How to disable Developer and Web Searches in Spotlight?

Solution 1:

I detailed a fix in this forum thread: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1193533

Solution 2:

Spotlight thinks you are a 'Developer', if you have Xcode installed, or happened to install it at any time in the past, and hence shows you search results that maybe relevant to a developer.

When Xcode is actually installed and present on the computer, a check-box called 'Developer' appears in the System Preferences > Spotlight > Search Results panel giving us the option to disable 'Developer' results from appearing in our searches. When Xcode is not detected, the check-box disappears from the Preferences Panel, but Spotlight continues to show results from the 'Developer' category.

I am currently on Yosemite, and had installed and un-installed Xcode way back on Mountain-Lion or Lion, opting to use the 'Command Line Tools' instead. I also had Spotlight disabled until recently, and started getting hundreds of Search Results under the Developer category, once I re-enabled it. The clutter was making spotlight unusable.

Unable to find a solution anywhere on the Web, this is what I finally tried, and it worked:

I created an empty file called Xcode.app in the Applications folder, and the missing 'Developer' check-box showed up in Spotlight Preferences, which I could then un-check to solve my problem.

Open Applications > Utilities > Terminal.app then type and press Enter after each of the following lines to create the dummy Xcode app

cd /Applications
touch Xcode.app

then head to Spotlight Preferences and uncheck 'Developer' (you might need to restart the System Preferences app to see the missing check-box appear).

Notes:

• You need to keep the dummy Xcode.app even after changing the setting, deleting it will cause the setting to revert back.
• Another solution would be to install Xcode itself