How to open a .dmg file
Apple disk image · Disk image
A .dmg file is a macOS disk image. On a Mac you double-click it and it mounts. On Windows there is nothing useful to do with one, because the software inside is Mac-only anyway.
What a .dmg file actually is
DMG is how macOS applications are distributed: a disk image that mounts as a volume, usually showing the app next to a shortcut to the Applications folder.
The contents are Mac executables. Extracting one on Windows gives you files that Windows cannot run, which is why the honest answer there is short.
Why it will not open
On Windows nothing opens it, and that is fine, because a .dmg downloaded onto a PC is almost always a mistake: someone grabbed the Mac build. The fix is downloading the Windows version, not opening the DMG.
Renaming it to an extension you can open will not help: changing the extension does not convert the file, it only changes what Windows tries to open it with.
Step by step
Windows
- 01First check whether you actually need it. If you are on Windows, download the Windows build of the software instead. That solves the real problem.
- 02If you genuinely need to inspect the contents, 7-Zip opens many DMG files and lists what is inside.
- 03Do not expect to run anything. The executables inside are compiled for macOS.
- 04Avoid tools advertising "DMG to EXE conversion". That is not a thing that can exist.
macOS
- 01Double-click. The image mounts and appears in Finder.
- 02Drag the application to the Applications folder, then eject the mounted image from the sidebar.
- 03Delete the .dmg afterwards. It is only the delivery wrapper, and keeping it wastes space.
What usually goes wrong
Running the app from the mounted image
A very common mistake on macOS is launching the app directly from the mounted DMG instead of copying it to Applications. It works until you eject the image, after which the app vanishes and updates fail.
Programs that open .dmg
Our pick, in order. Every one links to the publisher's official download URL and the SHA-256 hash of the installer. Once you have downloaded it, you can check the file against our index before you run it.
If you end up downloading one of these from somewhere other than the publisher, what you can and cannot verify about that is worth two minutes.
Also registers .dmg in its manifest
Taken straight from publisher manifests. Some of these handle the format for a narrow purpose rather than as their main job.
Common questions
- How do I open a .dmg file on Windows?
- 7-Zip can list and extract the contents, but the software inside is compiled for macOS and will not run on Windows. If you are on a PC, download the Windows version of the program instead.
- Can I convert a DMG to an EXE?
- No. A DMG contains macOS software and an EXE is a Windows program. Conversion is not possible; you need the Windows build from the publisher.