[vladcampos]

Hi, can someone help me with this?

Though Skype is selected as "Hide" in my Login Items, the contact list appears on the desktop every time I start my Mac. I want Skype to launch when I start the computer, but I don't want the contact list showing in my desktop. I tried Skype preferences but didn't find anything there. Is is possible to change this with some OS X trick?

[Graham]

You could make an applescript that runs when you log in and closes the window.

[Graham]

Ok, I got bored so I wrote it myself.

Take Skype out of your startup items, since this script starts it for you. You'll need to edit it to have your Skype username in there for the name of the window (the degenerategoat part). Put the script in Script Editor and save it as an application somewhere and then put that in your startup items. Remember to keep the TM symbol in there correctly in the window title.

activate application "Skype"
tell application "System Events"
	repeat
		set theApps to name of every process
		if theApps contains "Skype" then exit repeat
	end repeat
end tell

tell application "Skype"
	repeat
		set theWindows to name of every window
		if theWindows contains "Skype™ - degenerategoat" then exit repeat
		
	end repeat
	close window "Skype™ - degenerategoat"
end tell

[vladcampos]

Graham, on Jul 29 2007, 11:13 AM, said:

Ok, I got bored so I wrote it myself.

Waw! Thanks a lot! I'll try it right now!

This post has been edited by vladcampos: 29 July 2007 - 09:21 AM

[Graham]

Did it work ok for you then?

[falvesjr]

I know it's been two years since this thread was active, but since Skype still hasn't fixed this issue, I've come up with a pretty good solution. Inspired by Graham's code, I wrote this:

activate application "Skype"
tell application "System Events"
   repeat
	  set theApps to name of every process
	  if theApps contains "Skype" then exit repeat
   end repeat
   tell application "Finder"
	  set visible of process "Skype" to false
   end tell
end tell

I think this is a better solution because it actually hides the whole app, not just a window - like if you had checked the Hide box in the Login Items panel - except that this works for Skype or any app that doesn't obey the system's hide setting. To make it work with another app, just replace the word "Skype" in the code above with the "nameOfAnotherApp". Obviously, you should do this editing in Script Editor, and when you're done, save the script as an Application Bundle. The reason for that is to take this tweak to the next level... Once the script is saved as an app bundle, right click/control click on the app you just created and select Show Package Contents. From there, open the Contents folder and you'll see that there's a file called Info.plist in there. Double click this file and it will open with the Property List Editor, if you have it installed, or if not, it should open with TextEdit. Next, if you're using the Property List Editor, add to the file a Key of "NSBGOnly" with a Value of "1" (no quotes on either). If the file opened with TextEdit, add this text to the file:

<key>NSBGOnly</key>
<string>1</string>

In either case, remember to save the file when you're done! So, what's this all about? Well, this will make it so that there's no bouncing dock icon for the launcher, only for the app being launched, as usual. So by adding one of these launchers to the Login Items instead of Skype, or whatever app you want, you can launch the desired app, invisibly, into it's hidden state - just like the system does for conforming apps...

Enjoy!

-f

This post has been edited by falvesjr: 06 April 2009 - 01:59 PM