I can't permanently remove icons from the dock!

You should be able to remove stuff out of the dock by dragging the icon out of the dock. The question mark for chrome appeared because you said you removed chrome. Now the dock icon, which is basically an alias (pointer) to the actual item had no where to point so a question mark is used to indicate this.

As for the lion automatic restarts. If you quit an app it shouldn't auto restart when you log back in. Also there the following:

Disable Mac OS X Lion Resume & App Window Restore Completely

Well com.apple.dock.plist in your Preferences is the plist that records what you have in the dock so see what happens if you move that to the desktop and log out and log back in.

The issue is that at every restart it re-appears. Even though I did all of the above after physically removing the icon from the dock.

As a question mark?

I'm having the same problem in the dock, AND in Mail app. If I change something it doesn't "stick"

Just upgraded to re installed all apps and upgraded to Mountain Lion.

Not sure how to fix this. I was unable to find the "com.apple.dock.plist" file in the preferences folder.

I did find a "com.apple.dockfixup.plist" but didn't touch it.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

thank you in advance

mac mini 2.3 Ghz Core i5

8 gigs DDR3

OS X 10.8.3

micro --

Go to your System Preferences > Accounts > Your Account. Is Mail listed in the login items list? I actually think that is why the Original Poster here couldn't get rid of his in the Dock. It was set to open at login.

Bee

Thanks for taking time to help me.

I checked the Preferences setting as you suggested, and NO, it was not set as a "Login Item"

I seem to be having the same type of issue with different programs.

As mentioned before, when I remove an item from the DOCK, it will reappear the next time I start the program. Another type of problem I notice is in the finder window if I re organized items, for example, under "Favorites" it will keep the changes, but when I restart the computer they revert to their default order.

Also in the Mail app, when I customize the toolbar it will keep the changes for that session, but when I restart the computer it reverts to the default toolbar.

I multiple users, and at least one other user is experiencing the same type of issues, at least with the DOCK.

I recently wipe the hard drive and reinstalled Mac OS Lion and then upgraded to Mountain Lion.

I appreciate any insight you might have into this matter.

As user X423424X suggested above, you should delete this file, com.apple.dock.plist in your Preferences:

Thank you for the suggestion, and the screen shot.

I am uanble to find the com.apple.dock.plist file you mentioned.

Would that also fix the problems I'm having with the other programs, including System Preferences?

As mentioned before, when I remove an item from the DOCK, it will reappear the next time I start the program. Another type of problem I notice is in the finder window if I re organized items, for example, under "Favorites" it will keep the changes, but when I restart the computer they revert to their default order.

Also in the Mail app, when I customize the toolbar it will keep the changes for that session, but when I restart the computer it reverts to the default toolbar.

System Pref is also doing this. I set up a keyboard shortcut for Dictation and on reboot it reverted to default shortcut, yet my shortcut was in the pulldown menu.

I multiple users, and at least one other user is experiencing the same type of issues, at least with the DOCK.

Thank you for any suggestions.

OK, I found what I was doing wrong: the USER/Library is hidden

http://mac.tutsplus.com/tutorials/productivity/how-to-reveal-your-library-folder -in-lion-or-mountain-lion/

So that fixed the DOCK problem.

Great.

Now I'm still having similar problems with the FINDER window (customizing it, then it reverts after reboot)

AND

Mail app.

I deleted the com.apple.finder.plist but that didn't fix it.

Any ideas??

Thank you.

On user Library again look for Saved Application State Folder. Inside that folder Delete the saved application state of your Finder. Reboot

Uggh!

I found the State Folder for the Finder and deleted it, but I'm still having the same problem.

The finder sidebar is not saving any customization.

But the really annoying thing is with Mail App

Mail is opening two windows everytime I open it AND it will not save any Toolbar customizations.

I used Disk Tool to repair premissions.

Any more idead??