Installing Applications

Still getting used to the mac os and was wondering when you install an application it shows a picture saying to drag the icon to your applications folder. First question is what is the difference between the hd icon on your desktop and the icon for the program? Also I do not like icons on my desktop so can I move that hd icon to a folder I create and just store them all there? Also I notice when I do drag the icon to the applications folder I see the progress bar saying it is adding it but then it makes an error noise or least it sounds like it to me....what is that? I want to make it simple as possible and have all my icons for programs I use just on the dock and not hd icons all over my desktop. Thank you for your help on this and have a great weekend all

The HD icon is the DMG (Disk Image) file being "mounted" so you can see the contents inside. You then want either run the MPKG (installer) or if only an application icon appears, drag JUST the application to your Applications folder. The noise at the end of the copy is just the standard sound for when the copy is finished.

Once this is completed, you should then grab the HD icon on the desktop and drag it to the trash to "unmount" the DMG file. You can also open up Finder and hit the EJECT icon next to the DMG name on the left sidebar.

Now go to the Applications folder (or through your Dock) and in a LOT of situations you'll see your application with a big white cicle and a line through it, click on the application and you'll be asked once that this application was downloaded from the Internet and do you want to load? Say yes and the circle & line will go away and the application will load with that warning from that point on..

Regards

Thank you so much...that helps me a lot! good rep coming your way

Your welcome..this keenly reminds me of my experience with a Mac back in the mid 90's.

I was over a friends place who had a Macintosh Classic and I had to use his printer to print out a school report (I was a PC user back then and my printer sucked, had the super duper laser printer ). I took my school report on a floppy disk (remember those??) and he popped the disk into the Mac, a disk icon appeared on the Desktop. He copied the report to the the Desktop, then printed the document. Once finished, he dragged the report to the Trash and that looked good, he then quickly dragged the disk to the trash too and I think I almost had a heart attack since I thought he just destroyed all contents on my disk.

Imaging my total surprise when the disk popped out with that action and all the contents were there..

Regards

shows a picture saying to drag the icon to your applications folder

Click to expand...

When that option appears, just drag the Application in that picture, to the Applications folder, in that picture. It's just a short cut.

You can also look for the *.dmg file, probably in the folder where you store downloads, and after finishing the install and and unmounting the HD icon, drag the .dmg to the trash and it will be deleted. Of course, if you do that and then want to re-install, you'll need to download the dmg again. Where this gets useful is when you download an update and reinstall that update, you now can have TWO copies of the installation dmg, when you only need one. Delete the older and recover that disk space.

Got a stupid question. I'm still fairly new to Macs. After I install software and have a DMG on the desktop, I just right click on the DMG and click eject. I don't drag it to the trash or anything. Am I screwing up may Mac big time? Should I have been dragging it to my trash all this time? What's the difference in the two methods of disposal.

TIA

@class77, no, you haven't screwed up your system. The dmg files are disk images, which mount as drives. You then install the software from the mounted drive to the system as described in earlier posts. What you have been doing next is to unmount the dmg file, which cleans up the desktop. The dmg file has remained on your hard drive, most likely in the Downloads folder. All that has happened is that you have a file you may or may not ever need taking up some HD space. If you want to recover that HD space, delete the dmg file. If you think you may need to reinstall and don't want to have to re-download, or if for some reason the download is no longer available, you can just leave it alone, or offload to a backup storage area if your main HD is getting full. The difference between just unmounting and unmounting and deleting the dmg is exactly that, and no more...in the latter you save some space on the HD.

As @jakerich said..moving the DMG to the trash (the trash can symbol changes to the EJECT symbol), right-click to eject, or hitting the eject icon in Finder all accomplish the same task..do whatever works for you..

Regards

Thanks Jake and Razor, appreciate the info. Nobody ever told me that during my 1 on 1 lessons. Thanks

16:09 boatered

Read with interest the very useful advise thank you. I downloaded openoffice, dragged the desktop icon to the applications folder and it opens fine. I then moved the desktop icon to the trash as I like a clean desktop. However when I go into the application, a duplicate icon pops up on the desktop. Is this meant to happen? Sorry to seem dumb, bought the mac yesterday (first one!).

@andysaint, i supsect what you dragged to the applications was the dmg file. When you click on that file, it opens up with an OO icon and an icon representing the applications folder. Drag the OO icon to the applications folder and let go. Then you can close the window and delete the dmg icon from the desktop and the dmg file from the downloads folder. You should be left with an OO icon in the applications folder that starts the program.

Now when you open OO, an icon appears on the dock so that you can quickly go to it from any other application. When you close the application, that icon will disappear.

If the icon is appearing anywhere else, it probably should not.