If you are an avid Mac user using a Windows PC, and suddenly find a DMG file in your windows system, you would definitely want to open it up to see what it contains. Though the installation files or compressed files it contains will not be compatible with your windows PC, yet there are some ways you can check out what it withholds. But before proceeding with the ways to open or view a DMG file, it is better if we have a thorough knowledge of what a DMG file exactly is. DMG files are actually Mac OS disk image files. It is very similar to ISO files in windows, or rather a counterpart of ISO files.
The images usually comprise installation files of softwares and operating systems and sometimes, compressed files. Since you are using a windows PC, surely you won't be able to run it on your Window OS, but at least there are ways by which you can have a look at its contents. And that is what we are going to discuss in this article - ways to view the DMG files on Windows 10/7/8.
Way #1: Open DMG Files on Windows with 7-ZIP
RAR files can be split into multi-volume archives when dealing with large file sets. Like Zip files, these files need to be extracted. WinZip's RAR Opener Functionality. How to open RAR files. Save the.rar file to the desktop. If your compressed file was downloaded from a website, it may be saved in the Downloads folder in your Documents. The Mac users can open.dmg files on Mac OS X without using third-party software. But if you are a Windows user, you will be in trouble, since Windows can not recognize dmg format by default. In this article we’ll show you how to convert DMG files to ISO format in Windows using the freeware dmg2img. How to Convert DMG Image to ISO format in.
7-ZIP is a lightweight freeware which is easily available on the internet market. It not only extracts DMG files but all other of compressed files, such as ZIP, CAB, ISO, RAR, WIM, etc. But we would restrict our discussion here only upto DMG. Read the steps below to know the tool's usage:
Step 1. Download the 7-ZIP program file in any of your working computer and install it.
Step 2. After installation is done, locate the DMG file that you wish to open or view in your directory or desktop, and right-click on it.
Step 3. From the context menu, click on '7-ZIP' which will not appear as a part of your system since installed.
Step 4. From the next sub-menu that follows click on 'Open archive' and your DMG file will be opened and you can view the contents inside.
Cons:
- You cannot view or extract files bigger than 4 GB.
- You cannot view or extract encrypted files.
- You are only allowed to extract 5 DMG files at a time.
Way #2: Open DMG Files with DMG Extractor
DMG Extractor is another professional tool to open and extract .dmg files without first converting them into .iso or .img files. It's interface is very user-friendly and even a beginner can use it without any difficulty. Just go through the steps below to pull off the task:
Step 1. First of all, download the DMG extractor program file from the internet and install it in your personal Windows PC.
Step 2. Run the application with admin rights and in the main UI of the tool's screen, click on 'open' button in the upper menu bar to browse the required DMG file. The file will be loaded into the software's screen.
Step 3. After the file is loaded, you will be displayed all the contents contained within the DMG file.
Cons:
- You cannot view or extract files bigger than 4 GB.
- You cannot view or extract encrypted files.
- You are only allowed to extract 5 DMG files at a time.
Way #3: View DMG files on Windows with PowerISO
PowerISO is yet another very powerful professional tool which can open, burn, extract, create, edit, convert, any kind of disk image files. It can process every kind of image files, be it BIN, DMG, ISO, DAA, etc. Here we would burn the image file into a CD/DVD or USB and then will open it from the disk storage to check out what it contains. But before you head on the tool's usage, better have a look at its specifications to use it in a better way.
Step 1. Get the program file downloaded from the official website and install it in your Windows computer.
Step 2. Launch the utility with admin privileges and then insert a empty Disk (CD/DVD or USB) in your computer.
Step 3. Click on 'Tools' button from the menu bar and then click on 'Burn' option from the drop-down menu.
Step 4. Now the 'DMG Burner' option will be shown in the PowerISO Window's screen.
Step 5. Click on 'Browse' button to fetch the required DMG files from your computer's directory.
Step 6. Select the burning speed from the dialog box and then finally click on 'Burn' button to start the burning process.
Step 7. Once the image is burnt in your disk, open the disk from 'My computer' and click on the DMG file to view what it contains.
Conclusion:
After going through all the methods mentioned above, you must have realized by now that the first two tools implemented have got several demerits and thus can be not relied upon fully. So in order to have all the facilities with disk images, better stick to way 3 for a guarantee result.
Related Articles & Tips
How To Extract DMG File?
Depending on which operating system you use process of DMG file extraction is different.
Mac OS
To extract DMG file on Mac OS operating system just double click on DMG file in question. This will attach DMG file as a drive and open it in a new Finder window. There you will see all files and folders in a DMG file. To extract just select files you need and then click Edit->Copy Items in Finder menu. After that in another Finder window navigate to the location where you want to put extracted files and select Edit->Past Items in Finder menu.
Windows OS
Typically, DMG files are not supposed to be executed inside Windows OS environment. Still it may be necessary to copy certain files or folders from DMG file to the Windows machine. To do this you can extract DMG file on Mac OS machine as described above and copy extracted files to the Windows machine.
If you don’t have Mac OS machine available, you can download 7-Zip software from https://www.7-zip.org/.
- Install 7-Zip as prompted by the 7-Zip installed
- Launch 7-Zip
- Click File->Open and select DMG file you want to extract
- You will see files and folders inside DMG file in 7-Zip window
- Select files you want to extract and click “Extract” in the main 7-Zip menu
- Select location where you want to extract your files and click “Extract” button
- Your files will be extracted to the selected location
Linux
Extracting DMG files on Linux could be easily done with 7z tool via terminal. To install 7z tool run following commands:
sudo apt-get update
7zip Extract Multiple Files
sudo apt-get install p7zip-full
How To Extract Dmg In 7zip Download
To extract the DMG file navigate to the folder where DMG file is located and type following:
How To Compress A File Using 7zip
7z x file_to_extract.dmg
This will extract file_to_extract.dmg to the current folder.