Dashboard may prevent Web plug-in and other installations

Dashboard widgets are small, independent JavaScript code modules that are run separately from the standard JavaScript environment, which is the Web browser. In fact, you can open widgets in most browsers and have them function quite similarly to how they behave in Dashboard. As such, when you launch Dashboard, you're basically launching a Web browser environment that can use the same plug-ins that your browser uses. This also means that when you try to update some software that requires Web-based environments to be shut down (Adobe updates--Reader, Flash, and so on), the dashboard can prevent them from being installed.

Apple discussion poster "smitty195" writes:

"I am trying to install Adobe Flash Player 10 on my MacBook Pro. However, the installation does not take place because I continue receiving an error that says I must "Close Dashboard Client". What does that mean, and how do I accomplish that?"

If you run into a problem where dashboard is referenced, you can shut it down by either restarting your computer (and then not invoking dashboard), or by quitting the client using the Activity Monitor. Launch Activity Monitor (in the Utilities folder) and to make things simpler, from the drop-down menu in the upper-right select "My Processes". Then locate any process called "DashboardClient," select it, and click the "Quit" button. You shouldn't need to force-quit the process, but that is an option if it will not quit normally. Once the dashboard has been shut down, you should be able to install the software. Hitting the dashboard hot key on your keyboard will launch it again, so be sure to avoid doing that during the installation process.

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