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<blockquote data-quote="mac57" data-source="post: 287107" data-attributes="member: 17052"><p>Well, almost. In most cases, "Installed" is a relative term on a Mac. As the original poster has seen, you don't have to install an app to run it. There are a few exceptions, but this is the general rule. You download a .dmg, open it, and can run the app right from there. </p><p></p><p>Why can you do this? Because in Mac OS X, a .app file isn't just a file, it is an archive. It contains everything the program needs to run, hence no need to install the program first, and strew DLLs and goodness knows what all else all over your machine. Check it out yourself. Find one of your .app files, and right click it - select "View Package Contents". Quite an eye opener after the messy ways of Windows!</p><p></p><p>So, no real need to "install" most of the time. If you liked, you could create your own personal Applications folder and put all your apps there. That would get them off your desktop.</p><p></p><p>But, most people copy them to the general Applications folder. This has the key benefits of (a) uniformity - you always know where to look for your apps, (b) keyboard shortcut support - in Finder, type CMD-A and up pops your Applications folder, ready for you to launch any app you want (and you know they are all there due to (a)), and finally (c) availability. Apps in the general Applications folder are available to all users of the Mac. If you are the only user, this is a fine point indeed, but if you have more than one user on the machine, this is a great benefit.</p><p></p><p>Hope this helps.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="mac57, post: 287107, member: 17052"] Well, almost. In most cases, "Installed" is a relative term on a Mac. As the original poster has seen, you don't have to install an app to run it. There are a few exceptions, but this is the general rule. You download a .dmg, open it, and can run the app right from there. Why can you do this? Because in Mac OS X, a .app file isn't just a file, it is an archive. It contains everything the program needs to run, hence no need to install the program first, and strew DLLs and goodness knows what all else all over your machine. Check it out yourself. Find one of your .app files, and right click it - select "View Package Contents". Quite an eye opener after the messy ways of Windows! So, no real need to "install" most of the time. If you liked, you could create your own personal Applications folder and put all your apps there. That would get them off your desktop. But, most people copy them to the general Applications folder. This has the key benefits of (a) uniformity - you always know where to look for your apps, (b) keyboard shortcut support - in Finder, type CMD-A and up pops your Applications folder, ready for you to launch any app you want (and you know they are all there due to (a)), and finally (c) availability. Apps in the general Applications folder are available to all users of the Mac. If you are the only user, this is a fine point indeed, but if you have more than one user on the machine, this is a great benefit. Hope this helps. [/QUOTE]
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