"Desktops" bar at top of screen

Out of the blue, when I use Mission Control to show all windows I see this ...the "Desktops" bar at the top of my screen being unexpected.

Can anybody tell me what I did to get it there and how to get rid of it? (Is it new in El Cap and I've never noticed it before?)

I've managed to get rid of the second desktop, but not the bar.

Thanks.

Might that have something to do with what you just described in the other Desktop thread (Post #39836)? It might still believe that a second Desktop exists.

Have you tried restarting to see if that clears it?

I have the same thing in El Cap. I never noticed it before and I don't know if it was in Yosemite. As far as I'm concerned, I'm going to ignore it.

Originally Posted By: grelber

Might that have something to do with what you just described in the other Desktop thread (Post #39836)? It might still believe that a second Desktop exists.

That post dealt with jaybass's issue...had nothing to do with me.

Originally Posted By: jchuzi

I have the same thing in El Cap. I never noticed it before and I don't know if it was in Yosemite. As far as I'm concerned, I'm going to ignore it.

Originally Posted By: Wikipedia

Mission Control includes three separate features for organizing windows and open applications:

All windows:
Shows all open and unhidden windows and desktops shrinking their appearance so they all fit on a single screen. On newer Mac keyboards, this is activated from the F3 key, or F9 on older keyboards. On Apple's Magic Mouse or multi-touch trackpads, this can be activated by pulling up on the trackpad with three or four fingers. Mission Control redesigned this feature extensively to show all running desktops.

Application windows: ....

Desktop: .... (Emphasis added)

I guess that's it. I rarely use the functionality in question...never noticed that it had changed since Snowy.

Edit: The confusion is in part due to Apple's bad description of Mission Control in the MC pref pane; it's says "all open windows" but fails to mention "desktops".

Originally Posted By: artie505

Originally Posted By: grelber

Might that have something to do with what you just described in the other Desktop thread (Post #39836)? It might still believe that a second Desktop exists.

That post dealt with jaybass's issue...had nothing to do with me.

Somehow I construed your comments

Quote:

I booted into my Snowy partition and emailed /Volumes/HDz/System/Library/PreferencePanes/DesktopScreenEffectsPref.prefPane to myself, and I received this, with the icon correctly labeled DesktopScreenEffectsPref.prefPane. (Clicking on the image enlarges it.)
The icon in the email is the light switch you described, and when I dragged it to my desktop it resolved into the correct icon...DesktopScreenEffectsPref.prefPane.

to mean that you actually introduced something new to your system. My response just alluded to that. Sorry for the misinterpretation.

System Preferences -> Mission Control -> Dashboard as Space

Thanks for the suggestion, but changing Dashboard from "Off" to "As Space" added "Dashboard" to the bar along with "Desktop"; I'd like to get rid of the bar altogether. (As I implied, I don't use Dashboard.)

Originally Posted By: grelber

Originally Posted By: artie505

Originally Posted By: grelber

Might that have something to do with what you just described in the other Desktop thread (Post #39836)? It might still believe that a second Desktop exists.

That post dealt with jaybass's issue...had nothing to do with me.

Somehow I construed your comments

Quote:

I booted into my Snowy partition and emailed /Volumes/HDz/System/Library/PreferencePanes/DesktopScreenEffectsPref.prefPane to myself, and I received this, with the icon correctly labeled DesktopScreenEffectsPref.prefPane. (Clicking on the image enlarges it.)
The icon in the email is the light switch you described, and when I dragged it to my desktop it resolved into the correct icon...DesktopScreenEffectsPref.prefPane.

to mean that you actually introduced something new to your system. My response just alluded to that. Sorry for the misinterpretation.

No problem! Your having given thought to the matter was appreciated.

MacPilot has a command for turning off the Dashboard but I am not at my computer for a day or two so I cannot give you the command line command -- I just know there is such an animal in OS X.

Originally Posted By: joemikeb

MacPilot has a command for turning off the Dashboard but I am not at my computer for a day or two so I cannot give you the command line command -- I just know there is such an animal in OS X.

I think I've got Dashboard turned off already. (Do MacPilot/Terminal do something different than what I've already done via System Prefs?)

The "Desktops" bar in my image seems to be a consequence of the merger of Spaces and Expose that can't be turned off.

No big deal... I'd rather not see it, but living with it won't cost me anything.

Dashboard will show as its own Space if that preference is chosen so that you would see :
Dashboard Desktop 1 Desktop 2

I think there is a default to have two Desktops as standard. I have noticed that some applications (e.g., Mail, Evernote) will open in their own Desktop with no help from me. This may also be a consequence of opening in full-screen mode. Not sure why.

Have you tried entering Spaces mode (F3 is the default), mouse up to the Spaces bar and "X" out the extra space?

I've always kept Dashboard turned off, so when I first saw the bar it was populated with only two desktops - I guess your default guess is on the mark. - and I've since deleted one of them.

I thought it would be nice to get rid of the bar entirely, but that doesn't seem to be an option, and it's certainly not any sort of nuisance...merely annoying to an inveterate cleaner.

Finally back at my computer. FWIW the command to disable Dashboard is

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -bool false

The command to hide Dashboard space in Mission Control isâ€¦

defaults delete com.apple.dock dashboard-in-overlay

Originally Posted By: joemikeb

Finally back at my computer. FWIW the command to disable Dashboard is

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -bool false

The command to hide Dashboard space in Mission Control isâ€¦

defaults delete com.apple.dock dashboard-in-overlay

Thanks for posting the commands.

I've already got Dashboard toggled off at System Prefs > Mission Control > Dashboard, and your command disables toggling it back on but doesn't affect that bar at the top of my screen. (You've got that command backwards - to disable, it should read defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -bool true - and in addition, it needs to be followed by killall Dock.)

In OS X 10.11.4 defaults delete com.apple.dock dashboard-in-overlay returns

Code:

artie$ defaults delete com.apple.dock dashboard-in-overlay
2016-04-13 02:34:42.576 defaults[9875:3343004] 
Domain (com.apple.dock) not found.
Defaults have not been changed.

Quote:

Domain (com.apple.dock) not found.

try com.apple.Dock

Originally Posted By: dkmarsh

Quote:

Domain (com.apple.dock) not found.

try com.apple.Dock

Thanks for the suggestion, but...

Code:

artie$ defaults delete com.apple.Dock dashboard-in-overlay
2016-04-13 08:43:17.962 defaults[11726:4013715] 
Domain (com.apple.Dock) not found.
Defaults have not been changed.
Artie'sMBP:~ artie$