How do you delete apps from Lion's Launchpad?

When pressing alt/option in Lion's Launchpad, only some icons get the delete X overlay to remove them. How do you delete the others? I've read that control-option-command should do this, but it simply launches the app for me.


It seems that apps that the only apps that are directly removable from Launchpad have to be installed through the App Store.

For every other app, you can simply do it the old fashioned way:

  1. Open programs
  2. Select 'open in finder'
  3. Delete the app that you want to delete

Many people are using folders to reduce clutter of apps shown in Launchpad. (while eagerly awaiting either an update or some tools to manage Launchpad layouts.)


Launchpad-Control is what you are looking for my friend. It's a free preference pane app that lets you uncheck what you want to hide. It even backs up for safety :)

Alternatively, you could enter the following into Terminal:

sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/*.db "DELETE from apps WHERE title='APP_NAME';" && killall Dock

Replace the "APP_NAME" with the name of the app as it's displayed in Launchpad.

To display it in Launchpad again, simply move it from Applications folder and then put it back.


You can drag the app to the trash.