This category will teach you How to install software in general, by using some common software as examples, so that you see how easy installing software really is once the process has been explained and shown to you. After some time you should begin to realize that installing software is just a matter of clicking a few Next, OK, I Agree, Continue and/or Finish buttons.

Along the way you might need to read the occasional information that a window presents to you, to make sure you do not click on the wrong button, but apart from this installing software is quite straight forward and something I encourage you to try. Read the explanations below before attempting any of the installations/uninstallations in this Install Software category.

This category will also teach you How to uninstall software in general. As a rule, unless a piece of software states otherwise, you should always uninstall a piece of software before you reinstall it - Regardless if you are reinstalling the same version, a newer version or an older version. Otherwise you might get conflicts and/or corruption between the already installed version and the version you are about to reinstall.

Conflict and/or Corruption is normally due to fragments (leftover software) of the old installation still inside the computer. For example. Imagine you have Anti-Virus software installed but its license has just expired and because you do not know how to uninstall it you think it is easier to just install some new anti-virus software, which you do. The problem with this is that even though the old anti-virus software has expired it might still be running some of its other general tasks (services) in the background (such as the Pop-Up Blocker).

What this means is the new anti-virus software and the old expired one might be competing for the same computer resources/services in order to function properly. As they compete they could be slowing the computer down and/or be trying to close each other down. Even worse. The new anti-virus software might refuse to work because it has detected another anti-virus program on the computer.

If you uninstall the expired anti-virus software first, it should release any resources/services it was using. Therefore, when you install any new anti-virus software it has use of those resources/services for itself. Not only that. If the expired anti-virus software changed any of the system settings in some way (i.e Internet Security settings) uninstalling it should change things back to the way they were. Any newly installed anti-virus software can then decide what action to take based on the original settings and not on settings that were changed by the expired anti-virus software.

Another scenario is when you have two pieces of identical software running at the same time. For example. Why have two or three media players on the computer when one is good enough. Even though the three might not be playing music at all they might all be using resources/services in the background, so they are quickly ready when you need them. If this is your scenario I would advise you to consider removing at least one of them.

Clever programs do not use any resources/services until they are clicked on, whereas other programs pre-run resources/services in order to open much quicker when clicked on. Microsoft Office 2007 for example has a startup-list entry. By switching it off and only opening Microsoft Office 2007 when you need to you will save some resources/services from initially being opened. So uninstalling is not just about getting rid of unwanted programs, it is also about freeing up resources/services that would normally not be used.

Throughout these Installation sections I mention the Installation Wizard. An Installation Wizard is an Installer (Installation/Easy-To-Install) program that is compiled alongside an executable (.exe) program or software package in order to make the installation of that program or software package easier to install. So instead of a company just giving you their executable (.exe) software package and telling you to manually "Put the program.exe file in the Program Files folder", "Put the pictures for the software inside the Pictures folder" and so on the Installation Wizard does all this for you.

It knows where to put all the files and with a few clicks on buttons (i.e I AGREE. NEXT. CONTINUE. FINISH) it puts those files into their appropriate folders, registers the software with Windows and maybe the Windows Installer as well (so you can Uninstall the software) and perhaps allows you to launch the software (main program) afterwards. I say maybe and perhaps because it depends on how the programmer created the Installation Wizard (what commands/instructions they gave it) before compiling it alongside the software package.

So basically, without the Installation Wizard you would have to do everything yourself manually. Whereas with an Installation Wizard everything is done for you, with a few clicks, and it normally gives you good advice/instructions along the way (depending on the programmer/company).

Some of the examples I use in this Software section may be out-dated, but not useless. What I mean by this is that when the web browser called Firefox 10 was released for example I have shown you how to install it - It is my current example. And now that Firefox 11 is the current version I have purposely not updated my examples to show you how to install Firefox 11 simply because the installation processes for both Firefox 10 and Firefox 11 are exactly the same.

On top of this I don't always have the time to update the screenshots/examples for a particular installation process or new version of software, especially when their installation processes are exactly the same, and therefore sometimes leave the old example in place. Software companies don't help by changing their software interface and/or installation process every few months or so either.

Years ago programmers were happy to say Version 1, Version 1.1, Version 1.2 and so on before they released a newer version called Version 2 because of a major update to the software's code/interface. These days companies like using Version 1, Version 2, Version 3 and so on when there is little difference between versions to warrant a major release such as Version 1 onto Version 2 wthout Version 1.1. In other words, they are changing/updating their software too often and repackaging it as new when really there are no big changes.

The interface (buttons, menus and display areas) is a prime example - They change the look of their software too often that even the general public don't like changes every few months or so, and it's about time these software companies thought about that. Just when the user gets used to something these companies go and change things around, making them difficult to find/use. People like me, who use screenshots (images), also don't like interface and installation changes every few months or so.....we have better things to do than update screenshots!!! Anyway, with that said. I do try and update screenshots of major software changes when possible, but if not an old example still stands as a good example of what to do.

Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.  As stated here by the Microsoft Corporation.