Applications that stay in dock after quitting

Question

Level 1

30 points

Applications that stay in dock after quitting

Is there a way to make applications remove themselves from the dock after you quit them? I only want the applications that I specified to appear in the dock. But every time I close an application it remains in the dock.
Another thing is that when ever I quit an application, it doesn't really quit completely and therefore uses up cpu. I still see the bright light underneath the application meaning that it's still running in the background. So how does one make applications fully quit automatically?

Thanks again,
Julien

Message was edited by: Host

W8825***0P1, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Apr 6, 2009 9:03 PM

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Answer 1

Király

Level 6

10,025 points

Apr 6, 2009 9:15 PM in response to Jfalconebmop

How are you quitting your applications? Unlike Windows, closing all an app's windows doesn't quit the whole app (there are some exceptions.) To quit an app, you need to select Quit from the File menu, or hit command-Q, or right click the app's Dock icon and select Quit.

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Answer 2

Apr 21, 2009 3:28 PM in response to Jfalconebmop

HI,

*"Is there a way to make applications remove themselves from the dock after you quit them?"*

Not to my knowledge.

*"So how does one make applications fully quit automatically?"*

Simply quit from the Menu bar or the Dock.

You can also use Activity Monitor Applications/Utilities

Carolyn 🙂

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Answer 3

Rothrock

Level 4

1,467 points

Apr 21, 2009 4:22 PM in response to Jfalconebmop

As far as I know only Finder and Dashboard remain in the dock. All the others can be removed from the dock when they aren't running. Then when you start them (from the applications folder for example) they will appear in the dock and when you quit they will not be in the dock.

There are even messy hacks to remove Dashboard from the dock, but I wouldn't do that.

And yes. If you are actually Quitting the application then they should quit. If you are just closing the windows most applications aren't actually quit. I think Garageband is however....

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Answer 4

Apr 30, 2009 5:57 PM in response to Jfalconebmop

I've just seen this 'sticky' behavior today for the first time. After a normal OS X quit (cmd-q) the app is still in the dock with the blue light.

I've also just noticed the opposite - i.e. Mail is running, but the blue light is NOT on.

I've also just seen that cmd-tab is only listing finder though I have 3 apps and the activity monitor running.

Killing the dock in the activity monitor has fixed these issues for now. I guess the Dock just went haywire for some reason.

Best,
Nick

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Answer 5

May 5, 2009 3:04 PM in response to Jfalconebmop

Is there a way to make applications remove themselves from the dock after you quit them?
Yes. Click on the app icon in the dock but hold the mouse button down (or right click with a two-button mouse). You'll see a menu, the first option of which is "remove from dock." Alternately, just drag the icon out of the dock and to the trash.

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