To leave this page - use the back button on your browser.

If you've never downloaded a file from the internet - the following information will hopefully help.

Downloading files from the internet to your computer can be easy - but it often depends upon your web browser. Equally important is your virus protection software.

Many web browsers help facilitate the download process. Often, all you have to do is click on the file to download it to your system. If you are running Microsoft Internet Explorer 4, you will then be prompted to either "Open this file from its current location" or "Save this file to disk." Opening the file from the location will simply "run" the file without saving it on your system. So, if you have Microsoft Word on your system, click  a Word file on the internet, and then select "Open this file...", Microsoft Word will start up and display the file. If you instead choose to "Save this file to disk", you will have to specify where you want the file put. After telling the computer where to put the file, you will  have to start Microsoft Word, locate the file, and open it.

Anytime you are downloading files from Internet web sites, you'll want to be careful of viruses (don't worry - ours are safe :-). Purchasing virus detection software is WELL worth the investment (McAfee Virus Shield can usually be purchased for about $30 USD retail). As an example of how widespread viruses are (and how grateful we are for our protection), we had three people give us infected disks over the last few weeks - and each time our virus detector caught and cleaned the virus.

So, what does all this mean? In order to download a file, all you usually have to do is click on it - then specify where on your hard disk you want it put (or you can open it directly)!