Acquiring and Installing Firefox 2.0
If the browser that you are using to access the Internet is not Firefox 2.0, then you should seriously consider switching. Firefox provides greater security than Internet Explorer and has many features such as tabbed browsing that older versions of Internet Explorer (such as IE 6.0) do not have.
This illustrated tutorial shows you the simple steps involved in downloading and installing Firefox 2.0. Subsequent postings on this site will demonstrate how to take advantage of some of the more important features of Firefox such as the use of tabs. Oh, did I mention that Firefox is free?
1. Using your current browser, go the Mozilla Web site: www.mozilla.com. Click on “Download Firefox-Free“.
2. When the “File Download” dialog box opens, click on “Save”. This will download the Firefox installation package from the Mozilla Web site to your computer.
3. You can choose where you want the installation package to be saved. I prefer to save things like this to the desktop. Click on the “Desktop” icon, then on “Save” to begin the downloading process.
4. Downloading may take a few minutes or several, depending upon the type of Internet connection that you have (broadband versus dial-up, for example), the time of day (early in the morning or after school), etc. Refresh your beverage of choice, finish reading the newspaper, or check your e-mail while you wait.
5. When the downloading process is complete, click on “Close” to make this dialog box go away (if it doesn’t disappear automatically).
6. Close the browser that you have been using. You will see the “Firefox Setup” icon somewhere on your desktop (i.e., screen). Left click twice in succession to open the installation dialog box.
7. In this dialog box, click on “Run” to start the installation process.
This box tells you (in %) how the installation process is proceeding. Unfortunately, this is as far as I can go to illustrate the process without compromising my own copy of Firefox on this multi-user PC. However, if there are any subsequent steps (I can’t recall any), I’m sure that they are intuitive and that you can easily execute them successfully.
Congratulations! You have joined the growing number of people worldwide using Firefox as their Internet browser of choice. Currently (i.e., as of late March 2007), nearly one-third (31.2 percent) of the people who surf the Web use Firefox, according to w3schools.com. This is an increase from 16.6 percent in January 2005 and compares to the 16.4 percent who are using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7. Internet Explorer overall is still the leader at 58.7 percent of users, two-thirds of whom are still using Internet Explorer 6.
If you need help or have any questions, feel free to contact me at: