OS X Leopard: Disable Dashboard

Posted on Dec 14, 2007 under Mac Tips |

Want to disable the Mac OS X Leopard Dashboard? Use these steps:

1. Open Terminal from the Utilites folder.

2. Type:

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES

and press Enter.

3. Restart the Mac and the Dashboard will be disabled.

OS X Leopard: Disable Startup Chime Sound (Jul 22, 2008)
iPhoto Error: “An error occurred while trying to save your photo library” (Jul 22, 2008)
Leopard: Invert Black and White Colors (Jul 10, 2008)
Mac OS X Leopard: Reset or Zap PRAM (Jun 12, 2008)
Make OS X Leopard Sidebar Icons Bigger? You Can’t (May 27, 2008)

4 Comments so far »

by Greg L, on December 15 2007 @ 8:16 am

This may seem like a dumb question, but what is the code to turn it back on again.

I don’t use my dashboard for anything but istatpro so I’d like to disable it, but would like to be able to turn it back on when I want.

Thanks!
by admin, on December 15 2007 @ 12:14 pm

You can switch the YES to a NO in the command to enable it.
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO
by Jon, on January 2 2008 @ 6:36 pm

Hi, my dashboard won’t open since using fast switcher in accounts to set up parental controls. I tried your command in terminal- command not found. I need to find a way to force the app to launch. How? Any help would be greatful.
I know next to nothing about terminal; so you would have to be very exact. Thanks, Jon
by Romac, on January 14 2008 @ 5:27 am

You don’t need to restart to activate this.
Just type “killall Dock” in the Terminal and here it is!