Catalog of Apps on mac

[Godzdude]

Hello,

I'm about to do a fresh reinstall of Lion on my computer, and I was wondering if there was an app that listed all the apps running on my mac, along with their serial numbers? The serial numbers isn't important, but an app that could just tell me all my apps so I could print it off would be nice...

 

[Dave Braine]

Click on the Apple symbol in the Menubar>About This Mac>More info>Applications.

Mind you, it lists absolutely everything, including minor apps that the OS uses that you wouldn't even know that you have.

 

[robgendreau]

If you're thinking that a simple list would then allow to reinstall them manually after erasing your disk to do a "fresh" install (did your Lion spoil? ), try just opening both the applications and utilities folder, select all, copy, and then paste into a word processor.

But that ignores all the plugins, processes, System Prefs, etc etc that are installed as well. And you don't get serial numbers, preferences, and so on.

Far better to just use Apple's suggestion of using Migration Assistant from a backup; it finds everything for you.

 

[old-wiz]

There is no consistent method for paid applications to store their serial numbers, so a catalog app would have to know where each individual app stored the stuff, and I doubt the app developers would want that info to go out.