By Laura Katz
If you’ve been reading this column (and understanding it) for the past several months, congratulations; you’re not a newbie anymore. I promised that in this article I would discuss drivers, downloads and viruses, so let’s get started.
Drivers: A driver is a program that makes your program work. One of the main problems people have is using an old program on a new machine. Or using an old program they have used before they upgraded their computer to Windows 95 or Windows 98. When you upgrade your computer you probably need to upgrade your old drivers if your old program doesn’t work. If your old program works just fine, don’t do anything. As the expression goes, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!” Some times though you may have to buy a new version of the program. Some programs are not designed to be used with Windows 95 or 98. Go to the company’s site and get a new driver for your old program. How do you get a new driver? The answer lies in….
Downloads: What is a download? A download is a computer program that you get over the Internet. The first thing you have to do is go to the company site. Look on the site for the word drivers. Make sure you know what equipment you have. Decide where you are going to store the new program while you are downloading it. Usually to download a program all you do is double click on it. A little window will come up and ask you where you want to save the program. My first suggestion is to save the program on a floppy disk. Make sure the disk is formatted and empty. If the disk is not formatted most computers will say, “Hey this disk is not formatted. Do you want us to do it now?” Say yes and format the disk, otherwise it won’t work. The computer may also say, “This program is too big for the disk.” Then you will have to decide where in your computer you are going to put the download. The best thing to do is to put your downloads in a temporary directory. You can choose to make a folder called downloads and put it there. Make sure you know where you put your new program. It’s no fun to look for it, especially if you don’t remember what it’s called! Once the program is finished downloading you need to run it. If you would like to practice downloading a file, go to www.zdnet.com/swlib, they have tons of fun software to download.
OK now you have this new driver program to install—only it won’t install when you click on it-Why won’t it install? Look at the extension letters on the end of the program. Does it say program.exe? Or does it say program.zip? If it says exe when you double click, it should install itself. If it says zip, you will need to unzip it. Well, how do I do that? You need a pkunzip or a winzip program to unzip the file. In other words, you need a key to open up the program. Look in your computer to see if you already have a program to unzip your files. To find files in your computer, go to Start, Find, Files and Folders and type in either pkunzip or winzip. If neither one of them shows up go back to www.zdnet.com on the Internet and download one of those two files. They both will install themselves once you get them. I keep my unzip program right on my desktop to use it without searching my whole computer.
Shareware Or Freeware: If you followed my advice and downloaded a game from www.zdnet.com you were told if the program was shareware or freeware. Freeware is just that, free. It is a program that someone wrote and gave away. You are free to use it, pass it on and do with it what you wish. If it is a shareware program you are supposed to pay for it. Someone has spent hours writing and fixing a program. If you don’t pay for it, you are a thief! Usually a shareware program has certain features that are missing until you register the program and pay for it. Some programmers say you can pass on the program as long as you don’t give away the full version. Shareware is a good way to try out a program to see if you would like to keep it. If you don’t like a shareware program you can just delete it off of your computer.
Viruses: Now that you are into downloads you may be into viruses as well. If you have small kids you know as soon as they start going to nursery school they start bringing home colds. Well, as soon as you start borrowing programs from other people or downloading software over the Internet you are liable to get a virus.
You can even get one when you take work home from the office. I kept getting a virus when I rebooted my computer from a floppy disk. The virus was on my boot disk! I finally threw the disk out.
I could have eliminated the virus off of the disk but I wasn’t taking any chances. Buy a virus program. Which one? I have used both Norton’s and McAfee’s virus programs and they are both good. Read the boxes and decide for yourself. After you have installed the programs keep them current. You can go to the website and upgrade the program. Make sure you have your box with all your information.
Laura Katz is a HAL-PC member. She can be reached at laurak@hal-pc.org
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