A learner's diary: downloading

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Tutorial for teachers- Downloading files from the Internet

When I was novice to computers and internet, it took weeks and months to learn the basics of internet and computers. Sometimes I found useful links or sites and saved them at my computer and found the files but after many trial and error efforts, I learned to save the files from the internet to hard disk. These simple tutorials can save your time to learn the basics of internet. Interestingly most of these tutorials are offered by renowned sites like 'Microsoft' itself.

Downloading a file from the internet: When you download a file, you transfer it from the Internet to your computer. The most commonly downloaded files are programs, updates, or other kinds of files such as game demos, music and video files, or documents. Downloading can also mean copying information from any source to a computer or other device, such as copying your favorite songs to a portable music player.

Where are downloaded files saved?
When you download files, Windows usually saves them in the Downloads folder which is located under your user name in the users folder on the drive where Windows is installed.
It is stored at the location: C:\users\your name\downloads.

When you are saving the file, you can choose to save it to a different folder. Some different types of files are saved to different folders by default. For example, if you right-click a picture on a webpage and then choose Save Picture As from the menu, the picture will be saved to the Pictures folder by default. If you're not sure where the file was saved, you can search for it from the Start menu.
When it take so long to download a file, there may be many reasons for delay:

Your connection might be slow. If you have a dial-up connection, it takes a lot longer to download files than if you have a broadband connection, such as DSL or cable.
Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) might be offline or experiencing heavy Internet traffic. Wait a while, and then try again.
If you are on a corporate network, the network settings might be the problem. Check with your system administrator.
If you use a file or music sharing program, someone might be downloading a file from your computer. Try disabling file sharing services while you're downloading and see if the process gets faster.
You might have too many programs open at the same time. Try closing unnecessary programs.
Your computer might have spyware running. Try scanning your computer for spyware. For more information about removing spyware, see Remove spyware from your computer.
Missing updates can affect your computer's performance. Go to the Windows Update website and check for updates.