Someone jokingly commented that I should make a widget out of the DisableEnableDashboard utility. Actually, it’s not that crazy an idea as it sounds.. I rarely use the Dashboard, there are maybe 1 or 2 widgets I use once a week, so it would be handy to be able to launch the EnableDashboard utility, popup Dashboard, use a widget and then hit the “Disable Dashboard” button in the DisableDashboard-widget .. and voila, no trace of Dashboard in memory.

Download DisableDashboard widget

Clicking the “Disable Dashboard” button disables the Dashboard (F12 or the Dashboard icon in the Dock will no longer work) and quits the Dashboard.

I’ve included the EnableDashboard utility to re-enable the Dashboard (uhm.. this is obviously not a widget).

It’s been commented elsewhere that running “killall dock” and never launching the Dashboard basically has the same effect. This is true but I prefer to disable the Dashboard altogether to prevent accidentally starting it up.

Note: as a user at MacOSX hints pointed out : “It’s probably also a good idea (that if you’ve disabled Dashboard and/or Spotlight), to remember that you’ve disabled them and re-enable them (just in case) before applying any system updates. I remember reading that some were having problems with the 10.4.1 update because they had disabled Spotlight beforehand.”

This entry was posted on Friday, August 5th, 2005 at 23:48 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.