How do I remove widgets from Dashboard in Mac OS X Tiger?

So sorry to ask what is I am sure a pretty dumb question, but I have downloaded widgets for my Mac OS X Tiger which don't really work in the part of world that I am (India). e.g. i can't send smses from the sms sender as no carrier here is supported. Now I want to know how to get rid of them, and the 'manage widgets' widget seems to be missing.

Dave's Answer:

I have to admit, after being pretty impressed by all the innovations that were promised with Dashboard when Tiger was released onto the world, I actually don't find that I use Dashboard at all, unless I accidentally press the f12 key on my keyboard.

Nonetheless, like you and probably like lots of other folk, I do find that I sporadically download and install new widgets because they're fun, amusing, or ostensibly useful.

Every so often, though, it's time to clean things up, and to do that in Dashboard you need to launch Dashboard, then click on the "X" in the lower left corner of your screen. It'll then push everything up and present the launch strip of widgets. More importantly, adjacent to the "X" should be a new link "Manage Widgets":

If you don't have that link, I'd be quite puzzled: I'm pretty sure it's built in to the Dashboard system itself. However, let me step through the usual way of managing widgets, then we'll come back to that issue, okay?

Once you have the Widget Manager running, it's easy to remove any specific widgets you don't want to have running in the Dashboard environment:

You'll notice that some have a red circle icon with a line through it: if you click on that icon you can physically remove the widget from your computer entirely, as shown here:

Unchecking a widget just means that it's still on your system, but isn't launched automatically when you bring up Dashboard in the future.

If you can't get Widget Manager to work, then you can always delete widgets manually by going to either /Library/Widgets (for those widgets installed for all system users) or /Users/yourAcctName/Library/Widgets (for those installed just for yourself). It's pretty easily understood, I think:

$ ls /Library/Widgets
Address Book.wdgt       Phone Book.wdgt         Translation.wdgt
Calculator.wdgt         Stickies.wdgt           Unit Converter.wdgt
Calendar.wdgt           Stocks.wdgt             Weather.wdgt
Dictionary.wdgt         Symantec Alerts.wdgt    World Clock.wdgt
Flight Tracker.wdgt     Tile Game.wdgt          iTunes.wdgt

Fairly straightforward, all in all.

Hope that helps you out!

Categorized: Mac OS X Help (Article 4266, Written by Dave Taylor)
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Comments

It was useful for me! Thanks. I had just the same problem and had nt seen yet the big X!!
Thanks

Hugo

Posted by: Hugo Oliveira at March 12, 2006 6:30 PM

Thanks for the information...as a new OS X user, this too had me stumped.

Posted by: Cath at November 6, 2006 1:04 PM

How to remove widgets fro my dashboard

Posted by: Helen Makarenkova at February 25, 2008 9:59 PM

Love your site. Got any idea how I can actually make the "To Do" dashboard widget work, once I download it? It just sits there and won't let me write on it.

Thanks.

Posted by: Anne at March 18, 2008 10:51 AM

Thanks for your advice Dave. I was having a lot of trouble finding and deleting widgets I didnt want, and I couldnt find any useful info online, as most websites had convoluted instructions that didnt make much sense. Your instructions were concise and easy to follow.

Posted by: J at September 3, 2008 6:38 PM

I DRAGGED MY WIDGETS OFF OF MY MAC AND I DON'T KNOW HOW TO PUT IT BACK.

PLEASE HELP ME,
MARK

Posted by: Mark McDonough at October 31, 2008 9:22 PM

Actually u can remove even the widgets which came as defaults, which u havent downloaded urself,simple type widgets in spotlight and you will get the widgets folder, open the folder and right click on the widget and move it to trash and voila ur done :)

Posted by: Swaroop at May 18, 2009 4:12 PM

In the Widget Manager, in your example, some of the icons have a red circle icon with a line through it, and others don't. The reason is that the Widgets that are installed in /Library/Widgets (for all system users) do not have the red circle icon, but those that are in /Users/yourAcctName/Library/Widgets do have it. Of course, they can be moved from one folder to the other.

Posted by: w.gallagher at June 18, 2009 4:01 AM

i want say thank you much for widget problem as drop off. and i'm glad i find this link website. actually i'm learn lesson lol Thank pal
: ) smile

Posted by: deaf power at August 9, 2009 2:23 PM

hey i download dashboard tv, but it doesnt work, there is a quicktime logo with a question mark on top, i download flip4mac also nothing changed..

Posted by: shubir at September 9, 2009 1:10 AM

Was really helpful .. Thanks

Posted by: dewsparkle at October 4, 2009 8:35 PM

yo um i downloaded a video on a web site and i was messing around with it and it disappeared and it wont delete. what do i do

Posted by: Bob at November 8, 2009 8:29 AM

That was really helpful. Thank you very much.

Posted by: Ahmed at March 4, 2010 3:06 AM

very helpful

Posted by: cam at September 12, 2010 8:55 PM

Hi i have an inquiry.
On my mac i'm trying to delete a widget that is a picture i accidentally downloaded from the internet. In this case it would be opening F4 on the keyboard and when i open i don't see an "X" on the upper left hand corner?
I need help on deleting some extras on my dashboard. I heard it's battery consuming.

Thank you

Posted by: MacUser at September 23, 2010 3:10 PM

Is there a way to block applications like Dashboard/Widgets from being used at all? My students are preoccupied with the games and I never know what I'll find down loaded. Also, how do I lock the dock so they can't remove, add, or change anything?

Posted by: Chris at November 19, 2010 4:08 PM

i dont know where this "widget" came from but its a whole McConnell and Brue Microeconomics quiz/website and i cant figure out how to delete it...

Posted by: TJ at December 6, 2010 5:31 PM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

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