Expert: Amy - 7/2/2007

Question
I downloaded the adobe illustrator cs3 and no desktop icon appeared on my screen nor did it come up in my start programs yet my computer says I have it. I think it has to be opened with Winzip but I have no idea how to do it. Can you help?-john

Answer
Hi John,

First you have to locate the file that downloaded from Adobe...  it will be an archive file... probably a *.zip file. Perhaps you can go back to the download site and find out what it was named.

Then locate that file on your machine, double click on it. If you have WinZip, the archive file will open and you will be prompted for the location of the soon-to-be-extracted files. Choose the desktop.

If you don't have WinZip, you'll be asked what you want to open the file with. At that point, you should go get a copy of WinZip. WinZip (trial version) can be downloaded free of charge at many locations, including http://www.winzip.com/downwz.htm

Once you've downloaded and installed WinZip, double click the archive icon from Adobe and extract to the desktop.

Once the extracted files are on the desktop, it's smooth sailing. The icon on the desktop will be an installer. Double click on it and you'll be taken through the installation process. Then Illustrator will appear in your Program files and you can start using it.

Hope this helped!

Amy Pace