Hide dock icons while running the app

fulmerfulmer
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
How do you run a application but not have it show up in the dock?



For example, running Seti@Home (non-command line), Temp Monitor, CPU Usage, etc...



All of these applications show up in the dock, but I want to run them in the background.



My other question is, if the above is possible, how would I switch/kill/modify/etc the app if it's not in the dock?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    not unlike myselfnot unlike myself Posts: 2,037member
    I asked this back about a year and a half ago. Nobody had a way of 'hiding' an app. ::good luck::
  • Reply 2 of 7
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    If either of you had tried our function, you'd have found the answer.



    It's rather simple to hide an app, but you can't do it while the app is running.



    Just open the app package, open the Info.plist file, and set NSUIElement (or LSBackgroundOnly) to "1".



    Relaunch. Done.



    If you don't want to play with plists, you can use Dockless which does the same thing. Note, however, that this can only work with native Mac OS X apps. Classic apps and "flat" Carbon apps will not have the Inf.plist and therefore cannot be hidden by this method.



    Of course, now you can't get back to your app so easily.



    You can double-click the app icon in the Finder -- that's one way of getting back to an app. Remember that on Macs, double-clicking an already-running app will not spawn a copy of it but rather take you back to that app.
  • Reply 3 of 7
    fulmerfulmer Posts: 171member
    "If either of you had tried our function, you'd have found the answer.



    It's rather simple to hide an app, but you can't do it while the app is running."







    The whole point of my question was "can you hide an app in the dock while it's running"...
  • Reply 4 of 7
    baumanbauman Posts: 1,248member
    Heh, I think you misinterpreted Brad's statement.



    You can't change it while the app is running. Following the steps Brad provides allows you to prevent it from appearing on the dock when it's running, but if you make the change to the info.plist file while the app is running, the behavior won't change until you restart the app.
  • Reply 5 of 7
    fulmerfulmer Posts: 171member
    Thanks bauman for the clarification... that makes a lot more sense... and sorry Brad for not understanding your description...



    I'll try the process and hopefully it will work.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    fulmerfulmer Posts: 171member
    Hello again...



    I opened up the Info.plist file (vi in the terminal) and tried to edit it. I couldnt find the NSUIElement or LSBackgroundOnly entries \ Should I add the entry to the Info.plist file



    (I downloaded Dockless from work and I'll try it when I get home)
  • Reply 7 of 7
    fulmerfulmer Posts: 171member
    Well, using Dockless everything works as planned.



    Thanks so much for all your help.
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