Aug 28, 2015 To lock the Dock contents, run this command: defaults write com.apple.Dock contents-immutable -bool yes; killall Dock You'll now notice that you can't rearrange the position of apps on the Dock.
We recently discussed how you could quickly reposition the Dock in OS X, but some users are actually interested in the opposite: they want to lock the Dock down, so that children, guests, or other restricted users are prevented from making changes to its position, size, or contents. While there are no end-user options in the OS X interface to set these limitations, you probably won't be surprised to learn that these types of restrictions can be easily enabled with a few Terminal commands.
Lock the Dock Position
As the antithesis of our earlier tip, you can prevent changes to the position of the OS X Dock by running the following Terminal command:
The first part of the command above prevents the user from changing the position of the Dock from its current position on the screen, so be sure you set the Dock to your desired location on the left, right, or bottom of the screen before running it. The second part of the command -- killall Dock -- resets the Dock so that the change will take effect, and it's necessary for enabling or disabling any of the commands discussed here.
After this command is enabled, the options for changing the Dock's position in System Preferences > Dock will be grayed out, and the 'Position' submenu in the Dock's context menu will be gone.
Lock the Dock Size
The next step to locking down the Dock in OS X is to prevent changes to its size. To do so, run the following Terminal command:
After executing this command, the user will no longer be able to resize the Dock by clicking and dragging on the dividing line, or via the Size slider in System Preferences.
Again, this command will lock the Dock at its current size, so make sure you set the desired size before running it.
Lock the Dock Contents
Preventing changes to apps and folders listed in the Dock is perhaps the most important reason that users might want to lock it. Note that this doesn't prevent applications that are not in the Dock from being launched (a user can still launch apps via Finder or Spotlight, and those apps will have their icons appear in the Dock while running), it simply prevents a user from changing which apps and folders are 'pinned' to the Dock and their position relative to each other.
To lock the Dock contents, run this command:
You'll now notice that you can't rearrange the position of apps on the Dock, add new apps by dragging them to the Dock from Finder, or use the right-click 'Keep in Dock' option on a running application. You also won't be able to remove apps or folders from the Dock.
As with the previous options, this locks the Dock as-is, so make sure that you not only add your desired apps and folders first, but that you also rearrange them if necessary into your preferred order.
Free the Dock!
You can undo any of the changes above by running the corresponding command again and simply changing 'yes' to 'no.' For example, if we've locked everything down but we later decided that we want to let the user change the size of the Dock, we would run:
If you're typing commands manually, just remember to add 'killall Dock' after each one in order for the change to take effect.
Also note that these are user-level commands, and while they're great for limiting access for young children or inexperienced users, any user with sufficient technical knowledge (or the ability to search Google for this article, for example) will be able to unlock any of the restrictions above. Therefore, it's best not to think of these settings as a security measure but rather as a handy trick that makes managing certain Macs a bit more convenient. Indeed, we've met a few users over the years who used some of these restrictions on their own accounts to prevent accidentally re-sizing the dock or removing certain apps, something that was a bit more common -- and frustrating -- in earlier versions of OS X.
Take a minute to look at the row of icons at the bottom of your display. That row is the Dock, and those individual pictures are known as icons.
Dock icons are a quick way to bring a hidden window or application to the front so that you can work with it again. Dock icons are odd ducks — they’re activated with a single-click. Most icons are selected (highlighted) when you single click and opened when you double-click. So Dock icons are kind of like links on a Web page — you need only a single click to open them.
You can customize your Dock with favorite applications, a document you update daily, or maybe a folder containing your favorite recipes — use the Dock for anything you need quick access to. Here’s how you can add an icon to the Dock or remove a Dock icon you no longer desire.
Adding an icon to the Dock
Adding an application, file, or folder to the Dock is as easy as 1-2-3. First, open a Finder window that contains an application, file, folder, URL, or disk icon that you use frequently. Then follow these steps to add it to the Dock:
1. Click the item you want to add to the Dock.
Adding To Dock On Mac
2. Drag the icon out of the Finder window and onto the Dock, as shown in Figure 1.
3. An icon for this item now appears on the Dock.
Folder, disk, and URL icons must be on the right of the divider line in the Dock; Application icons must be on the left of it.
Figure 1: Drag an icon onto the Dock to add it.
You can add several items at the same time to the Dock by selecting them all and dragging the group to the Dock. However, you can delete only one icon at a time from the Dock.
Removing an icon from the Dock
To remove an item from the Dock, just drag its icon onto the Desktop. It disappears with a cool poof animation, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: To remove an icon, drag it off the Dock and POOF — it’s gone.
By moving an icon out of the Dock, you aren’t moving, deleting, or copying the item itself — you’re just removing its icon from the Dock. The item is unchanged. Think of it like a library catalog card: Just because you remove the card from the card catalog doesn’t mean that the book is gone from the library.
After you figure out which programs you use and don’t use, it’s a good idea to relieve overcrowding by removing the ones you never (or rarely) use.
Knowing what to put in your Dock
Put things on the Dock that you need quick access to and that you use often, or add items that aren’t quickly available from menus or the sidebar. If you like using the Dock better than the Finder window sidebar, for example, add your Documents, Movies, Pictures, Music, or even your hard disk to the Dock.
Consider adding these items to your Dock:
- A word-processing application: Most people use word-processing software more than any other application.
Mac Dock For Windows 10
- A project folder: You know, the folder that contains all the documents for your thesis, or the biggest project you have at work, or your massive recipe collection . . . whatever. Add that folder to the Dock, and then you can access it much quicker than if you have to open several folders to find it.
- Don’t forget — if you
press
- (click but don’t let go) on a folder icon, a handy hierarchical menu of its contents appears.
- A special utility or application: You may want to add your favorite graphics application such as Photoshop, or the game you play every afternoon when you think the boss isn’t watching.
- Your favorite URLs: Save links to sites that you visit every day — ones that you use in your job, your favorite Mac news sites, or your personalized page from an Internet service provider (ISP). Sure, you can make one of these pages your browser’s start page or bookmark it, but the Dock lets you add one or more additional URLs.
- Here’s how to quickly add a URL to the Dock. Open Safari and go to the page with a URL that you want to save on the Dock. Click and drag the small icon that you find at the left of the URL in the Address bar to the right side of the dividing line in the Dock (at the arrow’s head in Figure 3) and then release the mouse button. The icons in the Dock will slide over and make room for your URL. From now on, when you click the URL icon that you moved to your Dock, Safari opens to that page.
Figure 3: To save a URL to your Dock, drag its little icon from the Address bar to the right side of the Dock.
Dock App For Windows 10
- You can add several URL icons to the Dock, but bear in mind that the Dock and its icons shrink to accommodate added icons, thus making them harder to see. Perhaps the best idea — if you want easy access to several URLs — is to create a folder full of URLs and put that folder on the Dock. Then you can just press and hold your mouse pointer on the folder (or Control-click the folder) to pop up a menu with all your URLs.
Even though you can make the Dock smaller, you’re still limited to one row of icons. The smaller you make the Dock, the larger the crowd of icons you can amass. You have to determine for yourself what’s best for you: having lots of icons available on the Dock (even though they may be difficult to see because they’re so tiny) or having less clutter but fewer icons on your Dock.