Where should 'Applications' folder be installed?

Drag the folder & place it under the icon. You can move the files to any place in the Finder sidebar.

By moving it, will ti duplicate or change anything?

No. Make sure you keep the folder inside the Finder sidebar.

Leave that /Applications folder where you found it. That is where it is supposed to be.

If you want, you can have an Applications folder inside your home directory too. There are a number of directories in your home directory that are similar in structure to directories found at / or at /System.

The Applications folder in your home directory is for applications that are only for your user and aren't meant to be shared with other users of your machine. Most people don't even have an Applications folder in their home directory. You can have one and you can put applications there. But don't move anything from /Applications to your user version.

my Applications folder is NOT under my User folder, instead it's directly under the Hard Drive.

etresoft wrote:

Leave that /Applications folder where you found it. That is where it is supposed to be.

Under Snow Leopard, it is under the Home folder.

If etresoft hadn't said it I would have said it -- do not move the /Applications folder. It's is mainly for the apple supplied applications (and utilities in /Applications/Utilities) and some 3rd party installers may install stuff there as well. You can put your own apps most anywhere.

As for duplicates, since /Applications is the place for apple's apps any updates from apple that want to update the stuff in /Applications will put that stuff there. So if you copied the entire /Applications to your home dir, not only willl there be duplicates, but the ones you copied to your home dir would be out of date with respect to the updated ones in /Applications after the update.

CMCSK - I don't know what's going on with your system, but the apple apps should not be in an Applications folder in your home dir (and I am using Snow Leopard too).

It seems the confusion is over the actual Applications folder vs the Finder sidebar shortcut. They are two different things. You can do anything you want with the sidebar in the Finder window. Don't move the actual Applications folder.

For example, here is my Finder sidebar with Applications highlighted:

As you can see from the path bar, this is the Applications folder at the root of my hard drive.

If I select my home folder, you can see that I have another Applications folder in my home directory with a couple of things that shouldn't go into the Applications folder for one reason or another.

I wonder what crappy old application put that "Desktop Folder" directory in there.

In Snow leopard, it is at the root level of the hard drive, not in the Home Folder.

Note that the order of items shown in Places in the Sidebar is not hierarchical at all; they can be rearranged to suit one's wishes, To wit -

All you need do is free-drag (no modifier key needed) any that you wish to move.

For further affirmation, if you select the Applications item under Places and have the Path Bar visible, it can be seen that that Applications folder is at the root level of the drive -