Adding Programs: More details

The example given is very basic. In life and in Windows, few things are quite so easy. The basic guidelines will work every time, though. This section gives pointers to help you through more complicated program installations.

When you install a program, it normally creates what is called a Program Group. This appears in the Program menu as a link to another menu. Which items from this lower menu need copying depends on the program. A lot of programs have ReadMe files, or Uninstallers, or Help links. Copying these makes life harder, so we would recommend you don't.

There are two basic types of program supplied on CDROM. One of these is called Content free and includes things like Textease, Microsoft Word, Spex+, Excel, and Junior ViewPoint. You generally use this type of program to do creative work of some sort. These install fully to the computer. The other type is less clearly defined, but includes things like Sherston's Oxford Reading Tree Talking Stories, Dorling Kindersley programs, Encyclopaediae, and all sorts of drill-and-practice programs. These usually want you to put the CDROM in to the computer to get the data.

You can install both types in exactly the way we have gone through above. It's only when the user wants to run the program that you will need to find the CDROM for the latter type. Often, though, there are ways to copy the whole thing across, so you can put the CDROM away for good.

Do be careful that all programs you can run on all computers simultaneously are licensed for use on those computers. Running programs without having a valid licence to do so is illegal. Whether the publisher is a multinational or a one-man-band doesn't matter. Software piracy is theft, and a criminal offence.

You don't need to install programs onto all computers. If there are some which you want to make available to a particular Key Stage or class, then you only need to install onto their computer. The shortcut will only work on computers to which the program has been installed.