I'm sorry if this is too trivial of a question, but this is the first time I've updated OS where my computer is loaded up with important third party apps. Am I correct in thinking that only a factory reset would remove apps (aside from deleting them individually)?
MacOS – Would updating to OS Sierra remove the third party apps
macos
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They removed this feature from 10.9. No one really knows why, but it is removed from the dock settings UI as well as the command line. From the linked article;
As of Mountian Lion, the Dock is rendered by the OS, instead of the OS using a set of image files like in Lion and before, so it can't be edited.
The 2D dock terminal trick only worked via a string item in the Dock executable. As of Mavericks, that string item has been removed.
The only way to edit the dock would be to patch the encrypted Dock executable, and inject software to re-render the Dock differently in memory. Not a simple task.
You can sort your Desktop as you can do it with your Finder folder structure.
Just sort by "Tags" and thats it:
In my tests, folders are showen before other files. But of course, if you have Tags given, it gets sorted differently.
So three solutions:
- Give specific Tags and sort by Tags
- Give non Tags and sort by Tags
- Give your folder names starting with "_" or "#" and sorty by Name
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Best Answer
To add to @Tetsujin 's answer as well as give it more depth, that entirely depends on the application it is and the version you currently have. Whatever version of MacOS was out when your last update was released is the version that update was made for, and the changes to MacOS from that point onward could all harm app stability or break the app entirely... or do nothing at all.
Different apps have different needs, and when a part of macOS gets changed and that app needs it, the app sometimes needs updating to work consistently again. Depending on the apps needs this is more frequent on some than others. The built in Stickys app for example, or TextEdit I doubt ever need updates ever because of their simplicity. The updates that come out for them would be new functionality or eye candy.
On the other hand some applications are very picky in their function. Take the older version of ProTools HD as an example, which needed an $8000 processing card in your Mac Pro to run. Updates were very frequent and the app would need several updates per MacOS release, but it pushed the hardware to the limits.