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I wonder if it is possible to pin the Mac OS X Dock to the top in Snow Leopard? I see lets of ideas on how to do this when I Google for it, and Secrets (the tweaking app) also provide it as an option, but I don't see any of the ways working for me.

I guess it must have worked at some point, since people said it did, but I believe this feature might have been removed from Snow Leopard, and therefore does not work for me.

Is this so? Is there really no way to pin the Dock to the top of screen?

If not, what ways of "getting rid of the dock" can you guys recommend? I have tried with auto-hiding, but my problem is that this will leave a 4px line at the edge of where the Dock is pinned to, that applications wont cover. That's not ideal for me. As far as I have understood from Google-ing, this line will not appear if the Dock is pinned to the top, hence my question.

What other ways do you guys use to get rid of it?

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    I can't duplicate the 4px line left on the edge of the screen my Dock is bound to, either bottom or either side. This on an iMac and a Macbook Air2, or 2008 white Macbook, all running Snow Leopard. How could you tell? By close inspection?
    – Charles Lindsay
    Commented Feb 8, 2011 at 22:51
  • I'd imagine it'd be possible to put to Dock on top when having two monitors connected, one without menubar. I'll have to try that...
    – Daniel Beck ♦
    Commented Feb 8, 2011 at 23:15
  • @Daniel, its not possible with multiple monitors either. the Dock always lives on the "main" monitor.
    – peelman
    Commented Mar 2, 2011 at 15:42

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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The Hacky way of doing it would be to modify your dock's launchd item in /System/Library/LaunchAgents/

Adding the key/value:

<key>Disabled</key>
<true/>

or running this from a Terminal:

launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.Dock.plist

should do the trick, but I make no promises, ask tinkering at that level is dangerous, and will potentially be overridden by Apple during any system updates.

Also, it should be noted that Dock.app does a lot more than just the visible launcher at the bottom of the screen. It also controls the ability to Minimize windows, the app/window switcher, and several other facets. So making it go away completely probably isn't the best idea.

I'll also note that if you do this and you OMG PANIC because now the Dock is gone and your machine appears screwed, run these commands to reverse it:

launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.Dock.plist
launchctl start com.apple.Dock.agent

Should get you back up and running.

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Put your Dock on the left side of your screen. The 4px distance will be kept when using the zoom (green) button, but you can easily move windows there anyway.

Using Secrets.prefPane, you can also configure "Pinning: End". This will move the Dock to the lower end of the left screen edge. Here's how you can shrink the Dock further than usually possible.

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  • Regarding the 4px distance and 'easily move the windows there anyway' ... thing is, if I e.g. move google chrome and dont "respect" the gap, it will automatically move and resize the window to fit. Also, I have played around with Secrets.prefPane, and seen what it can do to the Dock, but I still want it pinned to the top. The other ways of hiding it, doesnt fit me well...
    – chrisbuchholz
    Commented Feb 10, 2011 at 7:06
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I've also been looking for a way to set the orientation to top, but haven't found anything yet.

What other ways do you guys use to get rid of it?

1: defaults write com.apple.Dock tilesize -int 1, but it just does this:

(It's also the secret ingredient of Dock Gone ($15) and DockBlock ($5).)

2: chmod 0 /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app.

But it also disables at least Exposé, Spaces, the application switcher and the desktop background. And if you try to minimize a window, you just get a beachball for ~ 5-10 s. In Lion DP it currently also disables Mission Control and makes full screen very buggy.

Though I have been using OS X like that for a while, without any other major issues.

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