without a dock icon and WITH a menubar, as does VirtueDestop. That's how i would like my apps that have menubar items to work. is this possible?
Update for
By: ebeans on Sat, Jun 30 2007 at 8:23PM PDT
This page is #1 if one googles "hide dock icon mac", so I thought I'd give it an update.

In 10.4.10, one adds the following instead to the plist (after <dict>):

<key>LSUIElement</key>
<string>1</string>

Remember to move the program temporarilty to another location and open it, in order to de-cache the plist.
Hide any program's dock icon
By: jondreads on Sun, Sep 2 2007 at 4:58AM PDT
The DockDodger application automates this.
Hide any program's dock icon
By: divine on Sun, Feb 17 2008 at 12:09PM PST
This doesn't work for me at all for several reasons I guess...

First of all I'm running on Leopard 10.5.2 which is more than you can say about the guys in the other posts...

My main problem is pretty simple the code that you guys tell me to implement is already there, just as you guys typed it, but the icon is still present in the dock..!?

And the Dock Dodger App is worthless !!!
I've tried using it and so far it has only been able to remove itself from the dock :/

Everything else stays the same, even after a reboot..

So basically what I'm asking for is if anybody has a solution for this? :D
Feel free to PM/Email me if you do :D
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