my first Mac cant figure what to do with .sit files

[xvinnyx]

i just got my first Mac the other day and altogether i love it! but theres a couple of things that i just cant figure out how to do. for example, everytime i download something off of a website its on my desktop as a .sit file. i read on a previous thread that i needed to expand the file because it is compressed. so i used my stuffit expander that came with my comp. just to clarify i have an ibook g4 OS X. so after i expanded them i dont know what to do, because i double-click the files and it goes to disk utility, now im completely lost.

[Viro]

What you've downloaded probably wasn't compatible with the Mac. EXE files and such are for Windows machines, and as such they won't run on the mac and will come up with the blank paper icon, since the Mac doesn't know what to do with them.

Like the guy below says, what exactly were you downloading? If you download anything, make sure it says for Mac OS X, and nothing else. OS 9 stuff won't work on Tiger.

[albloom]

Let me see if I unerstand. You can expand the downloads via Stuffit
Expander, yes? What sort of thing(s) do they expand into? I can't
think of too awful many critters that launch Disk Utility.

Can you give us an example? I'd be happy to take a look and see
what' going on.

[xvinnyx]

i downloaded VP3 for my quicktiime and it downloaded on my desktop as a black paper, then i expanded it and now it a picture thats purple and says .sit and it has what looks to be a floppy disk in a vise. i also downloaded a dvd decrypter but all that downloaded was another blank paper and has .exe at the end of it. another example is that ive downloaded windows media player 9 for OS X and all that downloads is another blank paper, after its expanded its that purple thing again! please help im so lost on this mac.

[lbj]

Hey xvinnyx,

Neat trick on the Mac to assist others in assisting you is to "show us" what you're talking about.

Press the Apple key, shift key, and number 4 key all at the same time. The curser will change into a gun sight type of thing. Draw a square around your objects and release.

This will place a pdf file on your desktop. Attach that file to your message and we will "see" what you are talking about.

[xvinnyx]

<img src="http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y44/xvinnyx/Picture4.png" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

[Satcomer]

Like Viro said, the .exe is a Windows executable file. For the other files, if you have Suffit Expander installed, highlight the .sit file then do a Get Info (Command key+i) and then on the Finder window that comes up, select the "Open With" selection and choose Stuffit Expander. Then press the always open with selection to the .sit file. Next time Stuffit Expander will decompress the .sit, .bin files when you double click them.

[firestorm_westy]

What a cool way to do screen grabs... I had always opened Grab before...

Thanks a lot!