Geek Posted December 12, 2011 Posted December 12, 2011 <div class="KonaBody"><p><img src="http://osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/hide-spotlight-icon-lion.jpg" alt="Hide the Spotlight icon in OS X Lion" title="hide-spotlight-icon-lion" width="620" height="72" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24750" /></p> <p>Whether you are <a href="http://osxdaily.com/2011/12/10/disable-or-enable-spotlight-in-mac-os-x-lion/">disabling Spotlight</a> or just wanting to reduce menubar icon clutter, it’s possible to hide the Spotlight icon. Here’s the best part though; if you just want to hide the Spotlight menu, you can do so without disabling the search abilities from functioning in the Finder or with other apps that rely on the Spotlight metadata. </p> <h2 style="font-size:1.2em;">Hide the Spotlight Menu Icon in OS X Lion</h2> <p><em>This does not disable Spotlight or <a href="http://osxdaily.com/2010/08/05/mds-mac/">mds</a>, it only hides the icon from the menubar. </em></p> <p>Launch the Terminal from /Applications/Utilities/ and type the following:</p> <p><code style="font-size:95%;">sudo chmod 600 /System/Library/CoreServices/Search.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Search</code></p> <p>Next, you kill a process called SystemUIServer to refresh the menubar and have the change take effect:</p> <p><code>killall SystemUIServer</code></p> <p>What you’ll find is the Spotlight menu is removed, but the search abilities built into Finder still work as seen in the screenshot showing the “Searching This Mac” window, accessible with Command+F :</p> <p><img src="http://osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/hide-spotlight-menu.jpg" alt="Hiding the Spotlight menu still allows search to work" title="hide-spotlight-menu" width="620" height="373" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24751" /></p> <h2 style="font-size:1.2em;">Show the Spotlight Menu Again</h2> <p>Getting the Spotlight icon back is a matter of bringing the permissions back to their default setting:</p> <p><code style="font-size:95%;">sudo chmod 755 /System/Library/CoreServices/Search.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Search</code></p> <p>Follow this up with killing the SystemUIServer again:</p> <p><code>killall SystemUIServer</code></p> <p>The Spotlight menu will be visible again:</p> <p><img src="http://osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/show-spotlight-icon.jpg" alt="Show the Spotlight icon again" title="show-spotlight-icon" width="620" height="74" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24752" /></p> <p>Thanks to <a href="http://osxdaily.com/2011/12/10/disable-or-enable-spotlight-in-mac-os-x-lion/#comment-297618">Juan for the tip</a> via comments. </p> </div> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/2bNyqmRY6goPN2hUoR8QGb1CsyY/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/2bNyqmRY6goPN2hUoR8QGb1CsyY/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/2bNyqmRY6goPN2hUoR8QGb1CsyY/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/2bNyqmRY6goPN2hUoR8QGb1CsyY/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=N7R9G5V9IvY:0kvKoSooXQc:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=N7R9G5V9IvY:0kvKoSooXQc:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?i=N7R9G5V9IvY:0kvKoSooXQc:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=N7R9G5V9IvY:0kvKoSooXQc:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?i=N7R9G5V9IvY:0kvKoSooXQc:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=N7R9G5V9IvY:0kvKoSooXQc:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=N7R9G5V9IvY:0kvKoSooXQc:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/osxdaily/~4/N7R9G5V9IvY" height="1" width="1"/> View the full article
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