How to: Open a DMG File in Windows

File formats vary depending on the type of Operating Systems. Microsoft Windows has its own file formats as compared to Mac OSX. It also doesn’t state that you can’t open the files of one OS into another OS. There are numerous ways of opening cross-OS files and it is as easy as cutting the cake.

DMG files are Disk Image Files compatible for Mac OSX. This file format is used just like ISO on Windows. A DMG file can contain compressed files and it is vastly used as a container for particular installation files required for Apple applications. So, it is asked by the users (especially programmer) that how to open a DMG file in Windows? It is a matter of fact that these installation files contained inside the DMG file cannot be installed on a Windows machine; however, you can access these files using the methods I am going to mention below.

Ways of Opening a DMG File in Windows:

DMG Extractor (Free and Paid):

The best and the most professional tool for opening a DMG file in Windows is DMG Extractor. It can open a variety of Disk Image Files and it also demolishes the need to convert the DMG file to ISO for use in Windows. It can also open the encrypted DMG files. DMG Extractor is free to download but there are some limitations that are eliminated after installing its paid version. You can download the free version from the link mentioned below.

The process of opening a DMG file using DMG Extractor is quite easy. All you need to do is to install the tool in your computer. After the installation is done, open the software and click on Open at the top of the main window and select the DMG file from the hard drive.

After the file is opened, click on Extract and select the location where you want to locate the extracted files. Notice that with the free version of DMG Extractor, you can extract only 5 files at a time. So, you can continue this operation in parts.

7-Zip (Free):

7-Zip is the most famous free tool that is used for extracting files in Windows. It can extract a bunch of file formats including .rar, .zip, .iso and .dmg etc. You got it right; it can also open the DMG files with ease. Although, we can’t compare it with the DMG Extractor’s best DMG file extraction capability but it can do it quite well.

You can download the 7-Zip free tool from the link mentioned below.

After downloading and installing the 7-Zip file extraction tool to your PC, all you need to do is to locate the DMG file. Right click on the located DMG file and navigate to 7-Zip option and click on Extract Here from the list. You can also choose different folder to save the extracted files.

It will start the extraction process and after the process is done, the extracted content of the DMG file will be copied to the same folder.

What Is a DMG File?

How to open, edit, and convert DMG files

What to Know

• A DMG file is an Apple Disk Image file.
• Open one on a Mac automatically or with HFSExplorer or 7-Zip on Windows.
• Convert to ISO, ZIP, IMG, and others with AnyToISO, CloudConvert, or DMG2IMG.

This article describes what DMG files are, how to open one on various operating systems, and how to convert one to another archive format like ISO or IMG.

What Is a DMG File?

A file with the DMG file extension is an Apple Disk Image file, or sometimes called a Mac OS X Disk Image file, which is basically a digital reconstruction of a physical disc.

For this reason, a DMG is often the file format used to store compressed software installers instead of having to use a physical disc. You’ll most likely only see them when downloading macOS software from the internet.

This macOS disk image format supports compression, file spanning, and encryption, so some DMG files might be password protected.

Versions of Mac newer than OS X 9 support DMG files, while the older Mac OS Classic uses the IMG file format for the same purpose.

DMG is also an acronym for some technology terms that aren’t related to the Mac disk image file format, like Direct Mode Gateway and Diversity-Multiplexing Gain.

How to Open a DMG File on a Mac

DMG files are intended for Macs, so opening one on a Mac is very simple.

A DMG file is «mounted» as a drive and is treated by the operating system as if it were a physical hard drive, making it really easy to view its contents. The software you download for your Mac in a DMG format can be opened like any other file on a Mac, and then the setup program can be run to install the software.

How to Open a DMG File in Windows

A DMG file can certainly be opened in Windows, but that doesn’t mean you can actually use anything you find within it.

For example, say a DMG file isn’t just storing compressed files like images and videos but is instead holding a software program. You can extract/open the DMG file in Windows using one of the programs mentioned below, but you can’t actually execute the program and use it like you would another Windows application. To use the same program in Windows, you need to download the Windows version, not the Mac DMG version.

However, assuming the DMG file just contains files like images or videos (which are likely in a format that’s also compatible with Windows), or you want to just see what’s inside the DMG file, you should have no problem using one of the below programs to view them.

Windows can open a DMG file with any compression/decompression program that supports the format. PeaZip and 7-Zip, both free, support opening DMG files in Windows.

If you have trouble opening DMG files by double-clicking them, even if you have PeaZip or 7-Zip installed, try to right-click the DMG file and use the context menu. For example, 7-Zip opens DMG files via 7-Zip > Open archive.

DMG Extractor (the paid version) is helpful if you need to do more with DMG files than just uncompress them.

SysTools DMG Viewer is great if all you want to do is look to see what’s in the DMG file. Catacombae HFSExplorer can view DMG files on Windows, too (and Linux), but also lets you create new DMG files. Both programs are completely free.

A free tool called dmg2iso will convert the DMG image file to an ISO image file, which is much more usable in Windows. If you need to mount a DMG file in Windows, but don’t want to convert it to ISO first, a few programs do support this, like WinCDEmu, Virtual CloneDrive, and Pismo File Mount Audit Package. Newer versions of Windows support ISO mounting natively.

How to Convert a DMG File

As we mentioned above, dmg2iso can be used to convert DMG to ISO. dm2iso is a command-line tool, so you may need to reference the download page for instructions on the syntax and other rules. Also on the download page is a DMG to the IMG tool if you need to convert the file to an IMG file instead.

AnyToISO works the same way as dmg2iso but is much easier to use. The program is free but only for files that are no larger than 870 MB.

Some free file converters can convert DMG files to a variety of other archive formats, like ZIP, 7Z, TAR, GZ, RAR, and others. CloudConvert and FileZigZag are two notable examples.

To convert DMG to PKG (a macOS installer package file) requires that you first extract the contents of the DMG file and then build a new PKG file using that data. See this tutorial on the Spirion Support Portal if you need help.

You cannot convert DMG to EXE if you want to use the DMG file in Windows. DMG files are for Mac and EXE files are for Windows, so the only way to use a DMG program on Windows is to download its equivalent from the developer (if one exists); there aren’t any DMG file to EXE file converters.

Again, just because you can extract a DMG file in Windows, or even convert a DMG to a Windows-readable format, doesn’t always mean that the contents of the DMG file will suddenly become compatible with Windows. The only way to use a Mac program or a Mac video game in Windows is to download the Windows-equivalent version. If there isn’t one, then neither converting nor extracting a DMG file will be of any use.

If you want to make a bootable DMG file, you don’t have to worry about converting it to a USB format with any of the tools mentioned above. The whole DMG to USB process is possible with a tool like TransMac. Just right-click the USB drive in that program and choose Restore with Disk Image, and then you can boot from the USB drive to run the DMG program.

Still Can’t Open the File?

If none of the techniques mentioned above have been helpful in opening the DMG file in Windows, macOS, or Linux, there’s a really good chance that you don’t really have a DMG file. This might happen if the file extension has been confused for DMG.

For example, the DGML file extension looks a lot like DMG even though the two are unrelated. The former is used for Visual Studio Directed Graph Document files and opens with Microsoft’s Visual Studio.

GMD is another example of a similar looking suffix that’s reserved for GameMaker Program Code files and GroupMail Message files. Again, neither formats are related to the DMG Mac file format, so if your file really ends in one of those extensions, you need GameMaker or GroupMail installed in order to use the file.

How to Open/View DMG Files on Windows 10/8/7?

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

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 UltraDMG

UltraDMG 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. Then click on «Extract» option from the menu.

Step 4. Now the «DMG Extractr» option will be shown in the UltraDMG Window’s screen.

Step 5. Click on «Load DMG » button to fetch the required DMG files from your computer’s directory.

Step 6. Once the DMG file is loaded on program, all the files will be expended in aВ collectionВ ofВ trees, just select the files, folders or the entire DMG image, then click Extract button to save the files to your computer. 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.

Vicky is a professional Windows technology author with many experience, focusing on computer technology. She’s very much enjoy helping people find solutions to their problems. Her knowledge and passion always drive her to discover everything about technology.