|
Back to Computer
Services
Many people who are new to the Internet are not exactly
sure how to download a file (usually a program, for
instance, a screensaver) to their computer. Or, if
they do manage to download the file, they find themselves
unsure of "where it went" or how to "make
it work". In an effort to assist people in their
quest to take advantage of all the free goodies out
there, we offer this brief step-by-step tutorial.
We have used as many pictures as seemed reasonable
to try to make it clear what is going on at different
points during the download.
Note that this information is geared towards users
of Windows 95 or 98.
If you need help understanding any of the terms used
here, you might want to take a look at www.webopedia.com,
a very informative and neccessary site that defines
computer related terms.
One last word before we get started: It is always
strongly recommended (think of it as a necessity,
actually) that you have a good, up-to-date anti-virus
program installed on your computer to protect your
operating system from virus infection. Don't forget,
the Internet is part of the real world, and the "bad
guys" lurk in cyberspace as well.
Okay, now on with the show....
Please note:
Since this tutorial was created, the website used here
as an example has changed its layout. The fundamentals
of downloading a file are still valid. Just remember
that the 'screensavers' website shown here now has a
different look.
1. The first step in downloading
a file is, of course, to find a file to download.
Rest assured that will be easy! There are tons of
websites that offer free programs for download. You
can try using a search engine to search for "freeware"
or, if you are looking for, say, a screensaver, type
"screensaver" into the search engine. Prepare
to be amazed at all the free stuff out there! While
preparing this tutorial, we found a site called, simply
enough, www.
screensaver.com, which specializes in providing
links to "freeware" and "shareware"
screensavers. Screensavers can be a lot of fun, and
lots of them are free, so you might want to try downloading
one. Here is what the www.
screensaver.com website used to look like on my
computer, which uses the operating system Windows
95 and the web browser Microsoft Internet Explorer
5 (Figure 1):
Figure 1
(the screensaver.com website)
Figure 1
(the screensaver.com website)
On this webpage, there is a brief description
of each screensaver along with a link to the file.
Look at those words in red in the picture above. In
this instance (up there in the picture, that is) the
words Sheep vs. Gravity Screen Saver and Sherman's
Lagoon Screen Saver are actually "clickable links",
which means that when you visit that webpage and point
at those words with your mouse pointer, the pointing
arrow will turn into a pointing hand and if you then
click the left mouse button, your computer will begin
the process of downloading that file. This website
also gives us a brief description of each screensaver,
tells us what operating system the screensaver is
made for and tells us, in this example, that the "Sheep"
screensaver is wonderfully FREE. We will download
the Sheep vs. Gravity Screen Saver as an example.
2. Once you have
found the file you want to download and clicked on
its link with your left mouse button, you will see
something like this picture to the right (figure 2).
This is called a "dialog box" and represents
your computer intervening on your behalf, asking you
what you want to do with the file (you want to save
the program to disk, so make sure to click inside
the circle ("radio button") to the left
of where it says "Save this program to disk").
Then click on the button that says "OK".
By the way, 'disk' refers to any disk drive you have
available and care to use, as long as it has enough
available space to hold the file. You can save files
to floppy disks, hard disks, zip disks, etc.
Figure 2
(telling the computer to save the file to disk)
3. Next you will
see the "Save As" dialog box (figure 3).
This is where you tell the computer where you want
it to put the file for you. In this example, we have
previously created a folder on the PC's desktop which
we named "downloads" and we am telling the
computer to put the file there. You can tell the computer
to store the file wherever you want it.
IMPORTANT: Make sure you remember where the file is
being put (its the name of the folder in that top
window that shows a picture of an open file folder).
Often the computer will attempt to stick everything
in a folder called "My Documents", which
is fine, just make sure you know how to find the file
later. And make sure also to note of the name of the
file. In this particular example the file is named
sheep.zip. See it down there where it says "File
name:"? Once you know the name of the file and
where it is being stored, click on the button that
says "Save".
Figure 3
(the "Save As" dialog box)
4. Okay, we're
doing really well. We've found a file to download,
clicked the link, told the computer to save the file
to disk, and told the computer where to put the file.
We've noted what the file is called and where it is
being put. Once we click the "Save" button,
the actual downloading begins! Look at this next picture.
This is what you will see next (figure 4):
This dialog box (see figure 4) shows a piece of
paper, representing the file you are downloading,
flying from the world into your folder. It tells you
things about the file like the name of the file, how
large the file is, how much longer it might take to
download, where the file is being stored on your computer,
and how quickly the file is being transferred. Sometimes
a blue bar will creep across this dialog box to indicate
what percentage of the file has already been downloaded.
Figure 4
(the file is being downloaded)
5. Once the file
has been completely transferred to your computer,
you may see something like this (figure 5). This tells
you "Download Complete". Other information
here includes the name of the file, the size of the
file, where the file is on your computer and the rate
at which the file was transferred, in case you care
about these kinds of things. Remember where the file
is and click on "Close". Now that the file
has been downloaded, you need to figure out what to
do with it now. If a file has the extension .exe,
you simply go to the folder the file was downloaded
to and double click on its icon to start it up. The
file in this example, however, is a .zip file, which
means it has been compressed to download faster. How
do you deal with a .zip file? Click
here for a tutorial on how to "unzip"
a zip file. You may need to download a program like
WinZip if its not already installed on your computer,
but that should be no problem since you just learned
how to download! Good luck and have fun!
Figure 5
(telling you the file transfer is complete)
This is the end of "How to download
a file over the Internet"
Top of Page
Back to Computer
Services
|
