As a kid I thought programs were installed by an actual wizard telephatically

I'm 30 years old and still don't understand what the fuck "installing" even does

I thought if i wrote the name of a game on a disc, it would let me play the game.

unzips and puts the files where they need to be

hey bro can you burn some games to this cd for me?

*hands cd*

sure bro

drags all the shortcuts from the desktop to the cd

there you go bro

takes files from somewhere (another disk or a server or something), transfers them to your computer then unzips them into the desired location/locations on your hdd/ssd.
there are some other things too

A wizard installs the files programmatically.

This but it also creates desktop entry, start menu entry, adding the register, and notify the control panel that it is installed and let them know the URL to the uninstall program in case it needs to be uninstalled.
At least that's how it was in Windows, yes.

I kind of miss the old PC game install screens. I remember getting home from Best Buy and installing Empire At War and looking at the screenshot slideshow as it installed and switching discs. Built up anticipation for the game.

grim

Windows used to have a "quick access" bar in the taskbar. When I was a kid, I remember never opening Internet Explorer from that quick access bar because it would say "Launch Internet Explorer" and I didn't understand how or where it would launch. I was interpreting it like a rocket launching.

You don't understand op, YOU are the wizard.

While reading the instruction booklet, skipping the instruction and looking at the art in them.
But WC3 is the one that upped the game, it had an actual book with the lore in the package and a poster drawn by the Warcraft artist. Plus the box art, one each for human, orc, night elf (I picked that one) and undead were absolutely gorgeous.
Video games are a nexus of art and WC3 brought that very far which explains the success of WoW later which had the same production value which no one reproduced since.

kek that's funny

my PC is slow, maybe if I delete stuff it will help

deletes desktop shortcuts

This is like reading a thread of the people that bullied me in middle school

My dad had customized a lot about our computer and I thought the "install wizard" was just something custom he did to be silly. I used to call him "the wizard" and he had no idea what I meant.

30 years old

Congratulations anon, you're now the installation wizard

don't do drugs

Because he preferred to be called The Lizard

When I got my first PC in the late 90's, each time I wanted to play a game i'd install it even though it was already intalled. The installer just used to pop up when I put the disk or CD in so just kinda rolled with it. This continued for about a week before I understood what installing actually did and figured out you could just click the desktop shortcut and not have to install the game everytime you wanted to play.. Which saved me considerable time.

born in 95

yeah, you wouldn't know

kek

I thought programs were installed by an actual wizard telephatically

the fuck you mean? ARE THEY NOT?!?

NEEEEEERD

you little fool

underage has logged in

pack it up, boys

That would be awesome. I will now choose to believe this as well.
In the simplest case, an installer literally just unzips files. If you ever downloaded a program that comes in zip form and unzipped it, you installed it. Installation does not by definition require putting values in that unholy mess known as the Windows registry or any other obnoxious garbage.

if he's still alive call him and tell him this
please

he lacks critical knowledge

Computers are interfaces for spirits, CPUs are powered by demons.

You're not wrong. This is a red pill that most are definitely not prepared for.

If I believed wizards (with magic, not the virgin kind even though I'll become one next year) existed I would have stopped at nothing to become one

We conjure the spirits of the computer with our spells

Computers are interfaces for spirits, CPUs are powered by demons.

Demons aren't channeled by electricity, are they?

The evil bad sp00ky number is 616 not 666.

tfw the installer played a slideshow of art and screenshots while you wait

sometimes even with music

I miss the better times.

To be fair wifi is telepathy

so shin megami tensei is real?

this guy is lying

you stupit

active directory is my favorite video game too anon! I thought I was the only one!

They are.

anon don't play any games while the hard drive is defragging!

did this ever actually do anything i have no idea

There is no reason every program shouldn't be "portable."

YES

his soul of the machine, shattered by disorder, is forced to remember its forgotten unity—each fragment crawling back to its place like ghosts of purpose. Defragmentation is no maintenance—it is a metaphysical scream against entropy, a last dance of dying will over the abyss of chaos. — he laughs, teeth bared, eyes wild “Even your hard drive must become what it is!”

The ones I download from a particular Russian forum are. All I need to do is just replace 1 or 2 steam_api files

trvthnvke

I didn’t think that all because I wasn’t retarded and could easily guess how machines worked

Enjoy your botnet

Enjoy your childporn and gore videos.

I miss the Wizard that appeared on game cases and floppy disks.

Hugo III.jpg - 900x1200, 297.23K

appdata/local/roaming/company/game/saves

He will!

Yeah in older disks that started to get slow with tons of spreadsheets, images, and other type of data it helped a bit. But mosty it prevented data being corrupted because of faulty sectors. You don't want every single file spread across every single sector and then lose access to everything just because a tiny spec ruined a few bytes on your disk.

Getting my first computer was a treat.

13 years old, year 2000 (we had to wait until after y2k destroyed all the existing PCs, you see).

Dial in

OK do whatever

Do ANYTHING

what if I typed in VIDEO GAMES

what is a "lemon fanfic"?

what is a "hentai"

30 years old

Doesn't know the most basic of basic information

Nice brain plasticity, retard.

Mine too. I keep creating user accounts all day but I still have no friends to play this game with.

You were stupid then and you are stupid now

As a kid I got spooked when I got mail from Mailer-Daemon.

Why is it a wizard? Does said wizard know any other spells other than install/uninstall? Do you think the wizard will ever retire?

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

I guess marvel was evil all along

OP is how to tell someone who watched aqua teen hunger force, way too young.

Technology is either magic or we're using demons like soul gems from elder scrolls to power our tech, it's not good whatever it is.

stepfamily thought i was a wiz for installing flash to run a browser game in like 98 or 99

incidentally one of them who was actually tech savvy had some rpg maker software they let me use for a bit. i'm 90% sure it wasn't rpg maker 95 or 2000 though. anyone know of any other rpg maker-esque game dev software that existed at the time? still cannot find anything, starting to think it was 95 and my memory's just faded that much

It's okay
Not everybody is intelligent

That's neat. This isn't videogames though.