How To Install Programs-Side Porch Computer Services-Computer Repairs Orillia Ontario

1. First of all, you should determine if your computer meets the minimum requirements to run the program. It's no use installing it if your system is not fast enough or your hard drive doesn't have enough space for it. You will just be plagued by computer freeze ups, page faults, blue screens of death and various other system instabilities. Each software program sold will always list the minimum requirements and also the recommended requirements. This is very important for games as many of the newer games depend on certain types of graphic cards with features that will support the games.

2. Make sure you have prepared your hard disk properly to optimally receive the new program, that is ensure it is free of errors by using Microsoft's Scandisk utility if you are running Windows 95/98/ME and for XP use the Error-checking program. After checking the disk for errors and automatically repairing them, run your computer through a defragmentation if it has not been done for a while. In order for a program to run well, it should be installed into a large continuous space on your hard drive, not scattered all around a fragmented drive. If large programs are installed on a fragmented drive, the program will respond quite slowly or sometimes not at all because the read-write head on the hard drive is bouncing all over the place looking for the next file it has to execute.

3. All or most all software install instructions warn you to turn off all running Windows programs. So, you say to yourself, well, I am not running anything so you then go ahead and install. But what if you are running a firewall and antivirus program? They are running in the background and can interfere with clean program installs and leave the computer more vulnerable to post-install errors or the system just not working right. So, disable your Antivirus program and your firewall and any other open programs you have running in your System Tray located in the bottom right corner of your computer screen near the clock. Just right click on any program icons and select Quit, Disable, Stop or whatever they offer to turn them off. You may have to hit CTR+ALT+DEL to bring up the task manager in XP if these programs don't stop through normal means. Yes, it sounds like quite a hassle but it ensures that files used by they programs are then closed off and ready for the new program to use for it's installer program.

4. Now you can insert your CD and let it Autorun and go through the licensing etc. till you get to the page where it wants to install onto your C drive. It will look something like this:

All programs by default want to install into the C drive, which is not necessarily where you want them to go. If you have one big C drive which is not partitioned off, then there is no where else for it to go and so just accept this folder. If you have a C drive which is getting low on space in a computer where the hard disk is partitioned into different sections, then you may want to put it into another one of your partitions with more space. You will change that C to a D or an E or whatever partition you want and you either his the Browse button to the far right, or just move your mouse over the C, delete it and insert the proper drive letter as in the example below.

This is called the directory path - or where the computer is going to install the program on your hard drive. C is the hard drive or drive partition.

Program Files is the main folder where all programs are installed under Windows operating systems.

\Corel\ is the name of the new programs main folder ( in this case more Corel Programs are installed on the computer so it is the kind of group folder for all Corel programs

\CorelDRAW ESSENTIALS\ is the name of the actual program being installed. It then is in a sub-directory of the major program directory of Corel and installed on the C Drive or partition.