|
| |
Illegal Operation! Fatal Exception!
Error, Error Will Robinson!
Accent on Computers to the rescue! 203-625-7575.
October 26, 2007
The Lowdown on Downloading
Dear Larry,
Whenever I click to download a program from the Internet, I am then confronted
with two choices: Save or Run. Which one should I choose, and why? What do these
two choices mean?
A. S.
Dear A. S.,
First of all, the choices you’re actually presented with when downloading
something from the Internet depend on which browser you’re using to surf the
Internet as well as the version of that browser. For example, you might be using
Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, or AOL. As a
result, your choices might be Save and Run or Save and Open or some other
combination of selections that mean basically the same thing.
Let’s say your birthday is next Tuesday, and I stop by today to give you a
beautifully wrapped present. I ring the doorbell and when you come to the door,
I yell “Happy Birthday! Open or Save?” You see, you can either open your
birthday present then and there (What? Another Label Baby Junior label maker?),
or you may choose to save your birthday present with all your other presents
until the big day actually arrives.
If you choose to open your present on the spot while I’m looking on, you’d
better be excited or at least feign excitement! So you rip off the bow, tear
open the paper, and Look! A Label Baby Junior!! I love it!!! You rip open the
packaging and admire its fine lines and fulgurating luster (while you experience
fulgurating pains as you realize the ripped packaging prevents you from
re-gifting this thing to someone else).
On the other hand, by choosing to save the birthday present for another day, you
also save yourself the trouble of the phony display of excitement. When you’re
all by yourself, you can very carefully take apart the wrapping paper and peek
inside to discover it’s another lousy present from Larry Schneider. As a result,
it’ll be a piece of cake to give this to Uncle Morty when his birthday comes
around next month.
Enough of the analogy. If you choose to open (i.e., run) the item you’ve
downloaded, you’re effectively choosing to open and run it on the spot. You
might do that because you know it’s perfectly safe, and it’ll be a quick and
easy download (maybe you’re downloading a user manual or something simple like
that).
If you choose to save the download, you’re electing to put it in a safe place on
your hard drive. Why? You might want to open it later when you have more time.
Or you might have paid for the item you’ve downloaded and therefore want to save
it in case you need it again weeks, months, or years later. In that case, I
recommend you save it in a folder where you’ll be able to locate it again if you
need it. Or better yet, burn it to a CD so you’ll have a physical copy of the
purchased software. (Remember: Never save or open a download that you did not
specifically request.)
In any event, Happy Birthday!
This is Larry Schneider, logging off.
|
