What is disk-images helper?

[wketch22]

Hello, I'm new here and not too smart with computers and just had a question that I thought someone here could answer in somewhat simple terms haha

What exactly does "disk-images helper" do? Is this needed to open any disk? Does a mac automatically come with this? I had never seen this before and got worried and thought that this may be some sort of phishing attempt or virus or something like that

Any help would be appreciated, sorry if it is a stupid question

Thanks,
Will

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

Hello, I'm new here and not too smart with computers and just had a question that I thought someone here could answer in somewhat simple terms haha

What exactly does "disk-images helper" do? Is this needed to open any disk? Does a mac automatically come with this? I had never seen this before and got worried and thought that this may be some sort of phishing attempt or virus or something like that

As far as i know, the disk images helper, handles all tasks which are necessary to mount disk images outside of the kernel (the OS core), which makes your system more stable.

The kernel can also mount disk images without a helper process, but this is a bit risky, because depending on the disk image, this can result in a kernel panic.

Btw, you can search for it with Find Any File, it should be able to find the "diskimages-helper" on your startup disk. Usually within
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DiskImages.framework/Versions/A/Resources/

 

[wketch22]

As far as i know, the disk images helper, handles all tasks which are necessary to mount disk images outside of the kernel (the OS core), which makes your system more stable.

The kernel can also mount disk images without a helper process, but this is a bit risky, because depending on the disk image, this can result in a kernel panic.

Btw, you can search for it with Find Any File, it should be able to find the "diskimages-helper" on your startup disk. Usually within
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DiskImages.framework/Versions/A/Resources/

Thank you, I just wanted to be sure that this thing wasnt going to ruin my computer or anything. I couldnt tell if this was helpful or harmful but it sounds like it is just a neccessary program

Thanks!