TechnowledgeBase

The Problem:
You are brand new to Mac OS and you want to install some essential software (like Firefox!). You figured out how to download the application and double-click on it… but you don’t get an installer.

All you get is an icon that looks like a mounted hard drive:





And a window with some kind of Mac hieroglyphics in it:

The Cause:
Just like with Windows, some applications come with an installer, and some don’t. A lot of them don’t. What you downloaded was the MAC equivalent of a ZIP file with your application in it. You have to manually copy the files into the directory where you want them to go. The heiroglypics are supposed to be some kind of “clue” telling you to do that… but damned if I could figure that out without doing a google search. Neither could you, else you wouldn’t be reading this, n00b.

The Solution:
First: Ignore that hard-drive looking thingy on your desktop. For now.

Second: Open your FINDER application and navigate to the Applications directory.

Third: In the window that popped up, click-drag the application’s icon OUT of that window and INTO the Applications directory in Finder. Drop it in there.



Fourth: You’re done. Okay, maybe not….

Fifth: That hard-drive looking thing? Right-click on it and select “eject”.



It will go away.


Six: Delete the archive file that you originally double-clicked on. You don’t need it any more.

NOW you’re done.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 7:00 am and is filed under Mac. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.