Keep my desktop neat and tidy

B

barryrueger

Registered
Is there any way to keep the Mac from dropping every downloaded file known to man on the desktop? My screen is so cluttered with PDFs, DMGs, GIFS, TIFFS, and sundry other things that I can't find the icons that I need.

Thanks

Barry
 
barryrueger said:
Is there any way to keep the Mac from dropping every downloaded file known to man on the desktop? My screen is so cluttered with PDFs, DMGs, GIFS, TIFFS, and sundry other things that I can't find the icons that I need.
Click to expand...

Which application is doing the downloading? Is it Safari? If so, go to the menubar; click on Safari; select preferences; make sure "General" is selected in the window that emerges (top left corner of window); look for "Save downloaded files to" and set it to where you want the files to be downloaded.

The steps are similar for other applications. That is, set the "preferences" to your liking.
 
But be aware of the fact that you'll still accumulate a lot of stuff that later on you won't be sure whether you still need it or not. I actually tend to keep downloads on the Desktop and sort things out once a week at least.
 
You could also create a folder action for the Desktop and filter files by extension and then move them somewhere...
 
... and later come here and ask questions about "where do all my files go?!" when you forget about that folder action? ;)
 
kainjow said:
You could also create a folder action for the Desktop and filter files by extension and then move them somewhere...
Click to expand...

Cool! How does one do that? I already have Firefox set to download files to a "Download" folder, but still accumlate every PDf that I open and other dreck all over the desktop.
 
Go to your home folder, right-click (or control-click) on the folder. Select "Attach a Folder Action" from the pop-up menu, and explore the Applescripts available. You could, of course, learn Applescript and create your own.

Doug
 
You can probably guess that I'm not too savvy here.

I have my downloads sent to a folder on my desktop, handy for cleaning up. however, there are some things that I cannot remove from my desktop, they are labelled volumes in the 'get info' box. they are all .dmg . I can't throw them out, I can't move them, or hide them or anything. they are programs like messenger or firefox. what am I doing wrong here?
Thanks -M
 
morning said:
You can probably guess that I'm not too savvy here.

I have my downloads sent to a folder on my desktop, handy for cleaning up. however, there are some things that I cannot remove from my desktop, they are labelled volumes in the 'get info' box. they are all .dmg . I can't throw them out, I can't move them, or hide them or anything. they are programs like messenger or firefox. what am I doing wrong here?
Thanks -M
Click to expand...
Files ending in "dmg" are disk image files. Do you have them mounted? If you downloaded them using Safari, it would have mouted them for you. Otherwise, you would have had to mount them yourself (with a double-click or by selecting them and doing a Command+O for "open"). If you have them mounted, you cannot get rid of the originals (you can delete them, but the Trash will not empty if the images are mounted). The mounted disk images will look like little removeable drives on your Desktop. Click each one, and either drag it to the Trash or press Command+E to eject it. Then you can delete the DMG files.
 
Hi there - Hoping someone can please help me with something thats driving me insane. I just got the latest g5 and am having some download issues.

Ive set up safari to download to a folder - cool, this works. Ive downloaded firefox and have firefox.dmg in my download file. On installing it, it seems to install to my desktop and NOT my applications. I then have the little diskdrive looking icon on my desktop. I cant move this to my application folder. If i trash or eject this icon on my desktop ot removes the program.

This is driving me bonkers - I dont want anything on my desktop. How do I make programs ive downloaded go into my applications folder and not my desktop?

Thanks heaps,
 
That drive icon on your Desktop is the mounted disk image file. When you opened the disk image (ends in .DMG), you created the little drive on your Desktop because it's mounted as if it were a disk. You can eject it by pressing Command+E, or dragging it to the trash, and then you can delete the disk image file you downloaded.

All that said, you need to open that drive, just like you would your hard drive on your desktop, and you will find the Firefox application icon in there. Drag that file into your Applications folder. You cannot (and should never) drag the disk image into a folder on your drive, because it will eject when you log out or restart your computer (or when you eject it).

By the way, that disk image mounted because Safari mounts them automatically. Firefox will not, and, when you download disk images, you will need to double-click them, or click them and press Command+O to open/mount them.
 
Another way to keep your desktop tidy....

Crap, this only half helps, i know...
Does anyone remember the name of that suedo-program?
You press apple + enter, and everything on your desktop "hides", click apple + enter, and it appears again.
I'll search for the name of the program.
It's nice to have nothing on your desktop but a well-crafted background.
 
Lozza,

These "disk images" are a pretty standard method for packaging files on the Mac. You download the .dmg file, and then Safari "mounts" the disc image for you. It shows up as a white disk icon on your desktop. Another way you can mount these disk images is to double-click on the .dmg file.

As dmetzcher wrote (above), drag the application out of the disc image to your /Applications folder. I drag the Applications folder, the documents folder, the pictures folder, and the movies folder to the Dock so they're easily accessible.

To get rid of, or "eject" the disk image, click once on the disk image icon and press the Apple key. Then press E

To get rid of the .dmg file when you're done with it, drag it to the trash after you eject the disk image.

There is one other common way of packaging downloadable files, a package. A package icon looks like an open brown box with a yellow arrow pointing into it. Packages work much like a Setup.exe file does in Windows. It's an installer.

Doug
 
Files labelled ".dmg" are "Disc Image" files. Double-clicking on one of these will cause the disc image to be "mounted" (opened) so you can see the contents (usually an application installer). I tend to keep these ".dmg" files in a folder labelled "Installers" in case I need to reinstall later. But you can easily trash them as described above.
 
You should be able to push it to your Application folder, if you have administrator rights.

If not, ask the administrator to install the program.
 
chevy said:
You should be able to push it to your Application folder, if you have administrator rights.

If not, ask the administrator to install the program.
Click to expand...
What do you mean by "push it to your Application folder"?
Do you mean the disk image, or the files inside it? Also, he/she sounds like a new user, so we should probably stick to "drag it to your Applications folder". It didn't sound like he/she had problems getting the files into the Applications folder (i.e. - it wasn't a privilages thing), rather, it sounded like he/she simply didn't know which files to move to the Applications folder.
 
Hi again,

Thank you so much for all the info everyone has provided me! Ive managed to move Firefix where I want it - my applications folder and trashed the junk from my desktop.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! Such a simple thing, made simpler by the help of everyone here.

I'll have to get reading some other threads as it looks like there's a lot of good info in here.

Thanks again,
Lozz
 
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