How to Make a Customized Application Restorer in OS X

Step-by-Step Guide

1. 1

   Step 1: Gather your applications.

   Head out to the Internet and pull down all of the .dmg images for the applications you want to carry around.
   
   Keep them together in some folder so you can easily find them all later.
2. 2

   Step 2: Create a new folder on your desktop or in some other easy-to-reach location.

   Later in the process, the contents of this folder will be turned into your new .dmg archive. , Instead of installing the apps into /Applications, drag them into ~/Desktop/Your-New-Folder instead. , This is how we convert the folder into a .dmg archive. , In the "Select Folder to Image" dialogue, navigate to the folder you created in step 2 and click the "Image" button. , If you want to edit the image (add a cool background, change the arrangement of icons, etc) prior to distribution, change Image Format from "Compressed" to "Read/Write" and continue reading.
   
   Otherwise, leave it on "Compressed".
   
   Congratulations! You're finished! ,, Add your desired background to the mounted image's drive, then click View
   -> Show View Options (in the menu bar).
   
   Change Background from "White" to "Picture"
   
   and drag in the background from the mounted drive. , Open Terminal, type "MV" then drag in the background picture from the mounted drive. type ".background.jpg" (or whatever file extension you had used), then hit enter. ,, Eject the mounted drive, then return to Disk Utility.
   
   In the menu bar, click on Images
   -> Convert.
   
   Give your finalized image a name and a location to save to, and ensure the Image Format is set to Compressed.
   
   Click on save, wait for the progress bar to finish, and voila! You have your own custom .dmg archive with all your favorite apps, customized and ready to go!
3. 3

   Step 3: Open up the downloaded .dmg images as if you were going to install their applications.

4. 4

   Step 4: Once all of the applications are "installed" into your temp folder

5. 5

   Step 5: open Apple's Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility).

6. 6

   Step 6: In the Disk Utility menu bar

7. 7

   Step 7: click on File -> New -> Disk Image from Folder.

8. 8

   Step 8: Give the image to be created a name (MyUtils or MacRestore

9. 9

   Step 9: for instance) and save it in the same place you created the step 2 folder.

10. 10

    Step 10: To make graphical/display changes

11. 11

    Step 11: double click the image you just created and open the drive your computer just mounted.

12. 12

    Step 12: Design your background in any image manipulation program (Adobe Illustrator is excellent for this sort of job).

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    Step 13: Hide the background image.

14. 14

    Step 14: Re-size the mounted driver's finder window and move the icons to where you'd like them to remain.

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    Step 15: Finalize (compress) the image.

Detailed Guide

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