I'm a new Mac user and I've been installing a few different apps for different things. A lot of these use .dmg files.
Why exactly do they all expect me to drag the icon into the application folder? What is the point of this?
MacOS – have to drag the new apps into the application folder
dmginstallmacmacos
Related Solutions
If you want to avoid the Login/Logout, restarting the dock should be enough: killall Dock from the Terminal should be enough.
The Deleted Users folder contains DMGs of users that you've deleted. When deleting a user in System Preferences → Users & Groups, you are given the option of saving that user's home folder as a DMG in a Deleted Users folder:
- Save the home folder in a disk image
The disk image is saved in the Deleted Users folder (in the Users folder).
Selecting the Save the home folder in a disk image option will cause the home folder of the deleted account to be saved in a disk image
If there's nothing in the account that you want any more, you can safely delete the disk image from the Deleted Users folder, or even the entire Deleted Users folder itself.
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Best Answer
An application on a Mac is just a folder full of files with a
.appextension. However, macOS hides this fact from you and displays the folder as a file with an icon. Now when you download something it's very uncomfortable to download multiple separate folders (without a download manager). Therefore this "App Folder" has to be put inside a single file somehow. This is accomplished one of three ways:.zipfile (a container that compresses its contents to save space).dmgfile (which is a flat file filesystem–as opposed to a hierarchical file system).zipor.dmgbecause installers are folders on a mac, too)Since most apps are self-contained and do not need anything outside of the app folder, an installer is not only overkill but also slower than just distributing the app folder.
You can obviously launch apps from wherever you want; it's only a custom or a recommendation to put them into
/Applicationsas it easier for you to find it again and it works with multiple users.