Launchpad settings section by clicking on. Why does deleting a Mac OS X app leave a shortcut in Launchpad? Hotkey for Launchpad

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Whenever I delete an application from the Applications folder, its shortcut remains in Launchpad. To delete it, I have to click on it (a question mark will appear) and then drag it to the trash. Is this a bug, or does it mean I'm doing something wrong?

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This could be a bug, but I think it could mean your Spotlight index is corrupt.

I just tried deleting Evernote from my apps folder. After authentication, he moved it to the trash. Then I checked the launchpad again and it was no longer there. Then when I pulled it out of the trash and placed it back into the Applications folder. Restarted the launcher and it was on the last page again. As in, worked as expected here.

Launchpad maintains its own file size, etc., and so there are some editing tools that allow you to edit it. But my guess is that they will use highlighting to "watch" your Applications folder to add new items not through the Mac App Store. I'm guessing Spotlight because it's a great tool for the job, the Lion installation does a huge overhaul of the index, and they use flash a lot behind the scenes.

First, the graphical way I have seen online is to do this (I have the command line path below):

1. In system settings -> Spotlight -> Privacy add the drive you want Reindexing
2. System preference output
3. Output of your sessions
4. Login again :-)
5. in system settings -> spotlight -> privacy remove the drive you want to restore the index
6. Wait... a long time. You should see mdworker and/or mds running

1. Launch "Terminal" (located in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder)
2. At the command prompt, type this exactly: sudo mdutil -E/
3. You will be prompted for a password, provide it as this command requires administrator privelages to run
4. You will receive a confirmation message that the index will be rebuilt
5. Wait until the index is finished restoring, this may take some time depending on the size of the hard drive, number of files, etc.

While I can't find documentation online that 100% confirms that Launchpad uses Spotlight for this, that would be the first place I would look for the problem you're having.

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Thanks for the very informative answer. If Launchpad is using the Spotlight index, restoring it could really help. I'll try it too and report back. Oh, and +1 for the command line suggestion, I just learned something new! - ernes7a Mar 28 12 2012-03-28 11:47:26

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I think it expects you to delete the app directly from LaunchPad. Launchpad obviously reads the list of apps and folder/layout groups from some configuration file, so when uninstalling an app it didn't necessarily have the ability to remove that icon and associated positioning etc from its configuration.

In 2011, Apple began the process of unifying the interfaces of OS X Lion and iOS, bringing together the ideology of interaction between users of the two operating systems. The most noticeable change is the appearance of Launchpad, an alternative and simplified way to launch installed programs on computers running OS X. But the reason for such actions on Apple’s part seems to be the desire to reduce the newcomer’s dependence on the Finder, which is still incomprehensible to him, to make it easier for him to switch to Mac, making some associations with iOS.

After polling friends, the general opinion is: “Launchpad, in general, is a useless thing, beautiful, but nothing more.” Someone leaves the most necessary applications in the Dock, someone in such cases uses Spotlight, or prefers alternative launchers like LaunchBar, someone is waiting for an update to the once popular Quicksilver. And for some it is more convenient to use Finder, or just open applications and not close them at all.

In general, for me, as an “old Macintosh user,” the appearance of Launchpad was not a revelation; I did not expect something like this and did not need alternatives. The habit of pressing Ctrl+Space to make a window appear and typing the first letters of the name of an application or file on the keyboard is firmly ingrained somewhere deep in the subcortex; changing habits is difficult. So David Chartier, a blogger, author and “old Macintosh guy” too (he was the one who got me thinking about Launchpad), thinks very similarly:

Shortcuts like ⌘-Spacebar to launch Alfred or LaunchBar were something I took for granted, as was ⌘-⇧-A in the Finder (quick jump to the Applications folder, editor's note) […] For several Over the past few months I've been trying to simplify my workspace. […] As I was “throwing” unnecessary icons out of the dock, I realized that I wasn’t ready to remove Launchpad just yet. I don’t know why I left it, the first reaction to it was to delete it. I gave it one last try and now I completely understand why.

He says that with Spotlight, Apple has given us a precise tool for finding the files we need, bypassing the Finder. And Launchpad is quite a good way to distance yourself from the still incomprehensible or unnecessary interface of the built-in file manager, and not pay attention to all sorts of options, settings and unnecessary attributes. I agree - they are simply not needed or get in the way in most ordinary actions with launching applications. Like a simple bookshelf, Launchpad gives you a clear, visual representation of the apps installed on your Mac, while giving you the ability to organize items in the order you want so you can get exactly what you need to do.


If you are still a fan of using keyboard shortcuts in your work, you may find it convenient to use Launchpad by launching it using multi-touch gestures on the trackpad (placing four fingers anywhere on the system) or assigning the appearance of Launchpad to one of the active corners in the settings . I will say more - in the almost finished Mavericks Launchpad they have noticeably improved: they increased the size of the icons, added the ability to search by name, even added beautiful animations when installing a new application.

So why not try to give a chance to another new simple, convenient and beautiful way to organize and manage installed applications, and simplify your workflow? David also advises doing the same thing, adding the Launchpad icon to the Dock, using gestures, and spending a little time putting everything in order once. I think that in the future Apple will simply leave us no choice, given the latest trends towards convergence, towards the unification of interfaces and ways of using mobile and “adult” desktop operating systems.

Launchpad, the new launch agent in Mac OS X Lion, can be quite useful if you want to keep track of programs you don't use very often. However, sometimes there are too many programs and it becomes difficult to navigate through them. In this case, here are some tips to make working with Launchpad a little easier.

You can move apps from the Mac App Store in your Launchpad by tapping and holding their icons. Delete - using the “x” in the corner of the icon. Although apps can be moved and uninstalled faster. Instead of holding down the icons, simply press the ⌥ (alt) key on your keyboard. The icons will immediately start jiggling, and you can delete and move applications (just like in iOS).

Icons can be moved outside of editing mode. Just click and drag (no shaking involved).

Start over again

If your Launchpad is anything like mine, with all sorts of existing apps that I couldn't see, like Adobe's assistants and uninstallers, for example...

If you want Launchpad to only show the apps you actually work with, try manually clearing Launchpad and adding apps manually. It may take quite some time, of course, but Launchpad will stop feeling so bloated.

1. First, make a backup of your current Launchpad database. Then if something goes wrong, you can restore everything back to how it was. To do this, open [Username] → Library → Application Support → Dock and make a copy of the file located at this address. To get to the folder Library you may have to use the menu Go Finder, with the option key (also known as alt and ⌥) held down, since Lion hides it by default.
2. Now open an input window (Terminal) in Applications → Utilities. Once opened, enter the following command:

sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/*.db "DELETE from apps; \ DELETE from groups WHERE title<>""; DELETE from items WHERE rowid>2;" \ && killall Dock

3. Launchpad should now be empty. And applications can be dragged by dragging them from the Applications folder onto the Launchpad icon.

If you want to restore Launchpad to the way it was when I installed Lion, simply delete the file you made a copy of in Application Support → Dock. The next time you launch Launchpad, everything should be the same.

Hide some apps

If you don't want to remove everything or find the console a little stressful to use, there is a settings panel that lets you choose which apps to remove from Launchpad. This program is called Launchpad-Control, and you can download it.

After you download and install the panel, you will find it under the heading Other V System Preferences. In the panel window you will see a list of applications found in Launchpad. If you want to remove an application, simply uncheck the box next to the corresponding name. Click “Apply” and the Dock will disappear for a while. Once it appears again, open Launchpad and make sure the apps you selected in Launchpad control are not there.

Hotkey for Launchpad

If you bought your Mac before Lion came out, your keyboard probably doesn't have a Launchpad shortcut button. In fact, it's very easy to do this using System Preferences.

1. Open System Preferences and launch the Keyboard Settings panel. Select a tab Keyboard shortcuts.
2. From the list on the left, select Launchpad & Dock. Now select from the list on the right Show Launchpad.
3. Double click to the right of the inscription Show Launchpad. A small text box will appear. Write the keyboard shortcut for Launchpad there. You can now minimize and expand Launchpad using your keyboard.

You might especially like this if you don't like having Launchpad in the Dock. In this case, it will be much easier to open it. You can even convert the Dashboard key into a Launchpad key if you want.

Launchpad is a very handy feature in macOS that allows you to display apps as a set of icons, similar to the iOS desktop. The problem is that the program displays ALL your applications in random order.

In contact with

The search bar makes searching easy, but you might as well use Spotlight to launch the app you're looking for. Luckily, Launchpad can be customized to suit your needs, such as creating folders and organizing apps the way you want.

LaunchPad is a special view in the Applications folder on your Mac that displays all your apps in a grid (similar to the iOS home screen). Programs may appear on multiple pages if there are too many of them to fit on one screen. Switching between pages is done using two-finger swipes right or left on the trackpad or one finger using the Magic Mouse.

Launchpad can be launched in several ways: using a trackpad or a key combination.

Launch from trackpad

To enable or disable the Multi-Touch gesture, go to "System Settings" → "Trackpad" and check the box next to the Launchpad option. You can't change the gesture, but you can turn it off.

After enabling the option, you can call Launchpad using the pinch of your thumb and three fingers.

Trigger using the Hot Corners function

To configure Launchpad to launch using the function "Active angles"(the ability to launch programs by hovering the mouse pointer over one of the corners of the application window) open the section "System Settings" → "Desktop and screensaver" → "Active angles".

In the dropdown menu, assign any active corner to launch Launchpad (we recommend the top right one)

Launch using hotkeys

To add a keyboard shortcut, open "System Settings" → "Keyboard" → "Keyboard Shortcuts" and check the box. Select a section in the left column Launchpad and Dock. Then double click on the Launchpad option and assign a keyboard shortcut like ⌘ + § .

You can also control Launchpad screens using the keyboard, for example, the cursor keys (arrow keys) will help you move between application icons or switch between screens (⌘ key + left/right switch buttons). To exit the program, press the Escape key; to launch the selected application, press the Return key.

To organize apps, simply grab them with your mouse or trackpad and drag them around.

If you want to move the program to another page, drag it to the edge of the screen and wait until the page switches automatically. If you've ever organized the icons on your iPhone home screen, doing the same in Launchpad is a breeze. Launchpad lets you create iOS-style folders (by dragging one icon on top of another) and rename them. This way you can hide unnecessary applications and better organize your workspace.

If you need to delete an application, click and hold the icon of any program (similar to iOS). After a few seconds, all the icons will start to wiggle, however, you can only delete applications downloaded from the Mac App Store. Remember that apps are removed completely, not just from Launchpad.

Launchpad's search feature isn't actually that bad. You can start entering text immediately after launching the function without having to click on the search box. When the applications matching your search are displayed on the screen, select the one you want and press Return to launch the program.

You may not find Launchpad to be as efficient as Spotlight or the Dock, but this feature is definitely a great alternative to wandering around in a folder. "Programs" looking for the right application.

We recently talked about how to remove apps from Launchpad and change its background image. Now let's talk about adding some visual effects.

Every time you open or close Launchpad, you see a fade-out effect in the background. This effect is nice to look at, but if you want, you can turn it off with just a few commands.

You can also turn this effect off halfway - either on opening or closing Launchpad.

To disable the muting effect, launch Terminal and enter the following commands:

defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-show-duration -int 0

defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-hide-duration -int 0

Now you need to close the Dock to force it to restart with the changes:

Launchpad is a subprocess of the Dock, so killing the Dock causes Launchpad to restart, and the changes will be noticeable as soon as you open Launchpad again.

In particular, the smooth transition should disappear, instead you will now see a sudden switch (almost like changing desktops, but without the animation).

If you want to turn off the effect halfway, for example when closing Launchpad, then in Terminal enter only one of the two commands above, with the “springboard-hide-duration” option.

You can also turn the muting effect back. To do this, launch Terminal again and enter the following commands in it:

defaults delete com.apple.dock springboard-show-duration

defaults delete com.apple.dock springboard-hide-duration

Again, kill Dock using the killall Dock command.

After this, Launchpad will return to its normal state, with a fade-out effect. You can view the effect in slow motion, but more on that in the next part of our story.

For most transition effects in OS X, you can use the Shift key, which causes the animation to render in slow motion.

In the case of Launchpad, pressing Shift causes icons to appear slowly, or switching between Launchpad screens to be slower.

Try it yourself - just press and hold the Shift key and open Launchpad either by clicking on its icon in the Dock or using a four-finger pinch on the trackpad. The slowing effect will be so obvious that you will not be able to miss it.

For the most part, this is just a visual effect, but it can be used if you need to take a screenshot of a transition moment or in some other similar situations.

Want to spruce up your Launchpad a little? Then simply open it and use Command+M to enable the blur effect, which will be visible in various Launchpad scenarios.

For example, you will notice blur when switching between Launchpad screens, or when using the Command+Arrow combinations when navigating.

The blur effect also affects opening folders in Launchpad - as you open folders, icons will blur as if they were zoomed in on you.

If you don’t like the blur effect, or you just want to turn it off, then just press Command+M again. Your Launchpad will then return to its normal settings.

For reasons unknown to me, this effect does not work for everyone. It is possible that this feature has been closed with the latest updates to OS X Lion.

This blur effect was noticed at the very first presentation of OS X Lion last year at the Back to the Mac conference, but for some reason Apple decided to disable it by default, and therefore it is disabled in OS X 10.7. I've noticed that if OS X is running on low memory or heavy CPU usage, the blur effect can be stuttering. Perhaps this is what explains Apple's decision.