Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
If your system barely meets the requirements in one or more aspects, the application may
install but performance may suffer. For example, the application may crash frequently, run
slowly, or have poor graphic or sound performance.
If you want to run an older application that is designed for a previous version of
Windows, you may fi nd the Compatibility Mode feature in Windows to be useful. This
feature enables a newer version of Windows to mimic an older version selectively when
it deals with an individual application. For example, an application may require a lower
display resolution than Windows 7 or Windows Vista provides; the Compatibility Mode
feature can temporarily permit that lower resolution.
Securing Administrative Rights
and Firewall Access
If you use the OS under a standard user account rather than an administrator account,
you may not have the right to install new software. Standard users don't usually have
permission to make changes that will affect other users, and installing or removing
software is such an activity.
As a remedy, you can choose to upgrade your user account temporarily to administrator
status (if you're able to do so, given your network administrator's restrictions), or you can
log in as a different user with administrative permission. A third option is to right-click the
setup fi le for the application and choose Run as Administrator. Doing so enables you to use
an administrator account to grant permission to install, without having to log out of the
account under which you're currently logged in.
Administrator
is a Windows and Macintosh term; in other OSs, accounts
with full administrative privileges may be called
supervisor
or
superuser
.
Some applications require an Internet or network address in order to install them.
Depending on the settings of your fi rewall software (such as Windows Firewall), a warning
may appear when the Setup program tries to access the Internet. In most cases, you can
click a button to let the fi rewall know that it's okay to proceed.
You may sometimes have to unblock certain port numbers manually in your fi rewall
software in order to permit an application to access the Internet. As you learned in
Chapter 3, “Peripherals and Networking,” ports are numbered pathways that help the
OS keep Internet traffi c routed to the right applications. The exact steps for blocking and
unblocking ports and allowing applications vary depending on the OS and the fi rewall
software. The following exercise shows you how to do it in Windows 7. (Note that you
would go through this process
after
installing the new software; otherwise the new
software would not appear on the list.)
