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Computer newbies forum: Which is best and why?

by: grits_eggs June 18, 2010 5:48 PM PDT

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Which is best and why?

by grits_eggs - 6/18/10 5:48 PM

I'd like to have Foxit Reader just to be able to read some PDF files that have been emailed to me but don't understand the 3 different choices which are: exe;zip;msi.

Thank you.

Windows XP with SP3
IE 8


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File differences.

by wildbill5891 - 6/18/10 7:55 PM

In Reply to: Which is best and why? by grits_eggs

.EXE is an executable file that you click on to run and a .zip file
is a file that you click on and it unzips files to a directory. Then you click on the .exe file to run the program.


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Re: file formats

by Kees Bakker Moderator - 6/19/10 6:49 AM

In Reply to: Which is best and why? by grits_eggs

I'd use .msi or .exe. Both should work for you. Just download, save to your hard disk (always nice to have a local copy, just in case you need it) and run.

If you don't know the difference between these 3, don't use zip.

Kees


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Re: file formats

by grits_eggs - 6/20/10 8:10 AM

In Reply to: Re: file formats by Kees Bakker Moderator

Thank you, but I still don't understand the difference between the 2.
Is there an advantage to one or the other especially for a computer dummy?


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Re: difference between exe and msi

by Kees Bakker Moderator - 6/20/10 11:21 AM

In Reply to: Re: file formats by grits_eggs

Exe is a setup program you can run; if you click it it runs and installs the program.
Msi is input to the Windows installer. If you click it the Windows installer runs and uses the info in this file to install the program.

Both should work. None have a definite advantage or disadvantage.

Kees


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