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General discussion

Thunderbird - is this supposed to happen?

Mar 16, 2006 6:44PM PST

Hello all, I've been a semi-regular on the Linux forum for a while now, but I just bought my first Mac, (the Imac 1.85 dual core), and I'm having problems figuring this out. I downloaded Thunderbird, accepted the license agreement, drug what looked like a hard drive with the Thunderbird icon on it to the hard drive, then I drug that same icon to the trash, and the regular icon to the dock. Now everytime I open Thunderbird, (it does open and launch just fine), The Thunderbird-hard drive icon re-appears on the desktop. The question is, is the icon supposed to be there? Is there a way to hide it? I kinda like an uncluttered desktop. Thanks - Gary

Discussion is locked

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I figured it out
Mar 16, 2006 8:02PM PST

Never mind folks, I jumped the gun a bit I guess. After a bit of poking around I discovered in finder/preferences if I uncheck show cdrom drives (go figure) the thunderbird/hd icon dissapears and my desktop is nice and tidy again. - Gary

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You did not figure it out
Mar 16, 2006 10:02PM PST

What you did was hide the icon. The icon is not supposed to be there.

Read my other post, turn on the "Show CD" again and do it correctly.

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You installed incorrectly
Mar 16, 2006 9:00PM PST

the HD thing, that appeared on the desktop is a disk image.

Open the disk image and drag the contents to your applications folder.
From there you can drag the application icon into the dock and all will work correctly.

What you dragged into the dock was the disk image file which, when clicked, causes the disk image to mount. Guess you noticed that.

Anyway, do the above and all will be well.


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Again perhaps?
Mar 16, 2006 11:50PM PST

I too enjoy having only those images I choose shown on the desktop, but not able to follow your directions on their removal. In 'Finder' I can simply choose to 'click off' the HD image shown on the desktop, but I still have the Firefox, Thunderbird, and The New Yorker icons showing. The first two listed only appear after opening them, not at initial start-up, but the New Yorker icon is always there, and all three are represented in my dock. Thanks, Eric

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Try this.
Mar 17, 2006 3:26AM PST

As I mentioned above, the HD type icons you see on the desktop are the result of launching a disk image file. These are presumably launched by you clicking on their parent file in the dock. When you download a program, it is usually a .dmg file. This is a Disk Image. Once the HD type icon is on the desktop, open it and, unless there is an installer .pkg file inside, just drag the contents to the Applications folder of the HD. The HD type icon can now be put in the trash. Drag the application icon from the Application folder to the dock. Then, when you click on the icon in the dock, the actual program will open and NOT the disk image file.Remember to throw away the icons that you have in the dock right now. They are pointing to the original disk image file.
The above applies to the Firefox and Thunderbird icons that appear on your desktop when you launch either one. The New Yorker icon, unless it looks like a small HD, can be dragged to the Applications folder.

See how you get on


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I must be missing something
Mar 17, 2006 1:57AM PST

Ok, I started all over again, double clicked the cd looking thing and a window opened with the Thunderbird icon on it that led to a plus sign that led to a folder with an "A" on it. I figured this was telling me to drag the icon to the applications folder just as you said. Ok, I did it, and again everytime I open Thunderbird I get the Thunderbird icon disk on my desktop, and to top it off the first time I open it after a reboot I get the widow I described above with the icon, plus sign and folder with an "A" on it. What am I missing? Thanks again - Gary

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Ok, this time I think I really did figure it out
Mar 17, 2006 2:11AM PST

I was dragging the wrong icon into the dock. (Yep, I really am that big of a knuckle head). I was dragging the same icon to both the application folder and the dock, once I removed that one from the dock and went into finder/applications and drug that icon to the dock things work fine. Be patient with me folks, it took me a while, but I finally learned my way around Linux, so in time I may figure this out too. Thanks again - Gary

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Not a problem and a fairly common error for OS X users
Mar 17, 2006 2:24AM PST

Note that there is another poster in this thread with the same problem.
I wonder if he will figure out his mistake after reading all the posts.

Anyway, glad you got it sorted and don't forget to turn the "Show CD" option back on again or the next time you insert a CD you will be posting here complaining that it didn't mount on the desktop. Happy

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help
Mar 5, 2008 12:26PM PST

even after I drag the correct icon to the applications folder, I can't eject and remove the HD Thunderbird icon from the desktop. How do I remove this icon?

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Eject Thunderbird
Mar 5, 2008 8:57PM PST

Reboot your computer.

That HD icon should be gone from the desktop

Launch Thunderbird.

If that icon comes back, then you are using the wrong thing to launch Thunderbird.

If that icon does NOT come back, then your problem is solved.

Let us know what happens

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