Installing/Uninstalling programs on your PC
Installing/Uninstalling programs on your PC
When you purchase a program, it usually comes on a CD-ROM or floppy disk. In almost every case, the setup program is called Setup.exe, and is located in the main folder of the disk (or disk 1 if you have a multiple floppy disk installation). The setup program is called a Wizard; this is a simple step-by-step program that guides you through the installation and helps you make choices.
Program developers usually try to make the installation easy since this is your first impression of their product. If you are asked something by the Setup program that you do not understand, the best bet is to accept the default answer. For example, if you are asked whether you want the Standard or Custom setup, you cannot go wrong by picking Standard.
Many installation CDs start automatically when you put them into your CD-ROM drive. They may just start Setup.exe automatically, or a little window will pop up with choices like:
- Install Microsoft Word (Microsoft Word is used as an example here; in your setup, your program name would appear)
- Read Microsoft Word Readme
- Run the Tutorial To Learn Microsoft Word
- Exit
Setup.exe would start when you choose Install, which usually is the first choice.
If the CD does not start automatically (it may be the way it was made), or if you got the program on floppy disks, you have to tell Windows to start Setup.exe. This is a simple command; you just tell Windows which drive the setup program is on and the name of the program.
Drives are named with letters followed by a colon. Your floppy drive is most likely to be drive A:. Your hard disk drive is most likely to be C:. If you only have one hard drive, the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive is likely to be drive D: or a letter of the alphabet beyond that. If you have more than one ROM dri ve, it is probably the last letter used.
But you don't have to guess: start Windows Explorer. The CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive letter will be next to the little picture of a ROM disk.
Now insert the CD or floppy into its drive and click the Start button. Choose Run. Click the Browse button. At the top of the resulting dialog box, you will see the words Look In. Next to that is a drop-down list box. Click the down arrow to the right of this box; which will display all the drives on your computer. Click on the drive that has your disk in it. Once you do that, in the pane in the middle of the dialog box, you will see the setup file. Click on it; click the Open button.
This will take you back to the Run dialog box; click the OK button and the setup program will begin.
Although it is extremely rare with newer programs, sometimes a program does not have an install and you are asked to set it up manually on your system. If you do not feel comfortable manually installing a program you should not do it. Either find a similar program with a good installation program, or get in touch with your local computer geek to help you install it.
One of the quickest ways to free up storage space on your computer is to uninstall programs that you do not use anymore.
There are five ways you can uninstall a program:
- Delete the files from your hard drive. This is NOT a good way to uninstall a program. There are literally hundreds of places that a program can keep files, registry entries, and bits and pieces of files and such. By simply deleting the program files from your computer, you will not be able to remove all the extra files and pieces. All these junk files will be left on your computer and eventually slow things down.
- Use the Add/Remove Programs function in the Control Panel. This is a standard Windows removal tool that actually does a pretty good job of removing programs from your hard drive. To access the Add/Remove Programs function, click the Start button, choose Control Panel, choose Add/Remove Programs.
- Use the program's uninstall procedure. Many programs come with their own uninstall program that will quickly remove programs from your computer. Some installers do not put their program on the Add/Remove list, so your next place to look is in the Start menu. Find the group for that program and see if there is an item called Uninstall. If so, pick it and the Uninstaller will run.
If there is no menu item, look in the folder containing the program. There may be an uninstall.exe there. If so, double click it and the Uninstaller will run.
- Reinstall the program. Sometimes the easiest way to uninstall a program is to reinstall it, then remove it using its own uninstall program (see above)
- Use a third-party removal tool. A third party tool (such as Norton Uninstall or Clean Sweep) will be extremely thorough in removing programs. You will be able to uninstall any program on your computer, even if it does not show up in the Add/Remove list or have an uninstall feature built in. Some uninstall programs will detect files called Orphans, which are programs and files to which there is no connection; you'll then be able to delete them, too.
Often an Uninstaller does not delete everything. If it does not, it will tell you what it has saved. Uninstallers will not delete data files you created with the program, in case you want to keep them to use with a different program (although it is always a good idea to back up all important files before uninstalling the program used to create them). The Uninstaller usually tells you where to look for these files in case you want to delete them.
Additionally, uninstalling programs will not uninstall shared files, which are usually DLL files. Some DLL files are used by many different programs and the Uninstaller may not know if a particular one is used by a different program. In this case it will ask you whether it should delete the file or not. If you do not know, say No. If no other programs actually use the file it will not hurt anything, but if other programs do use the file, deleting it could make them stop working.
