I want to download....

I

Ian Hoare

Salut/Hi steve eddy,

le/on Sun, 23 Jan 2005 15:55:21 -0800, tu disais/you said:-

If you're downloading, then you should save it before installing, as
everyone else has said. My suggestion is a general one. Make a folder on
(your C drive or another( one of your hard disks called downloads. I have it
on a drive which I only back up once a month or so. Then you always save
your files there. That way you always know where your installation files are
to be found, and if and when you download updated programs you can easily
find the older version of the install file to delete.

In the bad/good old days when we still talked about "directories" and
"subdirectories" instead of folders, we were encouraged to create some kind
of intelligent hard disk structure, so you knew what was where and what to
back up. Although Win XP can keep tracks of things better, it is still worth
while, I'd suggest, to have some idea of what's where.

When I first set up my directory structure, one of the first things I did
was to create a folder called My Programs (before Windows could do it for
me). I put it on a fast large drive apart from Windows itself, so that
(again) if things went catastrophically wrong, I stood a better chance of
not losing applications if I had to reinstall windows. Some ill behaved
programs don't give me the chance of saying where I want to install them,
installing themselves into C:\My Programs\companyname\applicationname. If I
do get the opportunity to change I alter the C:\ to E:\ and that's it. But
that means I know where my applications are, even if Windows has a silly
minute and loses them.

Assuming you're using Internet Explorer, it usually remembers the last
folder you downloaded into, so just create (using Windows Explorer) your
chosen folder, and tell IE where to put the file. Once you've done that,
you're home and dry, because to install the program, you can either navigate
there in Explorer and click on the filename, or using "Start/Run" run it.

A decent application would let your create filters to determine in advance
where to put downloaded files depending upon their suffixes. Thus in
Terminate (an early 90s Dos based comms program), you could set it up in
advance to download *.jpg into C:\mydocs\mypics, *.txt into c;\mydocs *.exe
into c:\download\apps and *.zip into c:\download\zips and everything else
into c:\download\random.

Of course, with windows based programs we've regressed a long way and such
functionality is no longer usual. A shame.
 
G

Guest

It doesn't get anymore basic than this.....
I want to download a Bible from E-Sword. When I hit the "install" button,
the only option I have is to install it on a disk. Now is this a regular CD
or is this a floppy disk? I don't know nothing about floppy disks! My
computer is a Dell 3000, brand new and I didn't think it used floppy disks.
Anything you have to offer would be helpful; even if it's a place to go read.
 
I

Ian Hoare

Salut/Hi Ken Blake,

le/on Mon, 24 Jan 2005 15:19:22 -0700, tu disais/you said:-
In Ian Hoare <[email protected]> typed:
Sorry, Ian, but it doesn't work that way. If you reinstall
Windows, you'll also have to reinstall all your applications from
the original media. There may be a very occasional tiny program
for which this isn't true, but there are so few as hardly to
matter.

I thought you could do a repair re-installation which wouldn't stamp all
over your existing structure. My idea was that in separating applications
into a place apart, the unlikely glitch would be less likely to cause probs.

Also, of course, some applications store info in .ini files and setup
preferences as subdirectories. I knowe that if you do a complete new
installation, most programs have to introduce themselves to the Registry.
That said, Forte Agent (which I use for reading NGs) is a rare bird that
doesn't write to the registry. I have to admit to a preference to programs
which create human readable (and editable) .ini files. I've no objection to
them signing into the registry, but if you were to look at Eudora's .ini
file, you would see what I mean.
 
S

steve eddy

if you're talking about this link:

http://www.e-sword.net/files/setup752.exe

it's asking what you want to do with the install executable. no way any
floppy is involved, this is 16 MB. You can either click "run" and install it
directly, or select save and tell your system where you want to save the
..exe file (out on the desktop is usually the best place). Then you would
double click on it there and away you go.

hope this helps.

steve
 
R

Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers

Hi,

1) When downloading, one should elect "save", and not "install". Once you
have the file saved locally, you can double click it to initiate the
installation. This is a good habit to get into.

2) When you are prompted to "save", click the dropdown to change to a hard
drive location of your choice.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
S

steve eddy

Rick, I notice that there are a few applications (many of Microsoft's own,
in fact) that tell you to run the executable in place. I presume that one
reason for saving first would be to afford the ability to scan for viruses?
 
R

Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers

Hi Steve,
I presume that one reason for saving first would be to afford the ability
to scan for viruses?

Absolutely. And, regardless of source, all files download from a 'net source
should be treated this way.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
C

Colin Barnhorst

There is another reason. I use the Save option, run the installer, and then
save the download to a folder on an external drive. If I have to reformat
my C: drive, I have the installers I used before and can recover my
preferred mix of programs easily.
 
S

steve eddy

good advice!

Rick "Nutcase" Rogers said:
Hi Steve,


Absolutely. And, regardless of source, all files download from a 'net
source should be treated this way.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
G

Guest

steve eddy said:
if you're talking about this link:

http://www.e-sword.net/files/setup752.exe

it's asking what you want to do with the install executable. no way any
floppy is involved, this is 16 MB. You can either click "run" and install it
directly, or select save and tell your system where you want to save the
..exe file (out on the desktop is usually the best place). Then you would
double click on it there and away you go.

hope this helps.

steve





Thanks Steve. You told me exactly what I wanted to know. When I said that *it* only gave me the option of *save* (apparently onto a disk which I didn't have) it was through the Firefox browser. I tried it straight from AOL and it installed it onto my computer. I did scan it first.

Now, would there be any other reason to put the program (is this what they
call software?) onto a CD other than to have it as a back up?
 
S

steve eddy

jatfla said:
Now, would there be any other reason to put the program (is this what they
call software?) onto a CD other than to have it as a back up?

Not that I can think of........but backup is good. You might need to
reinstall it someday. Or install it on another computer. CD-RW is good for
backup.
 
K

Ken Blake

In
Ian Hoare said:
When I first set up my directory structure, one of the first
things I
did was to create a folder called My Programs (before Windows
could
do it for me). I put it on a fast large drive apart from
Windows
itself, so that (again) if things went catastrophically wrong,
I
stood a better chance of not losing applications if I had to
reinstall windows.


Sorry, Ian, but it doesn't work that way. If you reinstall
Windows, you'll also have to reinstall all your applications from
the original media. There may be a very occasional tiny program
for which this isn't true, but there are so few as hardly to
matter.

That's because all applications (except for that tiny few) have
*many* references to them all over the windows folder, mostly in
the registry, but also elsewhere. If you reinstall Windows, those
references will be lost and the applications can't work without
them. Reinstallation of applications always goes hand-in-hand
with reinstallation of Windows, and there's no way around that.
 
K

Ken Blake

In
Ian Hoare said:
Salut/Hi Ken Blake,

le/on Mon, 24 Jan 2005 15:19:22 -0700, tu disais/you said:-


I thought you could do a repair re-installation which wouldn't
stamp
all over your existing structure.


Yes, that's true. I thought you were talking about a clean
reinstallation.

If you do a repair installation, having your programs on another
partition won't hurt you, but it won't help you either.

My idea was that in separating
applications into a place apart, the unlikely glitch would be
less
likely to cause probs.


I doubt that very much. I don't see any reason why it's likely to
matter.

Also, of course, some applications store info in .ini files and
setup
preferences as subdirectories. I knowe that if you do a
complete new
installation, most programs have to introduce themselves to the
Registry. That said, Forte Agent (which I use for reading NGs)
is a
rare bird that doesn't write to the registry. I have to admit
to a
preference to programs which create human readable (and
editable)
.ini files. I've no objection to them signing into the
registry, but
if you were to look at Eudora's .ini file, you would see what I
mean.


Yes, as I said "There may be a very occasional tiny program for
which this isn't true, but there are so few as hardly to matter."
Almost all programs write to the registry; if you reinstall
cleanly you lose the registry, and if you lose the registry you
therefore lose almost all programs.
 
A

Andrew Murray

If you're talking about the dialogue that comes up prompting for downloads,
click the "Save" button, not the "install" button. Then download the file,
say to your desktop, then when completed, doubleclick the icon and the
install program should install the application.

I expect what you're trying to do by clicking "install" is telling it to run
from its currently location (the web server) without downloading it to your
machine first, and then it is asking "where do you want to install" i.e. it
needs to be some folder on your hard disk


Floppy disk or CD have nothing to do with this situation.
 

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