[thursdaythrice]

So im a real n00b to Mac OS X i made my first purchase with a Macbook, which is great.

So When i download different programs like right now i have Mozilla Firefox, aMSN, and Photoshop cs2, the disk drive images stay on my desktop, how do i get those out of there without wrecking the files inside?


thanks alot
mateo

[tooki]

Those are mounted disk images. You're supposed to install the software contained within, then eject the mounted disk image.

tooki

[TheoCryst]

Welcome to Mac, first of all!

You'll quickly notice that installing applications (aka "programs" in Windows) is very different than on a PC. I'm not sure how much of this you know already, so I'll just give you a simple step-by-step:

1) Download the file, such as Mozilla Firefox. It will download as a special file, a .DMG, which stands for "disk image".
2) Depending on your browser, it may automatically mount on your desktop (showing a white disk-like icon) and open, revealing the application itself. If not, just double-click the .DMG to produce the same effect.
3) DO NOT run the application from here! Instead, you want to copy it to your Applications folder, which can be found on the column to the left of your window (or alternatively at /Applications).
4) Un-mount the white icon mentioned in step 2 by dragging it to the trash (which will turn into an eject icon). Delete the original .DMG file.
5) The application is now in your Applications folder, ready to be used! If you want, you can even drag it straight onto your dock for easy access.

Hope that's enough information! If not, go ahead and let us know!

[thursdaythrice]

Originally Posted by TheoCryst

Welcome to Mac, first of all!

You'll quickly notice that installing applications (aka "programs" in Windows) is very different than on a PC. I'm not sure how much of this you know already, so I'll just give you a simple step-by-step:

1) Download the file, such as Mozilla Firefox. It will download as a special file, a .DMG, which stands for "disk image".
2) Depending on your browser, it may automatically mount on your desktop (showing a white disk-like icon) and open, revealing the application itself. If not, just double-click the .DMG to produce the same effect.
3) DO NOT run the application from here! Instead, you want to copy it to your Applications folder, which can be found on the column to the left of your window (or alternatively at /Applications).
4) Un-mount the white icon mentioned in step 2 by dragging it to the trash (which will turn into an eject icon). Delete the original .DMG file.
5) The application is now in your Applications folder, ready to be used! If you want, you can even drag it straight onto your dock for easy access.

Hope that's enough information! If not, go ahead and let us know!

Thank you, that really helped alot.
Your step by step answered all of my questions so i do not need anything else.
Once again thanks


mateo

[awaspaas]

Unfortunately the whole disk image paradigm for downloading and installing software doesn't pass the wife/girlfriend/grandma test. Any idea how many people are running Firefox out of a disk image? Surely there must be a better way...

[Thinine]

It's either disk images or direct app downloads. Which would you rather have, people running apps off images, or having all of their downloaded apps on the desktop?

[Big Mac]

Originally Posted by awaspaas

Unfortunately the whole disk image paradigm for downloading and installing software doesn't pass the wife/girlfriend/grandma test. Any idea how many people are running Firefox out of a disk image? Surely there must be a better way...

In addition to agreeing with Thinine's comments, I think that Safari makes the process a bit cleaner than other browsers do, provided that Open Safe Files is chosen and the disk image is configured properly.