Program without an installation program

Sometimes programs — especially small ones downloaded from the Internet — don’t come with

an installation program. If you’ve downloaded one of these low-budget creations to your computer, create a new folder for it and move the downloaded file inside. (Be sure to scan any downloaded file with your antivirus program.) Then try double-clicking the program’s file. (It’s usually the file with the fanciest icon.) One of two things may happen:

✓ The program may simply start running. That means you’re done — the program doesn’t need to be installed. (Drag and drop its program icon to your Start button to add it to the Start button menu.) If you need to uninstall the program, just right-click it and choose Delete. These types of programs rarely appear on your Change or Remove a Program list.

✓ The program may start installing itself. That also means you’re done. The program’s installation program takes over, sparing you any more trouble. To uninstall the program, use the Control Panel’s Uninstall a Program option. But if the program comes in a zipped folder — the

folder icon bears a little zipper — you have an extra step. Right-click the zipped folder, choose

Extract All, and then click Extract. Windows automatically unzips the folder’s contents and places them into a new folder, usually named after the program. From there, you can either run the program directly or, if it has an installation program, run the installation program