New to Mac. Need advice.

[enkil810]

Hello.

I am new to the mac world and I just bought myself a mac mini. Since its completely different from windows I need a little help. I downloaded VLC Media player to my desktop so I can watch some movies on my external hard drive. When it downloads,it is located in the new icon at the bottom. It also put a icon on my desktop screen in the form of a disk drive. What is that for and how do you remove it? If you try to remove it, it tells you its trying to eject the disk. The new mini does not have a disk drive. Im sure this is probably a easy solution to many but I have no idea.

 

[jjk454ss]

Hello.

I am new to the mac world and I just bought myself a mac mini. Since its completely different from windows I need a little help. I downloaded VLC Media player to my desktop so I can watch some movies on my external hard drive. When it downloads,it is located in the new icon at the bottom. It also put a icon on my desktop screen in the form of a disk drive. What is that for and how do you remove it? If you try to remove it, it tells you its trying to eject the disk. The new mini does not have a disk drive. Im sure this is probably a easy solution to many but I have no idea.

It's just the installer mounted on the desktop, after install you can eject that because you don't need it anymore.

 

[enkil810]

So you force eject? Even though there is no disk drive?

 

[jjk454ss]

So you force eject? Even though there is no disk drive?

You shouldn't have to force eject, if vlc players is finished being installed you should be able to right click and just eject. Or open Finder and you'll see it in the left panel with an eject icon next to it.

 

[ndriver182]

You could just also drag it over to the Trash and the icon will change from a waste basket to an eject icon.

 

[Dadioh]

Hello.

I am new to the mac world and I just bought myself a mac mini. Since its completely different from windows I need a little help. I downloaded VLC Media player to my desktop so I can watch some movies on my external hard drive. When it downloads,it is located in the new icon at the bottom. It also put a icon on my desktop screen in the form of a disk drive. What is that for and how do you remove it? If you try to remove it, it tells you its trying to eject the disk. The new mini does not have a disk drive. Im sure this is probably a easy solution to many but I have no idea.

Welcome to the Mac ecosystem. Coming from a Windows world myself I understand there are a few things to get used to but once you do I think you are gonna love OS X.

Most OS X software downloads as a .dmg file which is a disk image. You see it on your desktop as a disk image and then when you open it the contents are displayed in a folder which usually contains the application. You then just drag that application into your application folder and you are done

Once the application is dragged to the application folder you can now freely eject the disk image because you don't need it anymore. So just drag the VLC dmg file to the trash (the trash will change to an eject icon). Or you can right click the dmg file and select eject.

 

[Mojo1]

I recommend getting a copy of David Pogue's "Switching To The Mac: The Missing Manual, Mountain Lion Edition" from Amazon(http://www.amazon.com/Switching-Mac...1&keywords=Switching+to+the+mac+mountain+lion) or your fave bookseller.

Pogue works on both PCs and Macs, he is an excellent writer who uses computer jargon only when necessary and he has a sense of humor too. I've been using Macs since 1995 and I always get a copy when I upgrade the operating system.

Since Pogue is writing for "switchers" he shows you how to do the same thing on a Mac that you have done on a PC for years. Most of the book is a slightly condensed version of the Missing Manuals for the various Mac operating systems. It goes into a lot of detail on how to use the OS as well as the basic Apple applications. If you get the Missing Manual for switchers you probably don't need the full OS edition.

The book will get you up and running in a lot less time than doing it by trial-and-error, asking questions on a forum or searching the Internet when you have a question. All the PC folks that have taken me up on getting it tell me that it is worth every penny. The $14.39 Kindle edition is my choice because of the instant download and I can read it on my Mac while I am learning something.

 

[ianrip]

I'm also new to Mac OSX, and i recently obtained a copy of "David Pogue's "Switching To The Mac: The Missing Manual, Mountain Lion Edition"

very very helpful, and it was free!!!

 

[jimmy83]

Long time windows user here aswell, will get that book-thanks for the heads up.