This is a small tutorial to teach you a reliable way of downloading files from the internet.

Step 1) Make a folder called INCOMING

When downloading from the internet it is a common mistake is to place the downloaded files anywhere on your system. This usually causes chaos because after the file is downloaded some users forget where they downloaded it to! Or even worse some users mistakenly download files into their Windows folder, and this can cause serious problems! So go ahead and create a folder called INCOMING off the root of your hard drive. So the path should look something like: c:\incoming

Step 2) Get a utility to extract .ZIP files! 

Almost 95% of all downloaded files from the internet will be in a compressed format called ZIP in order to make the download process as quick as possible. So you need a utility to extract the files from the zip file. We cannot teach you how to do this here, bit it is a VERY easy process once you get the hang of it.

One of the easiest programs to work with .ZIP files that we have found is EZUnZIP!. You can download it here and try it for free. It is a shareware program though and will cost you only $4.95 to register it. The EZUnZIP! download is an .exe file which will install the program onto your computer.

Step 3) Download the file!

Now it's time to click on a file that you want to download. In most browsers you will be asked if you want to open it or save it. We suggest you SAVE THE FILE. When asked for a destination location for the file, this is when you point to the INCOMING folder you made earlier. That way there is NO confusion where this file is. Now depending on the size of the file the download process could take quite a while. Usually you can expect about a 1 meg of data every 10 minutes.

Step 4) Run the setup program!

If you downloaded a .EXE file you should be able to double click on it and the installation process will proceed. If you downloaded a ZIP file you will need to extract the contents of the zip file into another folder before you can actually use the contents of the zip file. Why not make a TEMP folder on your system for these temporary files and then delete them after your done? After you extract the files there usually is a SETUP.EXE program that you can double click on to start the installation process.

Well...that's about it for this tutorial. Downloading is fun thing to do, and if you follow our directions here you will never be in danger of over writing any files in your windows folder or forgetting where your download went!

Click Here To Go Back To Our Home Page