The Web is home to thousands of multimedia tools, but downloading them isn't always a snap. Here's a handy checklist to follow:
Know what it is you're downloading
Don't download a file unless you understand what it does. Go to trusted Web sources for finding downloadable software (http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/ or http://download.cnet.com/).
Determine the file size
Depending on the file size (as well as modem speed and Web server traffic), downloading can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. Is the file really worth the download time?
Save the file to your hard disk
Once you have located the program you want, right-click on its link (when the cursor changes to a hand).
- In Netscape Navigator, select Save Link As... from the pop-up menu.
- In Microsoft Internet Explorer, choose Save Target As...
- Using the Save dialog box, select a location on your hard disk where you would like to store the file.
- Click OK to begin the download.
Open the file
The file you download will not be the program itself but an installation routine.
- If the file name ends with the .exe extension, open it. Either the setup will launch or the installation files will decompress automatically. In the latter case, the download file will "explode" into several larger files.
- Look through these files for a program called setup.exe or install.exe and run it to launch the installation program.
- If the file ends with the .zip extension, you'll need to decompress the program. The two most popular decompression utilities are PKZip and WinZip.
Clean up installation programs
After installing your new software, perform a little house cleaning. Delete the original installation programs, or if you have the disk space, stash them away in a folder (in case you ever need to reinstall them).
Reprinted from Yahoo! Internet Life, February 1998, with permission. Copyright 1998, ZDNet Inc. All rights reserved.
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