How to list all applications on Mac

Installing the application on macOS is slightly different than Windows. Because they are usually single .app files, you can move on the hard drive more easily. Here's how to list all applications on the Mac.

1. Use the Applications folder

This method is very simple, just open the Applications application, usually located in the sidebar, at the top of the hard drive or in the Home folder (the folder has your name on it). You can click the List button in the top bar to see everything on the list easily.

This directory does not list all applications on the hard drive, so if there is an application in the Download folder, it will not show up here.

2. Use Smart Folder

Smart Folders are great, they are like saved searches that you can pin to Finder's sidebar. To search all applications, follow the steps below.

Create a new smart folder from any Finder window by selecting File> New Smart Folder from the top menu bar.

This will open a window like the search window. You can add new rules by clicking the + button next to Save . It has a drop down list that allows you to select rules for Smart Folder to search.

By default, it will search by file name but you can change it to Kind and Application .

You will see the folder quickly fills the search application. If you want to save this smart folder, click Save in the top right corner, name it and choose a place to save.

By default, it will be saved in the Save Searches folder but can be saved anywhere you want and added to the sidebar for easy access.

3. Use System Information

The System Information application has a tab showing the .app files installed on the system. Open the application by holding down the Options key and clicking on the Apple logo, clicking System Information .

Scroll down to Software> Applications and wait a minute for it to search the drive, listing the application. This list includes all the files with the .app extension, including system and internal applications, so editing these files may be harmful to Macs.

4. Use the command line

If you want an easy-to-edit application file path list, you can search the hard drive using the Terminal command. Here we will use the find and flag command --iname to search by file name. The syntax for finding files with the .app file extension is as follows:

  sudo find / -iname * .app 

Open the Terminal application by clicking on it on the Dock, past the above command and press Enter . This process may take a while because it will produce an extremely long list of system and internal applications, so you should turn the output into a file.

  sudo find / -iname * .app> filename 

This method will search the application on both the root directory and on the hard drive, so you will see lots of repetitive folders from applications within the application, such as Xcode's internal application. You can remove these repeating applications with sed commands and regular expressions to search for matches, delete the .app file inside the .app file.

  sed -i '/.app.*.app/d' filename 

The above command will delete all entries that match the search feature from the list of applications you have created. This operation modifies the file directly, so be careful when running it.

I wish you all success!