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Where Was I?

© Brian Hughes

Ah yes... zip files. This is a sort of part two article so you might like to use the Previous Article button if you want to start at the beginning.

I was getting my thoughts organised when it occurred to me that it might be an idea to say a few words about downloading files, before moving on with what to do with them once they're on your hard drive. This is another very common question. To try and keep things as simple as possible I'm going to restrict myself to discussing program files and skip over such things as images and music files.

I'll come back to the former at a later date and the latter are mostly to the young generation, who already know more about these things than the rest of us!

Two basic factors are involved here. How to download a file and where to put it.

Most people new to surfing the Internet soon get the hang of using a browser program like Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator and it doesn't take long to discover that these programs will handle downloads as well. However, they're not the best equipped tool for this particular task and a dedicated program is a better way to go. Download Managers are good at squeezing as much speed out of a connection as possible (no bad thing in these days of ever increasing program sizes) and they are better at coping with poor quality connections (yes, more than a few of us still use dial up connections).

Equally important, they can save you time if a connection breaks during a download. Provided the "server" computer supports a "resume" function, Download Managers can restart the task at the point of the break. This capability also allows you to stop and resume a download if it's a very big file and you want to take your time. Many of these programs offer more features but these are the minimum that you can expect.

Here's a good freeware example :-

Fresh Download

"Fresh Download is an easy-to-use and very fast download manager software that turbo charge downloading files from the Internet, such as your favorite software, mp3 files, video files, picture collections, etc. Unlike any other similar utilities, this software is 100% free, no charges, no banners in the software (which will slowdown your download), no spyware."

That deals with How... lets move on to where.

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If you ever get a window pop up, when you start to download a file, that asks you whether you want it opened or saved, never use the open option. Always use the save option and then choose the folder into which the file is to be placed. If you don't specify a destination folder the file will end up on your Desktop and that is untidy.