If you’re switching to macOS from Windows, you might be confused about installing software. Sure, there’s the Mac App Store, but not everything is in there. If you look for apps outside the store, you’ll find different kinds of installers: DMG files with apps in them, PKG installers, and simple applications inside ZIP archives. It can seem overwhelming, but it’s relatively straightforward once you get the hang of it. Here’s how to install software on your Mac, from the App Store and beyond, and why all these different methods exist. Mac App Store: Click a Button to Install an App We’re all used to app stores on our phones, but on the desktop they remain an oddity.
Still, the Mac App Store is a decent first place to check. Open the store, search for the app you want, and click “Get” then “Download.” Your application will download and show up in your “Applications” folder. Updates are all handled by the store, which is convenient, and any application you purchase on one Mac will work on another. There are all kinds of upsides here. RELATED: Still, you probably won’t install all of your software this way, because the App Store.
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There are several reasons for this. First: apps from the Store are, but limits what applications can do. Pretty much any application that customizes macOS can’t run in a sandbox, which is why you’ll have to look elsewhere for tools like Dropbox, which by definition need to work outside the sandbox in order to function properly. There’s also the matter of money. Apple gets a cut of all sales in the Mac App Store, and companies like Microsoft and Adobe don’t like that, which is why Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite won’t be in the Store anytime soon.
Even some smaller companies avoid the Mac App Store for this reason. We could go on, but needless to say not everything you want will be in the App Store. DMGs and Other Archives: Just Drag and Drop Most macOS applications downloaded from outside the store come inside a DMG file. Double-click the DMG file to open it, and you’ll see a Finder window. Often these will include the application itself, some form of arrow, and a shortcut to the Applications folder.
Simply drag the application’s icon to your Applications folder and you’re done: the software is now installed. It’s so simple it confuses some people—surely there must be more to it than that?
There isn’t: dragging the application to your Applications folder is the entire process. You don’t have to put your programs in the Applications folder, though: they’ll run from anywhere. Some people create a “Games” directory, to keep games separate from other applications. But Applications is the most convenient place to put things, so we suggest you just put everything there. DMG files are mounted by your system, like a sort of virtual hard drive.
When you’re done installing the application, it’s a good idea to unmount the DMG in Finder when you’re done installing: just click the “Eject” arrow. Then you can feel free to delete the original DMG file: you don’t need it anymore.
Other Archive Files, and Loose Application Icons Occasionally, applications will come in ZIP, RAR, or 7Zip archives instead of the standard DMG. In these cases, you need to open the archive. ZIP files open fine out of the box, but you’ll need something like in order to.
Once you open the archive, you’ll see the Application icon appear in the same folder. Simply drag this icon to your Applications folder and you’re done. Some applications don’t come in any sort of archive at all; instead, you’ll download the application file directly. In these cases, simply drag the icon to Applications in order to install it.
PKG Installers: Installation Wizards Like On Windows Every once and a while you’ll come across a PKG file. Sometimes this will be inside a DMG; sometimes you will download it directly. In all cases, you need to double-click the PKG file to run it instead of dragging it somewhere. You’ll see an interface not that different from Windows installation wizards. These sorts of installers can do things the drag and drop installers can’t do, like installing system services and putting files elsewhere on the computer. When you’re done installing the app, you can delete the PKG file and any DMG file it came in (after ejecting it, of course). How to Bypass Gatekeeper and Run Applications From Unidentified Developers By default, your Mac won’t open any software made by “unidentified developers”.
![Locked Folder App For Mac Locked Folder App For Mac](/uploads/1/2/5/5/125535721/880870636.png)
This is a security feature called “Gatekeeper”, intended to stop the spread of malware and other unwanted software, but every once and a while a program you want to run fall into this category, showing you a message like saying your program “can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer.” RELATED: If you’re absolutely certain the application in question is trustworthy, you can by holding Option, right-clicking the application, and clicking “Open.” You can also disable Gatekeeper entirely, if you so choose. To disable Gatekeeper, open the System Preferences window—click the Apple icon at the top-left corner of your screen or click the System Preferences icon on your dock—and click the Security & Privacy icon. Click the lock icon, enter your password, and set the “Allow apps downloaded from” option to “Anywhere.” This will reduce your security as it allows unsigned apps to run, so be sure you know what you’re doing if you use this option. Steam and Other Third Party App Stores The Mac App Store isn’t the only app store out there for the Mac.
Gamers are no doubt familar with, and it offers a Mac version capable of installing any game supported on macOS. Installing software works the same as on Windows systems. There are few other notable app stores out there. Offers unlimited access to dozens of popular Mac applications for $10 a month. Installing is dead simple, but you’d have to want a lot of the applications offered for that price point to be worthwhile. There’s also, which lets you the way you can on Linux systems.
None of these tools can completely replace the other methods of installing Mac software, but they’re all worth knowing about.
There's an annoying side effect of locking file when it comes to Mac OS X - there's no fast way to override the state, like option-Empty Trash in OS 9. Not only does this not exist, but the Finder will report that you do not have 'sufficient privileges' to delete the file (which may be correct in a way, but rather misleading since we now have permissions to worry about). Does anyone know of a quick way to remove file locks from the Terminal or another app? I've tried xFiles 1.0b1, but it doesn't seem to recognize that the files are locked at all. I've run into this same problem, where I couldn't delete a file because osX thought it was in use. If the file hasn't yet been moved to the trash, try to log into the terminal as root and use the rm command to delete it. Be careful that you're deleting the correct file, as by default rm does not ask for confirmation.
You can use tab-completion to get osX to insert the filename for you. Ie to delete a file called My File Is Locked, you could do this: rm 'My (then hit the tab key) ' (put an endquote in there also) Make any sense? Also, if your file is already in the trash, you can search for it with sherlock, and then drag the icon to the Terminal - it's full path wil pop up, allowing for easy deletion. Be careful with rm! It is true that even as root via the Terminal you cannot use the usual UNIX 'rm' command to delete locked files. This is disturbing (especially unsettling to one who has done Mac troubleshooting for years and is well acquainted with Murphy's Law-if something can go wrong, it will).
Suppose that by whatever cause, malicious or otherwise, you find your disks filled with hundreds or thousands of locked files. There should be some backdoor method (certainly, I agree, not one to be invoked casually) to unlock them in batch fashion (apart from rebooting into Mac OS 9.1; perhaps someday that won't be an option).
Well, after puzzling over this for some time, I finally discovered that backdoor method. You need to have the Developer Tools installed. Open a Terminal window and type (without the quotes) '/Developer/Tools/SetFile a -l ' You can use wildcards.
'/Developer/Tools/SetFile a -l.' for example will unlock all files in the current directory. If some are already unlocked, their lock attribute remains unchanged.
Experienced UNIX hackers will no doubt be able to use shell scripts or more complicated command combinations to unlock in batch fashion any files anywhere. Hit cmnd-I to launch the inspector and un-check the 'locked' checkbox for the offending file.
I know this is slow but that's the purpose of locking a file.to prevent it from being casually deleted. With OS X we can prevent casual deletion with permissions so this is less of an now and locked files are a now a PITA. I agree, Apple should enable the option-empty trash combo for OS X.
![Locked Locked](/uploads/1/2/5/5/125535721/832208934.jpg)
Do you know about shift-cmnd-delete then return shortcut in the finder to empty your trash? Better then nothing, but no option overrides are available that I know of. I don't mind unlocking files on an OS 9 volume using 'Get Info', but I find it really aggrivating to do this for a folder with more than five files. I frequently have thirty or more files that that are all locked, and it gets really annoying. I used Terminal and did an ls -la, and saw the following: -rwxrwxrwx 1 vbush notes - 1082304 May 1 12:58 file1.rwxrwxrwx 1 vbush notes uchg 105698 Apr 19 14:17 file2. The first file is not locked; the second file is. Notice the 'uchg' entry.
How can I go through and remove this from all the files? I can't tell what kind of attribute this is. I recently had the bad luck of running NAV 7 and it locked about 70 per cent of the files on my hard drive.
This creates a real problem when the locked files are preferences or identities and such. I considered trying to write a script to unlock them but have selectively been unlocking them using the Get Info (CMD I). The trick to doing it fast is to sort the files in List View by Kind. Then select ALL the individual files in the list, deselecting any folders you accidentally select. Now press Command I and the Get Info Window will appear. If none of the files are locked the check box in the window will be empty.
If all the files are locked the check box will be checked. If there is a mixture of locked and unlocked, a dash will be in the box. Click on the box to change them all to unlocked. (I don't know if there is a limit to the number of files you can open at once, but I have done a bunch.) Open the next folder and repeat.
This is the fastest method I have found. If anyone knows of an easier method or has written a script to go through a whole drive and unlock all the files, I would love to try it. Meanwhile no more Norton for me. Using other comments in this thread for reference, I managed to put together the following procedure for unlocking every file in a directory and all of its sub-directories. When a file is 'locked' by OS X, it is applying what.nix calls a 'flag' to the file. In this case, the flag is 'uchg', which means that no user, even root, can alter the file in any way until the flag is removed. You can use the command chflags to remove the flag.
The following example should unlock every file in your home directory: sudo chflags -R nouchg /Here's a breakdown of the command: sudo will run the chflags command as root (you may be prompted for your root password).R will cause the command to affect every file in the directory and all of its subdirectories. Yes, capitalization matters. Nouchg is the syntax for removing the uchg flag. Any flag can be removed by putting 'no' in front of it. You can of course substitute the tilde with whatever directory path you want to affect. To change an individual file, leave out the -R and type the file path instead of a directory path.
Normal operators apply, such as $ and. Guys, guys, guys. There is a much easier way using the GUI in 10.4.
I don't mind using terminal sometimes, but let's face it why not use the GUI if possible? Normally if you select multiple files and then to command I you'll get a ton of windows coming up and you'll have to individually unlock each file. Here's the magic. Hold down alt and command when you press 'I'.
You now only get one window showing multiple file info, meaning one or two clicks to unlock all the files in one go. Another great thing is the mulitple file info window does not even need to be closed.
Once you've finished in one folder simply move to the next and select more files. I think this is what Absorber was trying to explain in his post. He missed out the vital step of using alt and command together though. You also don't need to go to list view, it works in any finder view.
How I do it is as (after going through all the terminal scripts and other 'solutions') If you cannot un-check the 'locked' check box when 'get info' is invoked (or if you can but you STILL have un-deletable files), then open trash and follow the path inside the folder(s) to the end file/folder that has a tiny padlock on the bottom left. Then, 'get info' for that specific one and un-check the locked box. Do this for each individual file/folder (yep, its a pain) and you will magically be able to empty the trash. I think the terminal script way (published in several places, including the max site) didn't work because the route path wasn't specific to the individual lock. Anyway - hope this helps peeps. Files get locked that I never locked, so it has been frustrating. The easiest why I have found (at least with photos, not sure if it applies to all files) is to view it through Adobe Bridge.
Select all and right click. If just one of the selected files is locked you'll get an option to 'unlock all', if no files are locked that option will not be available. Hope this helps.
If anyone knows how to prevent these files (usually happens with files being shared through a shared folder) from locking please advise. The easiest way to do it is to open the folder that all of the locked folders are in. Select the folder.
Single click the folder and type command I (as in the letter 'I'). At the bottom right of the info screen click the lock. Type in your administrator password which will unlock the permissions. Change the folder from 'Read only' to 'Read & Write'. Now for the cool part. At the very bottom just to the right of the zoom icon, click once and a drop down menu opens. Select 'apply to enclosed items' and every folder and program within that folder will be unlocked.
You can do the same thing for batch locking programs. There's a whole bunch of complicated stuff being suggested, but all you really need to do is hold 'command-shift' when emptying your trash. I had a folder in my trash that wouldn't delete when I emptied.
Mac OS would ask whether I wanted to delete the locked the file or not. Clicking on 'yes please' didn't actually delete it. Going into Inspector showed that it wasn't locked, and making sure all the permissions were 'read & write' didn't help any. I still don't know why it insisting on saying it was locked, but the Shift-Command while emptying got rid of it for good.