How to refresh OS X Lion's Launchpad contents

The young guys over at HaiTeq have been running into issues with Launchpad updating after installing software that wasn't bought on the Mac App Store. Because of this, they've figured out a workaround to force Launchpad to refresh its data base.

Removing the database files from the user's Dock application support folder and restarting the Dock allows Mission Control and the Launchpad to re-build the database from scratch, updating the presentation with all the new applications.

Here are HaiTeq's steps, with a few modifications on my part for safety. Admittedly, if you are not comfortable at the command line, this is not the hack for you.

1. Launch Terminal (from /Applications/Utilities/Terminal).

2. Navigate to the Application Support folder in question (cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock)

3. Open the folder (open .) and drag all the .db files to the trash.

4. Restart Dock (sudo killall Dock, followed by authentication)

I am not a Launchpad/Mission Control user and cannot verify these steps will reflect newly installed software. However, I did test them out for safety, and my Lion install is still working; my db file was instantly re-generated, and I did not find any harmful side-effects.

Please share your experiences in the comments.