How to Install Internet Software

The process of getting new software into your computer has become a lot easier in the last few years because of a feature in Windows called "autoplay". I still get a lot of questions about how to install software from the internet, though. This month we talk about how to download and install something new.

Okay, you've heard about this new cool program that everyone is using. Everyone says that is the best (lets just pull something random here) music player there is. Now you want to have a go at trying this way cool program. The program is only available from the internet and you're going to have to get it into your system somehow. What do you do?

First thing that you have to realize is that accomplishing this task is a two stage process. It's the place where it goes wrong for most people. They do the first stage and are either unaware of or don't know how to do the second stage. Without these two stages, you don't have the new software in your system.

The first stage is "Downloading". A quick definition: Downloading is the process of retrieving a computer file from an external source (usually a website) to your computer. Let's take the case of a really good music playing program like Winamp. When you go to the Winamp website you will see a whole bunch of stuff on the main page. The thing that we're really interested in is the thing that says "Download Winamp 5 Now!". That is actually a link that you can click on (you can tell because when you move your mouse over it, the mouse pointer changes to a pointing finger). When you click on that link, it takes you to the downloading page. There's two links at the bottom of the first section, "Get free" and "Go Pro". The "Get Free" link will take you to the page that will let you select the "Lite", "Full" or "Bundle" version. The "Full" version is the one that's currently selected, let's leave it that way. Now click on the "Download Now!" button. In a few seconds a box will pop up giving us a warning. You should pay attention to these warnings. This one talks about a file harming our computer. Since Winamp is a legitimate product and is trusted, we can move on to the final step in downloading. Click "Save". It's now going to ask us where we want to save it to. This is where a lot of people get confused. This stage is NOT the final process of installing the program. All we're doing here is downloading the installer - getting it on to our machine so that we can do the installation process. We need to have a place where we save these downloaded installers. We at YourTechOnline will always create a folder on drive C: called "Downloads" - that way we know where to go and look for a downloaded installer if we need to reinstall the program in the future. We strongly suggest that you do this as well. Now C:\downloads is not the only place where you could put downloaded installers. Some people put them in the "My Documents" folder; others put it in different places. Places to NEVER put your downloads: "C:\program files", "C:\windows", or any folder called "Temp" - those kinds of places are special and you may lose your download or create problems by having them in those places. Some people like to put them in on the desktop. It's not a really bad place unless you start to download a lot of things; the desktop can really get cluttered with downloads. Wherever you download the file to, remember where you put it, you may need it again sometime. Guide the Save box to the place where you want to save the file and click save. If the saving box has "close this dialog box when download completes" checked, uncheck it. It'll make it all lot easier to install the program when it's finished downloading.

As the download progresses, you'll see the progress bar creep it's way across showing you how much it's downloaded. When the bar reaches 100%, it's done and you can now move on to the next step. Don't click "Close" on that box - we still want it on the screen.

Now that we have the installer tool for the program downloaded on to our hard drive we can now do the thing that will make the program we downloaded become part of Windows. This process is called "Installing". Installing is the process of taking that package that you downloaded and unfolding it onto your hard drive and letting Windows know about it. Most installer tools have a Wizard or a step-by-step sequence that will help you get the software into your system. This step doesn't happen automatically, you have to tell it to do it. Hopefully you didn't close the download progress box. If you have a look at the bottom of that box you will see a few buttons: Open, Open Folder, Close. The Open button is the one that we're interested in at the moment. It will open the installer tool and start the installation process. These steps that come up during the installation are important. Don't just keep hitting "Next" until it starts installing. If this software was spyware or nasty in some way, you could be saying "yes" to having your system completely exposed to the world. Read the pages that come up as part of the installer. There may be options that come along with the program that you do not want or, inversely, some options that you do want that are not turned on by default. In here, you will almost certainly see a License Agreement of some kind. Almost no one reads these things as they can be very difficult to get through with all the legalese that's in them. Be very careful about skipping reading this if you do not know the software to be 100% safe. In here is where Spyware programs get you to agree to opening up your computer to them. When you say Yes to the license agreement, you are agreeing to whatever is in there and it may be something like "you agree to have your computer monitored by the software". In effect, you are saying that you want your system exposed. Be very careful about this. If a knowledgeable computer person (like a YourTechOnline technician) says that the software is okay or the software comes from a reputable company (like Microsoft) you can probably skip reading it; if you don't know the software or the company - read the agreement to see what you really are agreeing to. You don't have to install the software, you can cancel it at just about any point.

Once the installation is finished, you'll almost certainly see an icon for it in the start menu and maybe on your desktop as well. You can now run the program by going to that icon and starting the program from there. In the case of Winamp, there will be icons for it all over the place. Open the program and start playing with it.

Remember that the process of getting software from the internet is a two stage procedure: Download the installation tool to your system and then start that tool to get the software installed into your machine.

If you have any problems installing software into your computer, please feel free to call support.com who can help you through the process.