Mac Dmg File Opener

As mentioned, a DMG file is an Apple version of a Windows ISO. A compressed file image that contains the files necessary for an OS X installation. It can also contain compressed program files too for a quick way to install a fully operational Mac or hackintosh machine. The best way to open a DMG file is on a Mac.

One of the most common mistakes I see among new Mac users is fumbling with how to install new software. The process for installing new applications on your Mac can be confusing at first because it differs greatly from Windows’ software installation process. Nevertheless, the Mac method of installing software is actually quite simple and intuitive once you are accustomed to it. If your desktop is littered with DMG files and white “drive”-looking icons, read on!

What are .DMG Files?

Mac Dmg File Opener

DMG stands for Disk Image, and is a format commonly used to distribute files and applications among Apple computers. A DMG file is like a virtual DVD or hard drive. They can be “mounted” on your Mac in order to work with their contents, or even burned to an actual physical disc.

In order to understand the concept of a DMG disk image, think of a storage volume such as a CD, DVD, hard drive, or external drive. A DMG file is like one of these devices in that it serves as a means to encapsulate documents, images, software, and other files. The difference is that with a DMG, there is no physical storage medium. There is only the DMG file, which can be written to a hard drive, burned to a CD or DVD, or sent over the Internet.

In order to work with the contents of a DMG file, you must mount the the disk image to your system. This may sound daunting, however “mounting” a DMG file with Mac OS X is no more complicated than double-clicking it’ icon. The operating system will load the load image and place a new icon both on your desktop, and in the sidebar of the Finder. The icon will have the same name as the DMG, and you’ll be able to browse through its contents like any other folder.

Once you are done working with the contents of the file, you will want to remove or “unmount” it from your system. Do this by opening the Finder and clicking the eject icon next to the virtual drive’s icon. Or, go to the Desktop, click once on the icon, and press CMD+E.

Software installation with Mac OS X is very different than in the Windows world. On a Windows PC you run an installer, tick off a few checkboxes, and wait for the progress meter to reach completion. There usually is no such “installation wizard” on a Mac &emdash; you simply drag and drop the program into your computer’s “Applications” directory. The trick is that most Mac applications are distributed as images called DMG files, and many new Mac users end up running applications directly from the image instead of installing them to the “Applications” directory.

Enough explanation, here’s how to install an OS X app from a DMG file:

  1. Find the downloaded file, which usually ends up in your Desktop or Downloads folder.
  2. Double-click the .DMG file to mount it. A new Finder window showing its contents should appear.
    • If the window also contains a shortcut icon to “Applications”, drag and drop the app onto the shortcut.
    • If not, double-click the mounted volume on your desktop and drag the app icon from there to the “Applications” icon in the Finder sidebar.

Further Explanation

Alright, that was the abridged version. Here’s the long version. I’ve just downloaded the DeskLickr application, and the DeskLickr_1.2.dmg is sitting on my desktop. I double-click it and a new icon labeled “DeskLickr 1.2” appears on my desktop. Here’s what my desktop looks like at this point:

Since most of the time a new Finder window also pops up when the image is ready for use, this one is now sitting on my desktop:

Different applications are going to show you slightly different Finder windows. Each application’s designers like to add their own artwork. Glitter aside, most applications are trying to tell you the same thing. See the arrow pointing from the DeskLickr icon to the “Applications’ shortcut? It’s telling you to drag and drop the icon into that folder. Once you’ve done so, the app will be installed.

Mac Not Opening Dmg Files

If a program doesn’t provide a shortcut to the Applications folder, you’ll need to pop open a new Finder window. Press CMD+N to open a new window, then drag the program over to “Applications” in the left-hand side of the window.

Once the new program is installed it’s time to do some house cleaning. You no longer need the disk image you downloaded, so follow these steps:

  1. Close any Finder windows that have been left open.
  2. Eject the disk image (not the .DMG file). Click on its desktop icon, then press CMD+E.
  3. Delete the .DMG file by dragging it to the trash.

That’s it! Your new Mac application is ready to use. But wait…

Bonus Tip: Add Your New Application to the Dock

I knew you were going to ask, so I figured I would cut you off at the pass. In order to add the new application to the dock, follow these steps:

Dmg Opener Mac

  1. Open up a new Finder window.
  2. Click on “Applications”.
  3. Locate your new program’s icon.
  4. Drag the icon to your Dock, and drop it wherever you like.

What is DMG file

A DMG File stands for Disk Image file and it is a file format which is used to create mountable disks on the Macintosh operating system. The DMG File format contains data in the form of blocks which are often secured using encryption methods or are compressed using compression algorithms. DMG files are used for installing tools and softwares into the Mac OS operating system. The file is downloaded from the internet from the software manufacturer’s website and upon mounting the DMG file, a virtual disk is generated from where the user can either copy the application to the applications folder or run an installation script depending on the type of installation.

The newer disk image file was used in place of the original IMG or image file which was used in earlier versions of mac that are classic mac operating systems. Disk Image Files are only meant to be used in Mac based systems and not on the Windows operating systems. However, using some image softwares like Daemon tools on windows, we can mount disk images of DMG type on windows too. Some tools can also convert DMG Files to windows-recognizable image files like .ISO files.

Benefits of DMG Disk Image format

  1. DMG Images are read only which ensures that the files inside the installer are not altered with. This makes the software supplied inside the dmg secure from viruses as no one can alter the file after it is created.
  2. Instead of sending more than one file over the internet, the creators have to send a single dmg disk image which contains all the required installation files of the software that can be simply dragged and dropped into the applications folder of Mac to install them.
  3. DMG files can be customized according to the manufacturer’s wish so that the installers look pleasing when people download the files for installing software.
  4. Disk images can be mounted on a computer just like a physical cd. This is a good thing as people can save a copy of the DMG file as a backup which can be used later to restore the previous state of the files.

What is ISO File

An ISO file stands for International Organization for Standardization file format which specified ISO as the standard file format for disk image files in Windows. It is a file which can be used to mount disk image files in Windows operating systems. It can be used to emulate a CD, DVD or any other disk drive in Windows virtually.

It is generally used to hold disk images of operating systems like linux which can be burned into a disk or a USB drive. It is also used to send installation files of Windows softwares through the internet but they are usually sent through a binary package with an executable or an msi installer.

Basically ISO files are an image of something so you could have an image of a computer software package that would be all the files that existed on that computer software in one finite image. You can also burn that image file to a CD because these are optical images.

How to Convert DMG File to ISO

Mac File Opener Download

The ISO file format can be used on the Macintosh operating systems, however, almost all of the software packages for Mac is downloaded from the internet as a DMG Disk Image file. Although the DMG file format has some features which are not available in the ISO format like file encryption methods and compression algorithms, DMG files cannot be used anywhere else instead of a Mac. This is why we may need to convert DMG FIles to the ISO File format.

To convert dmg to iso file on Windows, you should install third party softwares like PowerISO. It is a disk image burning software that can be used to convert DMG File to ISO on Windows. You can also directly burn DMG Files to a CD/DVD using this software.

Before downloading PowerISO, check the system requirements that is required to install and run Power ISO.

System Requirements

  1. Any one of the following Windows Operating systems: Windows 98 / Windows Me/ Windows NT 4.0 / Windows 2000 / Windows XP / Windows 2003 / Windows Vista / Window 7 / Windows 8 / Windows 10 operating system or above.
  2. PowerISO can be used in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of windows.
  3. Processor: Intel Pentium with 166 MHz clock speed or better.
  4. 64 Megabytes of RAM.
  5. A minimum of 128 Gigabytes of storage space is required to install and run PowerISO.

Steps to download PowerISO on Windows

  1. Visit the official website of the PowerISO.
  2. Go to the download section of the website
  3. Select the version 32 bit / 64 bit according to your computer.
  4. Click on download PowerISO 64 /32 bit

Now, an installer file will be downloaded on your computer, open the file and do the required steps to install PowerISO on your computer.

Download .dmg File Opener For Mac

To convert DMG to ISO, first open the PowerISO application on Windows and then select the tools option from the top ribbon.

Dmg File For Mac

From the dropdown list, select the option labeled as convert. Now you will see a dialog box titled convert image file. You can use this to convert image files from one file format to another. In our case, we have to convert it from dmg file format to iso file format so we will set it up accordingly.

Now, we have to select a source image which will be your dmg file you want to convert. After that, select the destination image file and name it as the name of the iso file you want at the end. Below that, there is a drop down menu where you have to select the output file format, select iso file format there.

After that, there are image file settings options where you can password protect the images but since we are converting dmg file to iso, iso doesn’t have password protection options so that section is greyed out.

Open Dmg File Mac

Now, select OK to start the conversion process. Wait for a few minutes for the conversion to complete. When the conversion is complete, you should get a message which says “Converting image file completes successfully”. If there is an error, check whether the input dmg file is corrupted or not. If there are no errors, go to the location of the output file you specified earlier, you should have an iso output file of the name you have given.