ELI5- Why do I have to install a programm on a computer. Why can’t I just use it as I download the file or boot it from the disc?
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Let’s say you go to Home Depot and buy a power drill and a thermostat.
You can take the power drill out of the box, charge the battery, and use it. Nothing to install.
You can take the thermostat out of the box, but you can’t use it until you install it, because to function it needs to be wired to your furnace. You can’t have two thermostats controlling the same furnace, and the thermostat can’t talk to your furnace without being connected to the right wires.
Some software is like the power drill. You don’t really need to install it. The “installer” is really just an unboxer. In those case you can often find an alternate “installerless” app download. I know many apps like browsers do offer that as an alternative.
But some software is like a thermostat. The whole purpose of the software is to change how something on your computer works. One example is a driver – the whole purpose of a driver is to enable the operating system to talk to a specific device, like a printer or a video card. It needs to be “plugged in” in just the right place, or it doesn’t function.
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