Force removing icons from Launchpad
The standard method for removing app icons from the Lion Launchpad is to hold the left mouse button over the app icon, wait for the cross to appear in the corner of the app icon, and then click it!
In some cases however app icons can become orphaned, for example if you use on Steam on Mac, deleting local content to uninstall a game will not remove the game icon from Launchpad. This leaves you with an unusable orphaned icon that seems invincible and does not appear in the Application folder along with the rest of your apps.
The solution is as follows…
- Open Launchpad, find the offending icon(s) and drag them to your normal dock.
- Right click on the icon that you dragged to your dock and choose ‘Show in Finder’.
- Now drag the icon(s) from the Finder windows that opens up into the Trash.
- Finally right click on the dock item(s) that you dragged originally and choose ‘Remove from dock’.
Voila, the icons have disappeared from Launchpad and the annoying orphaned icons that seemed invincible have been thwarted.
Joe Gardiner
Technical Architect
An experienced technical architect witha focus on vendor and MSP pre-sales.