How do I find ALL apps on my computer???

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Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Just wondering how would you find any and all applications on your computer?

Do they all end in .app and .wdgt and would you just use the search tools such as spotlight?



Thanks to anyone who answers.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 13
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,464member
    Doesn't System Profiler list every application installed?
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  • Reply 2 of 13
    Assuming you got Tiger and Spotlight:



    Open a Finder window...search for " " (just put a space in the search field)

    Push + to add a search criteria.

    Kind -> Application



    Make sure you select 'Computer' to search the entire computer.



    An inelegant solution but it works very well.
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  • Reply 3 of 13
    progmacprogmac Posts: 1,850member
    what are you doing putting applications outside of your applications folder? huh? what? huh?
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  • Reply 4 of 13
    If you have Classic installed on your machine, there are numerous other extensions that might also register as apps...
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  • Reply 5 of 13
    sc_marktsc_markt Posts: 1,404member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by progmac

    what are you doing putting applications outside of your applications folder? huh? what? huh?



    I didn't. I asked this because all of a sudden, Safari keeps trying to go to some server and little snitch is stopping it. I don't know if I downloaded some spyware. That is why I was asking.



    I wish I Apple would list what their default processes are so I can look them up and compare them to what I have running.
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  • Reply 6 of 13
    bergzbergz Posts: 1,045member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by sc_markt

    I didn't. I asked this because all of a sudden, Safari keeps trying to go to some server and little snitch is stopping it. I don't know if I downloaded some spyware. That is why I was asking.



    I wish I Apple would list what their default processes are so I can look them up and compare them to what I have running.




    What are all those OS X processes?



    --B
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  • Reply 7 of 13
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Type "kind:application" in Spotlight.



    Oh, and very cool list, bergz. I think I'll read through that, it kind of disturbs me how many processes Mac OS X typically has running.
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  • Reply 8 of 13
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Placebo

    it kind of disturbs me how many processes Mac OS X typically has running.



    probably no more than your average human...



    autonomic processes to control cardiovascular, lymphatic, neuromuscular, sensory, digestive, I/O, etc...



    then there's processes for daydreaming, philosophizing, crafting snappy comebacks, menu planning, plotting world domination, etc...



    although I suspect OS X doesn't think about sex as often... even though it's only an e away
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  • Reply 9 of 13
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Well, when you compare it to a Windows install that people have boiled down to nine processes, it looks kind of bloated, even if they don't take that much CPU/memory. I guess OS X has a bunch of small ones instead of a few large ones.
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  • Reply 10 of 13
    sc_marktsc_markt Posts: 1,404member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by bergz

    What are all those OS X processes?



    --B




    Excellent list. I've downloaded it for reference.



    Thanks!
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  • Reply 11 of 13
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Placebo

    it kind of disturbs me how many processes Mac OS X typically has running.



    A lot of it has to do with Darwin's kernal design; I bet the kernal + all neccessary processes don't use any more memory than Linux or Windows, there's just more of them.
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  • Reply 12 of 13
    It'd just be nice if the daemons/processes had descriptive names. Feels like we're using DOS or Windows (or UNIX ).
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  • Reply 13 of 13
    dobbydobby Posts: 797member
    Open terminal -

    $ find / -exec file {} \\; |grep executable



    This will return any file that can can be run (an app).



    Probably not useful for what you want but like XP you will be amazed at the mountain of executables on your machine.



    Dobby.
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