The article describes what installation is, why this process is needed, and describes the installation of games and software.
Digital age
Nowadays, computers are becoming more widespread, many can no longer imagine life without them, and almost all enterprises have switched to electronic document management. But some 15 years ago, far from everyone could boast of having a home PC, as well as high-speed unlimited access to the network. And the development of new software has become for many a profitable business that has brought billions. If you look at the statistics of popular professions in the labor market, then every year more and more programmers and other similar specialists are required.
And this is natural, because even the most powerful and modern computer without software is nothing more than a set of expensive chips. Operating systems and programs are a kind of layer between a person and a machine, which serve for their interaction. But for the programs to work, they must first be installed, because you cannot just transfer a set of files to your computer and wait for everything to work by itself, and for this you need to install them correctly. So what is installation? What is it and why is it needed? This we will understand.
Installation
Before answering this question, it’s worth a little deeper into how the programs work. In its pure form, any of them is a set of sequences of ones and zeros that the processor of a computer or other device interprets into certain commands. But such programs were distributed a long time ago when PCs did not have a graphical interface and they were fed programs directly.
And now, if you look at almost any software, then in addition to the interface, you can notice a lot of other things: additional fonts, language packs, help files, online update checking and much more. All this lies in special system libraries, and they must be correctly copied. True, the installation is different, but first things first. So what is installation?
Definition
Almost all programs are delivered in compressed or packaged form, which is natural, because it is much easier to download one installation archive and get everything you need from it than to download or copy dozens, or even hundreds of different files. For example, just look into the catalog of any software to ask the question: "What is the installation?"
Installation is the process of copying and installing software on an end-user computer. You cannot call it regular copying to the file system, because during the installation process a special program (package manager) checks the computer for compatibility, the presence of the necessary accompanying software, and so on.
Then the installer places the files on the disk in the desired sequence, creates additional directories, if necessary, makes entries in the registry, startup, associates files, etc. So now we know what the installation of the program is.
As you can see, during this process, the computer performs many actions, although the user, most often, does not notice any of this. It is also worth noting that this term is also used in relation to plug-ins and drivers, although they themselves are not programs.
Kinds
There are also several basic types of installation. And although they do the same job, their methods are slightly different. And analyzing the question of what software installation is, it is worth mentioning the most common ones.
For example, a “silent” installation is performed without displaying pop-ups and other things. The user starts the process and after some time just gets a program ready for use.
Automatic installation (the most common) occurs without human intervention, of course, except for the launch itself and some settings, for example, instructions on where to unpack the software, whether to create a shortcut for launch, etc.
Manual installation is different in that it requires many complex actions.
There are also programs whose installation is not required, and the entire installation consists only in the fact that they simply copy the files to the hard drive themselves. So now we know what the installation of the program is.
Games
Computer games have long ceased to be some kind of childish or primitive entertainment. This is a profitable business, and many large companies spend tens, or even hundreds of millions, on the creation of the next toy, which bring profit several times more.
So what is the installation of the game? In fact, this is the same as installing a different program. In the process, game materials (models, sound, textures, etc.) and executable files are copied to the hard disk, which collect all this into a three-dimensional controlled image.