Faceless apps in OS X - FYI

[Devin Asay]

Ken Ray has this tip posted on his Web Site 
(http://www.sonsothunder.com/devres/metacard/tips/proc003.htm)

--quote

  To hide an application process in OS X, open the Info.plist file in 
the Contents folder of the application package. Add this to the <dict> 
section (it doesn't seem to matter where):

<key>NSBGOnly</key>
<string>1</string>

  Doing this will remove the process from the Dock, and from any menus 
that list active (visible) processes. To show it again, you can either 
put in a 0 instead of a 1 for the <key>, or you can remove the whole 
thing.

--end quote

I tried it and it didn't work, then I noticed in the mail list archive 
that this apparently was broken in Panther. I searched Apple Developer 
web site and discovered that the name of the key has been changed to 
LSUIElement.

So insert the following to create a faceless application (one that 
doesn't appear in Force Quit list or in Dock):

<key> LSUIElement </key>
<string>1</string>

It's best to use the Property List Editor application to do this rather 
than a text editor.

Devin

Devin Asay
Humanities Technology and Research Support Center
Brigham Young University