adding icons to the dock

[polythene pam]

I recently downloaded Firefox and have tried repeatedly to add the firefox icon to the dock by dragging and dropping it there. It stays.... until I startup the computer again from sleep. Then it is gone, and I have to drag and drop again. What am I doing wrong?

On the same subject, after downloading firefox there's this icon on the desktop that looks like a little white box and says 'firefox'. How can I get that to go elsewhere (not desktop)?

thanks

 

[mkrishnan]

I recently downloaded Firefox and have tried repeatedly to add the firefox icon to the dock by dragging and dropping it there. It stays.... until I startup the computer again from sleep. Then it is gone, and I have to drag and drop again. What am I doing wrong?

On the same subject, after downloading firefox there's this icon on the desktop that looks like a little white box and says 'firefox'. How can I get that to go elsewhere (not desktop)?

thanks

Okay, I think I know what you're doing, but I'm not 100% sure, so bear with me.

You download Firefox. Then after the download finishes, and it asks you if it's okay to finish, because there's an application inside, a Finder window opens with Firefox in it, right? And also, the white icon drive appears on the desktop. And you try to drag firefox from that window to the dock, and when you reboot, it disappears?

What you need to do is: drag firefox from that window into your applications folder (if applications is in the left hand side of the finder window, you can just drag it to there). That window, and the white disk icon on the desktop, are a disk image. You can only use the stuff inside the disk image when it is mounted. Sort of like how you can only read from a CD while it's in the drive. When you reboot, it isn't mounted anymore, and so Firefox isn't available, and it's not in the dock.

So, drag Firefox from the disk image to Applications. Then, start it from inside applications, or drag it from the applications folder to the dock.

Then, drag the white icon to the trash. This doesn't delete it -- just unmounts it.

Try that, and come back if it didn't work, because then something more serious is going on....

 

[polythene pam]

thanks mkrishnan,

that seems to have done the trick. I didn't know I had to do the dragging to the applications folder.... there seems to be a lot to learn, being a recent switcher!

thanks for your help

 

[mkrishnan]

that seems to have done the trick. I didn't know I had to do the dragging to the applications folder.... there seems to be a lot to learn, being a recent switcher!

It's something a lot of people have trouble with at first. Some freeware go to special lengths to make it say "Drag me to the apps folder" so that you know, but I could totally understand missing it. Wherever you have Safari or FF set up to put your downloads, you will find a file that ends in .dmg -- the Disk Image. This is the file that is represented by the white disk icon on your desktop. It's similar in concept to a zip file -- it's the compressed file you downloaded containing the installable copy of, say, Firefox. So if you want, you can delete it after you drag Firefox to the applications directory. 🙂

Welcome to Macland! 🙂

 

[shadowmoses]

I rmember i had the exact same problem when i first switched i think it is a problem most switcher's encounter, glad its been solved and hope you enjoy your mac,

ShadOW