Installing Software in Your User Applications Folder

Owned by Jessica Christine Warren
Last updated: Nov 21, 2023 by Bryan McLucas
2 min read

Some app installers downloaded from the internet will want you to drag the app to your Applications folder, which requires an administrative password. Below is a set of instructions for how to install such apps to your User Applications folder, which does not require admin.

These instructions apply to the following apps, among others:

  • ApE (A plasmid Editor)
  • Brave Browser
  • Fiji
  • Inkscape
  • Mendeley Reference Manager
  • Notion
  • OmniDisk Sweeper
  • Processing
  • reMarkable
  • SPEAR (Sinusoidal Partial Editing Analysis and Resynthesis)
  • Spotify
  • Zotero


1. Go to the website for the software you need and download the latest version for Mac.


2. After the .dmg file has been downloaded, open it from your Downloads folder.



3. It should automatically populate with a window that wants you to drag the app over to your applications folder. Instead of doing what the prompt wants you to do, double click on the Macintosh HD icon on your desktop, it looks like this:  

       

 

4. A new Finder window will open, then click on the Users folder, and you should see a separate folder inside the Users folder that has your MyID with a house. This is your personal User Folder.


5. When you open that folder, you should see the personal folders you have stored on the computer. 



6. If you drag the desired app to the Applications folder within your personal User folder, it will not require an administrative password to install. If you do not see the Applications folder in your User folder, you can create one by clicking the ellipsis menu in the upper right corner of the User folder window, selecting New Folder, and naming it Applications.


To avoid having to launch Macintosh HD every time, you can change the Finder sidebar settings to include your personal User folder. Alternatively, you can drag your User folder to the Finder sidebar. Below are instructions to add your User folder to the Finder Sidebar:


  1. Launch Finder, then go to the top right corner, and select Finder > Settings (or Finder > Preferences on older computers)

 


    2. Edit your Finder sidebar to include your User folder by checking the box next to the house with your MyID.


OR

If you have your Finder window and the Macintosh HD window pulled up at the same time, you can drag your personal user folder to your Finder sidebar to add it there.