Do you run a few handy programs (Workspaces, PoorMan, etc.) automatically every time you use BeOS? Have you come to think of these programs as an integral part of the OS experience? Would you rather not have them listed on your deskbar?
If you select any program and go into the FileTypes add-on, you’ll see a little checkbox marked „Background App“. If you close your app, check this, save it, and re-run it, you’ll notice that the app runs, just as before, but there’s no entry for it in the Deskbar!
This tip is also very useful for things like app-launching strips and docks (e.g. DeposIt, Launchpad or ToolDock).
NOTE: Make sure that you have some form of I/O with the program if you intend to hide it, and that you either are comfortable with ps and kill, or have some kind of process control software, when doing this, because if you hide the app, it’s not quite so easy to bring it back without the Deskbar entry! I turn the log file on for PoorMan so that I can check its progress, and I tend to never hide Workspaces, but I have Geb’s ProcessController for quitting it gracefully and allowing a restart if I do so by accident.
The single and multiple launch radio buttons are used to allow or prevent the application from launching multiple copies of itself.