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Installing, Updating, and Removing Software in Windows

Introduction

This lab will teach you how to perform basic software maintenance on Windows machines. This includes installing software that's not already present on the machines, updating existing software to the newest version, and uninstalling software that‘s no longer needed. All of these tasks are very common in the IT world, so it's important that you're able to do them quickly and effectively.

Head's up: You'll experience a delay as the labs initially load (particularly for Windows labs). So, please wait a couple of minutes for the labs to load. The grade is calculated when the lab is complete, so be sure to hit "End Lab" when you're done!

You'll have 60 minutes to complete this lab.

What you'll do

There are three learning objectives for this lab:

  • Install- You'll install the Mozilla Firefox web browser. There's currently no version of Firefox on the machine you'll be using, so it will be a fresh installation.

  • Update- The machine you'll be using comes preinstalled with an old version of the VLC Media Player. You'll update VLC to the newest version.

  • Uninstall- You'll uninstall the GIMP photo-editing tool from the machine, removing it entirely.

Verifying Windows configuration

The first steps of this lab will be to verify that the initial software setup, or "configuration," of programs on your machines is correct. These should already be set exactly as you'll need them, but it's important to know how to check for this information when working in an IT role.

You'll verify that Mozilla Firefox isn't installed on your Windows machine, and that both GIMP and version 3.0.8 of VLC Media Player are installed.

Start the lab

You'll need to start the lab before you can access the materials. To do this, click the green "Start Lab" button at the top of the screen. If you use a screen reader, please see the instructions below, in the section "Virtual Machine instructions for screen reader users". Otherwise, proceed to the next steps to open the Windows VM.

Green "Start Lab" button

After you click the "Start Lab" button, you will see a panel appear below where the start lab button was that has an Open Windows VM button.

Screenshot of "Open Windows VM" button, which appears underneath the "Start Lab" button in the lab UI.

Click the Open Windows VM button and a new tab will open with a visual interface for Windows OS, where you will be performing further steps in the lab. You should have a visual interface for Windows that looks like this:

Screenshot of Windows VM desktop.

Virtual Machine instructions for screen reader users

Verifying initial setup on Windows

To verify whether or not a program is installed in Windows, click the Search icon in the bottom-left of the taskbar, and start typing "Apps & Features" to search (as shown below). Then, click "Apps & Features." You can also right-click on the Start icon, and click on "Apps & Features" at the top of the menu.

Screenshot of results from Windows search using the Search option in the bottom-left hand of the task bar (outlined with a red box in the screenshot). Search results return "Apps & features", which is outlined with a red box in the screenshot.

This will bring up the Apps & Features, which shows a list of every program that's installed on the computer.

Screenshot of what appears when you select "Apps & features" -- a list of every program that's installed on the computer. The list shows GIMP 2.10.24 and VLC media player are installed (among other programs), and Mozilla Firefox is not on the list.

By looking at this applet, you can see that Mozilla software isn't present, so we know that it's not currently installed. Similarly, we can see that VLC and GIMP are both already installed, so we're ready to proceed. Note that the installed version of VLC is 3.0.8; this isn't the most recent version, so we'll update it later on in this lab.

Maintaining software on Windows

Now that we know that the Windows instance is properly configured (i.e. we have verified that Mozilla is not installed, but VLC and GIMP are both already installed), you can move on to the hands-on part of the lab; maintaining the software.

Installing Mozilla Firefox

First, you'll install the Mozilla Firefox browser in the Windows instance. To install Firefox, you need to download the Windows installer from the Firefox website. To do this, double-click the Google Chrome icon on the left side of the desktop screen, and navigate to this url:

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

From this site, click the "Download" link to download the installer.

Screenshot of Mozilla Firefox download page on Google Chrome browser. The "Free Download" button on the page is highlighted.

Once the installation finishes, click the installer icon in the bottom-left side of the browser window.

Screenshot of Google Chrome browser showing that Firefox Installer.exe is being downloaded (highlighted in the bottom left of the browser).

This launches the installer, and starts the installation process. Click "Yes" if Windows asks if you wish to install it, and the installer should open and begin.

Screenshot of Firefox Installer in progress; reads "Now installing".

Click "Next" through any options that appear during the installation process. Wait for this process to finish, and Mozilla will be installed. A shortcut to Firefox will be added to the desktop, and you can double-click it to open your newly installed browser.

Congratulations! You've now done a "clean install" of software using Windows. Pretty simple, right? Next, you'll configure the updates for software already installed on your machine.

Click Check my progress to verify the objective.

Install Mozilla Firefox

Updating VLC Media Player

We saw before that an old version of VLC Media Player is already installed on the Windows VM we're using. This is an old version; we'll now learn how to update it in Windows. First, you need to get an installer for the new version from VLC's website. Open the link below to download the installer:

https://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html

Click on drop-down menu beside "Download VLC" and select "Installer for 64bit version" and wait for the installer to finish downloading.

Screenshot of VLC download webpage. Under 'VLC for Windows' segment of the webpage, "Download VLC" button is selected, with a dropdown menu. The dropdown option highlighted is "installer for 64bit version".

Once done, click on the installer to open it (like you did for Firefox).

Screenshot of the VLC website with an active download highlighted in the bottom left corner of the webpage.

Once the installer opens, choose whichever language you're comfortable with, then click "Next" to begin the process.

Choose "Upgrade VLC using previous settings(recommended)" and then click "Next". A progress bar appears and the upgrade process begins.

Screenshot of VLC media player Setup, with radio button option selected to "Upgrade VLC using previous settings (recommended).

When the process is finished, a confirmation message will appear. Uncheck the option to run VLC, then click "Finish" to close the installer.

Sceenshot of VLC media player Setup; installer reads "Completing the VLC media player Setup Wizard" with option to "Run VLC media player" selected. Toggled to "Finish" button to complete installation.

Reopen the "Apps & Features" window and you'll see that VLC is now at the latest version.

Screenshot of "Apps & features", showing VLC media player version 3.0.16 is installed.

Click Check my progress to verify the objective.

Update VLC

Uninstalling GIMP

Uninstalling a program on Windows is super simple. Navigate back to "Apps & Features" and right click on the program you want to remove (i.e. GIMP). A single-item dropdown menu should appear:

Screenshot of "Apps & features" with GIMP 2.10.24 selected; focus toggled to "Uninstall" button.

Click on the "Uninstall" option in the dropdown. A confirmation menu will appear, asking if you're sure you want to proceed. Click "Yes" and the uninstallation process will begin.

Screenshot of GIMP Uninstall process, with "Uninstalling GIMP..." progress bar.

When this process finishes, a confirmation menu will appear. Clicking "OK" on that menu will close it, and GIMP should no longer appear on the list of installed programs. This completes the uninstallation process.

Screenshot of GIMP Uninstall process notification "GIMP was successfully removed from your computer."

Click Check my progress to verify the objective.

Uninstall GIMP

Congratulations!

You've successfully installed Firefox, updated VLC, and uninstalled GIMP on a Windows machine. Wohoo! You've completed this lab, but please feel free to return to it if you ever need a refresher.

End your lab