How to remove app store icon in 10.6.7?

I have the App Store icon in the Dock in the form of a question mark.
I appreciate that the question mark is because the original App Store icon was removed, possibly from the Applications folder.

Anyway, my goal is to remove this icon from the Dock completely and permanently in Mac OS 10.6.7, whether the App Store icon is in the form of a question mark or the original icon image.

Thanks for any tips on how to do this in Mac OS 10.6.7.

Drag it out of the dock just like you would anything else you wanted to remove from the dock.

Yes, when I drag out the App Store icon in the form of a question mark, the icon disappears from the Dock temporarily, but when the computer is re-started the question mark icon re-appears in the Dock. Right clicking onto the icon and selecting "Options - Remove from Dock" also removes this particular icon from the Dock, but again, only temporarily. When the computer is re-started, the question mark icon again re-appears in the Dock.

If anyone has found a way to permanently remove this particular icon from the Dock from Mac OS 10.6.7, I would greatly appreciate any tiips.

Many thanks.

Download and reinstall the combo update.

Then drag it out of the dock again.


As you have now found out, do not delete this app from the Applications folder.

Thanks for the tip, bobtomay. I've installed the combo update and the App Store icon has been restored in the Dock.

This relatively new icon for the Dock has created a bit of controversy at another popular Mac forum, MacRumors. I've noted the forum thread for this topic at MacRumors below, and it makes for interesting reading.

Can't remove App Store from Dock - MacRumors Forums

It hasn't helped me to permanently remove the App Store icon from the Dock, but different suggestions have seemed to work for different people.

But in my case, when I drag the App Store icon from the Dock and then restart the computer, the App Store icon re-appears in the Dock. I experience the same result when I select "Options - Remove from Dock," with a right mouse click on this particular icon. This makes me wonder why the "Remove from Dock" option is even available for this particular icon since it doesn't work for it (in my experience).

Some Mac users seem to feel that Apple is forcing this particular App Store icon upon users since it is seemingly difficult to remove from the Dock for some users. Yet other users have expressed success when they simply drag the App Store icon from the Dock. These users say the App Store icon stays removed from the Dock even after a computer restart.

For what it's worth, I'm in the camp that has had no success in "permanently" removing the App Store icon from the Dock.
Apparently, the App Store icon was introduced by Apple in Mac OS X version 10.6.6 and continues to appear in version 10.6.7.

That's really strange. I had zero issues dragging it out of my dock. Did it once, never came back.

Doug

Doug b said:

That's really strange. I had zero issues dragging it out of my dock. Did it once, never came back.

Doug

Click to expand...

Ditto

At this point it's unclear as to why some people can permanently remove the App Store icon from the Dock and others cannot. Hopefully this will get resolved by Apple in the near future.
In the MacRumors thread, some users have found that they can resolve the problem if they rename the "dockfixup.plist" file, but in my case I don't even have this file in the Library > Preferences
folder, where it is apparently is supposed to reside. Maybe this file needs to be present in order for the App Store icon to be permanently removable from the Dock. Who knows...

There are 2 solutions posted on the 2nd page of that thread... all the responses (of the ones that stated they tried them) indicate they do work.

Primarily:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=11698286&postcount=37

for those not using OSX server.

I checked my Library > Preferences folder when I first installed my Mac OS X with Time Machine for "com.apple.dockfixup.plist," and it's not listed in the earliest version of my OS X. The only two Dock files I have in Preferences is:

com.apple.dock.db
com.apple.dock.plist

I have included a screenshot of my Preferences folder to illustrate this.
Even though I don't have the "com.apple.dockfixup.plist" file, my Dock seems to work fine, except for the issue about permanently removing App Store icon.

Wrong Library folder

this time it's the one at the root of the drive instead of the one in your home folder

That some can and some can't makes me think it is a permissions issue. Have you tried it logged in as root?

$ dsenableroot -u myUser -p myPassword -r myNewRootPassword
log out and back in with myNewRootPassword

A tech at the expert bar had to log in as root so that he could re-install the AppStore on my machine. AppStore is special in that way for some reason (perhaps because the app handles money).

Thanks. I found the right folder, renamed that file, removed the App Store icon from the Dock, restarted the computer and presto, the App Store icon is no longer in the Dock.
This may be a "dirty fix" but it works. Dealing with it as a permissions issue, as wheelguy12 suggests, is probably the proper way to handle it.
In terms of re-installing the App Store icon, I did it by simply installing the combo update as suggested by bobtomay above. Mind you, this is a big file - one GB in size, larger than
most in my experience.

In terms of re-installing the App Store icon, I did it by simply installing the combo update as suggested by bobtomay above. Mind you, this is a big file - one GB in size, larger than most in my experience.

Click to expand...

Uh, you can simply go into your applications folder and drag it back into the dock (At least I can).

McYukon said:

Uh, you can simply go into your applications folder and drag it back into the dock (At least I can).

Click to expand...

I know. I was referring to re-installing the App Store icon to the Applications folder after I had deleted it from there (see the start of this thread).