Two OSX questions

1. When I open a program that uses one of those disk images that is ejectable (Firefox, Flash Player, etc. I guess its all programs?) the image appears on my desktop until I eject it. I've seen on other macs when they open Firefox, for example, nothign appears on the desktop. How do I fix it so nothing shows up?

2. Can I delete .dmg files and have the files still work? I once tried to empty my downloads folder that had some .dmgs that I downloaded and installed. When I deleted them, the programs no longer worked. If I need to heep them what do I do with them?

 

1. A program? When you open firefox there's an application? Are you sure you're not talking about downloading a program, and then that appearing on the desktop? After you download a program, you need to drag the application icon into your Applications folder (to install it). Once you do, you should eject the Application (the one on your desktop), and then from then on, if you want to use it, open it with the Application's folder... I'm not sure what you mean. Maybe screenshot it?

2. No clue. Wait for someone else.

 

You haven't installed the program yet, that's what happened. Here, do this. Open up the "external drive", and then you'll see an icon for the application. Drag that icon into your Applications folder. Now you can eject the "drive" and delete the .dmg file . And the next time you use your application, it'll be fine.

 

think of .dmg's as if they were actually disks with applications on them, if you download a .dmg from the internet, and open it up, it will mount as a volume onto your desktop, just like a disk or external hdd or flashdrive would.

some .dmg's have an actual application installer that you will just need to double click on, other's will simply have the Application ready to drag into your applications folder, once you have installed or copied the application from the .dmg you can simply eject it.

if you would like to delete you can, but if you have an external HDD I would recommend backing up the applications you have downloaded from the web, so if you ever need to quickly reinstall one or if you reformat your HDD you have them ready to install again without downloading.

 

As others have said a .dmg file is like a disk to a Mac (external HD, USB drive, CD/DVD etc). I believe its formal name is "Disk Image Copy File". A .ISO file is basically the same thing on a PC.

Like on a PC you can mount a .ISO file with various programs and get at the contents inside of the .ISO file.

OS X does not need another program to mount the .dmg file the OS its self mounts the file, and they you get to see whats in it. So when you open the .dmg file for FireFox you see the files in that disk image file. Like others have said you drag the files, Firefox in this case into the applications folder. You then eject the disk/.dmg file like you are ejecting an actual CD/DVD.

You can if you want burn a .dmg file to a CD\DVD with third party software like Toast or even with the built OS X disk utility... http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93006 Then you would have a CD/DVD with the contents of the .dmg file on it and not a .dmg file.

Once you have copied the files over to the Application folder, or in some cases run a setup program, then you can eject then delete the .dmg file. It wont let you empty the trash until you eject it.

 

Do what Sam said (wonder how many times thats been said here). It just sounds lik you dont have the app copied to your HD.

 

This might be a stupid question but I'm kind of new to the Mac. Sometimes when I download a program (like a game demo) that I'm just planning on using for a day or so I just put the application on my desktop instead of the applications folder. Does it make any difference where I "install" programs?

 

Well, tecnically it isn't "installed" if you just put it on your desktop. It's just a file that happens to run off your desktop. If you restart your Mac at that point, I'm pretty sure it uninstalls itself (haven't downloaded applications in a while ). It doesn't make a difference whether you install it properly, seeing as you'll get rid of it in one day.

 

No, that's the good thing about it. If you don't want to install the application, then by opening it in the virtual drive you get to "test drive" it first .