installation woes

[spiff101]

I'm in the same boat as many utterly new switchers - confused by the mac's simplicity in installing apps.

so, two questions: first, is my understanding of how to install applications correct?:
1. open .dmg or 'box' installer
2. open the resulting drive on the desktop, and drag the application icon to the applications folder
3. delete everything else

second, I installed firefox when i had no idea how the installation works. Read and laugh at my feeble-minded attempts: I was using the drive icon to launch firefox and had deleted the .dmg file...then I realised I wanted to have firefox in my Applications folder, so I downloaded another .dmg file and used that to drag a firefox icon into the Applications folder..

so now I've got a firefox icon in my Dock and my Applications folder, and I've ejected the drive. But whenever I start Firefox from the dock, it does start - but it also puts up the graphic that firefox gives you when you first extract it from the .dmg (big fox icon-arrow-smaller fox icon-arrow-App folder), and it also puts up another disk image on the desktop.

What do I do now? I want it to load from the dock without any of this other stuff happening.

aplogies for the long-winded post, and grateful for any help.

[symphonix]

Originally Posted by spiff101

3. delete everything else

There's no need to delete anything else. You eject that "drive" from your desktop though.

so now I've got a firefox icon in my Dock and my Applications folder, and I've ejected the drive. But whenever I start Firefox from the dock, it does start - but it also puts up the graphic that firefox gives you when you first extract it from the .dmg (big fox icon-arrow-smaller fox icon-arrow-App folder), and it also puts up another disk image on the desktop.

It sounds like the icon you've put into the dock points to the DMG file, and not to the application. Drag it off the dock and the icon will disappear. Then, go into your applications folder, find Firefox, and put that into the dock instead.

[spiff101]

ahh...that seems to have fixed it. Thanks!

[ex2bot]

You're not the only one who has been confused about disk images. Once you figure them out, as it sounds like you have, you're good to go.

Disk images can be very handy. You can create your own with Disk Utility (search Spotlight for Disk Utility if you haven't found it already). They can be compressed and/or encrypted too.

Doug

[irocnroll]

I also had trouble installing FF, then I realize that you need to drag the FF
icon in "the graphic that firefox gives you when you first extract it" to Apps.
Hope everything works okay now with me & anyone else installing FF. I wuv
FF on my PC