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How to start dashboard hidden?

Okey, so I'm new with mac, this must be an easy question:
So far I've learned to do autorun, and make it hidden in sys prefs -> account -> Login items. My problem is that this doesn't work with the dashboard. I've found the dashboard.app, added it, checked the hidden box, and it still shows up. Of course I don't have to autorun it like skype, but it takes a lot of time to load the first time I start it, so I would prefer to preload it at startup. So my question is that if I cannot start it as hidden, how can I preload it to achieve the same effect?
Thanks!

MoZo1
Junior Poster
119 posts since Mar 2008
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Its a funny thing that dashboard will start up on its own. What is your mac version? Also, try going to /Library/StartupItems. See whether the dashboard app is shown there.

jingda
Industrious Poster
4,698 posts since Mar 2011
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10.6.8. No dashboard in startup items. But well, maybe it starts up automatically. But then more accurately what I need is to preload the dashboard apps: They take a lot of time to load the first time the dashboard is shown.

MoZo1
Junior Poster
119 posts since Mar 2008
Reputation Points: 43
Solved Threads: 4
 

Instead of hiding your dashbard in login items in system preference, delete it instead. It won't harm the dashboard app. Your dashboard may start slow due to a lot of widgets in it, low ram or less hard disk space left. Try downloading onyx and run it. Restart your mac and see whether your dashboard takes long to start up.

By the way how do you start up your dashboard? Pressing F4 or clicking on the applications?

jingda
Industrious Poster
4,698 posts since Mar 2011
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Yes, the widgets start slow. But no lack of ram or HDD, it was doing this since clean install. And it's not slow the 2nd time I start it, only the 1st time, so I guess widgets ain't loaded yet. Yes, I have a lot. 2nd time, and after it, it's wicked fast till restart, so they won't get paged out. So to repharse, I just want to prebuffer them to memory before they are actually needed. So can I configure OsX to prebuffer files at boot time? (Now I'll google this, good idea, thx for pointing it out!) :) I'm just new with mac. And it's same with the taskbar or F12.

MoZo1
Junior Poster
119 posts since Mar 2008
Reputation Points: 43
Solved Threads: 4
 

Have you found a cure cause I have run out of ideas. Does other user account ( if you have one ) on your mac face the same problem as you?

jingda
Industrious Poster
4,698 posts since Mar 2011
Reputation Points: 182
Solved Threads: 142
 

I've found some general speedup stuff, I'm trying to automatize it: http://www.daniweb.com/hardware-and-software/apple/mac-os-x/threads/390037
Also please, this thread is not about a problem, I just want to optimize my OsX. Every OsX I've seen so far have this delay, and it depends on the number/size of widgets it has on the dashboard.
Now I'm having a net monitor, a remote wakeup, and an online weather stuff with hires radar image. They need the time to load. No argue there. I just want them to load (precache, prebuffer, whatever) before they actually gets shown, since they are on the dashboard exactly, because I want to see them almost every time I use the comp. Also I have the exact same function in the OsX with the mail client and Skype I need, I jsut can't use it with the dashboard.
Thank you for helping!

MoZo1
Junior Poster
119 posts since Mar 2008
Reputation Points: 43
Solved Threads: 4
 

HI MoZo1, I don't think you can make the time to load the widgets faster.

jingda
Industrious Poster
4,698 posts since Mar 2011
Reputation Points: 182
Solved Threads: 142
 
MoZo1
Junior Poster
119 posts since Mar 2008
Reputation Points: 43
Solved Threads: 4
 
MoZo1
Junior Poster
119 posts since Mar 2008
Reputation Points: 43
Solved Threads: 4
 
MoZo1
Junior Poster
119 posts since Mar 2008
Reputation Points: 43
Solved Threads: 4
 

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