what happens when you install a program? Why is it not sufficient to just download the files?
In: Technology
There are many programs out there where you *can* simply download the program wherever and run it. Sometimes you might have to extract a compressed archive first, because operating systems usually aren’t designed to run compressed applications like that.
But in some cases the application is bigger and more complicated, it expects to have certain files and folders in certain locations, maybe it relies on third-party libraries that are shared by other applications on the same PC, maybe it needs to integrate with the system, register file associations, create a background service, do some initial setup/configuration, etc. So for those scenarios, an installer can take care of all that. Or maybe the developer wants to ensure only the latest version is installed, so the “installer” is just a client that downloads and installs the actual program.
Or, maybe it doesn’t need any of that, and the installer is for nothing more than convenience, putting the program in a standard location like “C:Program Files” and adding some desktop/Start menu shortcuts. There are lots of average computer users out there who have difficulty working with files and folders and unzipping etc.
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