Desktop Icons

dalibal

dalibal

Registered
I'm a new mac user. Whenever I download an application a white icon appears on the desktop. When I put it in the trash it makes the application unusable, and when I try to move it to somewhere else it stays on the desktop. I like when things are neat and tidy. Is there any way to get it off the desktop without making it unusable?
 
does it look like this?
apple_x11_2.jpg
if so, this is what is called a disk image. its like a pretend hd. once they show up on your desktop, open them and copy the app/files to your hd, then drag it to the trash to make it go away. now open/run the app/file from your hd.
 
Thanks, it does look like that. I'm sorry for being ignorant but how do i copy it to my HD? I dragged it and put the one from the desktop into the trash and it says now that it cant find the application.
 
Hold the Option key when you drag to your hard drive, otherwise you'll just be creating an alias.
 
You copy the _content_ of the disk image (not the icon itself) to the Applications folder and start the application from there. (Do *NOT* put the content of the disk image on the Dock, since if you remove the disk image later on, the Dock-icon can't find the original it links to, of course!)
 
You copy the _content_ of the disk image (not the icon itself) to the Applications folder
Click to expand...

If the image has a number of files in it, then they'll be moved to the hard drive, but not in a folder, all will be individual.

So, Option copy the disk image and all files inside will be copied to the drive in a folder with the disk image icon. Or make a new folder on the drive and copy the contents to it.
 
It all depends, and it could get confusing depending on what's actually in the disk image.

Some disk images contain .pkg or .mpkg installer files, which can be executed (double-clicked) directly from the mounted disk image and will run through an installer program to install the application in the correct place. Sometimes the installer is made by a 3rd-party, like VISE, where you would simply double-click the installer and the installation process will begin -- in this case, it wouldn't have a .pkg or .mpkg extension.

Other times, the application itself (usually with a .app extension) resides on the disk image, whereby you would follow the instructions above -- open the disk image, grab the application in the disk image, then copy (drag) it to your Applications folder.

Yet other times, as bobw said, there could be many, many files in the disk image -- this is rare if the disk image is an installer for an application or is an application itself -- it usually occurs when people make a disk image themselves from a folder containing many files. In this case, it would be up to you to determine where those files go if there isn't a README or some instructions included with the files.
 
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