Daily Archives: January 8, 2014

I Downloaded a Program – Why is it not Running?

Every now and then I hear this question. It stems from not understanding the difference between two different actions: “download” and “install”. Well, we’ll get rid of that confusion today.

Download: Making a copy of a file that is on another computer (often in the Internet) onto your computer.

Install: Opening a file that contain the necessary steps to make a new program work on your computer.

I think the confusion stems mainly from the fact that, nowadays, often the file that contains the necessary steps to make a new program work, is a file that is downloaded from the Internet (surprisingly, that file is often called an “installer”). So as far as sequence, these 2 actions are typically right next to each other, but they are not interchangeable. So the sequence would be:

1. Download the installer (“Save it” to a location in your computer).

2. Open it to install the new program.

That should answer the question posed in the title of this article. “Downloading a program” doesn’t install it, that’s why it’s not running. Hopefully this will dissipate any confusions on this. If not, feel free to ask any questions about it.

Software

Computer software is, simply put, a program. And what is a program? A sequence of commands for the computer to execute (carry out), normally contained in a file. That’s all it is. So whether it’s a word processing program, a video player, or an operating system, it all falls under the category of software.