Downloading, installing and the first login

4.1 Where the file should come from

There are two defensible sources for a game client: the vendor's own website, or a well-known shop or platform that the vendor has listed the game on. Everything else — a link in a video description, a file-sharing site, a search advertisement for a "free full version", a copy a friend has on a memory stick — is a worse source, and the reason is not piety about copyright. It is that a file you did not get from the vendor is a file whose contents nobody has vouched for.

The Australian Cyber Security Centre's general advice for individuals, published at cyber.gov.au, consistently comes back to obtaining software from legitimate sources and keeping it updated. That is the whole of the rule, and it does not require you to understand anything technical.

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4.2 What a normal download looks like

You select the option on the vendor's page for your operating system — and the operating system matters here, because the file for Windows and the file for a Mac are different files. Your browser then saves something, usually into a Downloads folder, and tells you when it has finished. The file is often small: for many games what you first receive is not the game but the launcher, which then fetches the rest.

That is why the big wait usually comes after you start the installation rather than during the download. It is also why the download finishing is not the moment to disconnect the internet or shut the machine.

Before you open the file, look at its name. It should relate plainly to the game or the vendor. A file whose name is a string of random characters, or which ends in something unexpected for an installer on your system, is worth stopping over rather than opening and hoping.

4.3 The installation, in order

1. Close the programs you are not using, so the installer is not competing for the machine.
2. Open the downloaded file. On Windows the operating system will ask you to confirm that you want to allow it to make changes; on a Mac you may be asked to confirm that you want to open an application downloaded from the internet. Both prompts are the system doing its job — read the name shown in the prompt and check that it is what you expect.
3. Read the install location it proposes and the space it says it needs. If the figure is larger than the free space you wrote down in Step 2, stop here and clear space first.
4. Decline any optional extras offered during the install — toolbars, additional programs, "partner offers". A reputable installer will let you decline and continue.
5. Let it finish without using the computer for anything heavy. This is the long part.
6. Note in your own records where it installed to and when. One line in a notebook is enough, and it makes removing it later straightforward.

4.4 What is not normal, and what to do about it

A game installer has no business asking for your email password, your bank details, a payment "to verify your computer", remote access to your machine, or permission to turn off your security software. If any of those appears, the right response is to close the installer and delete the file, and then to check where you actually obtained it.

Equally, a web page that announces your computer has a problem, counts down, or asks you to ring a number is not part of any installation. Pages of that kind are a recognised category of scam, and the ACCC's Scamwatch service both describes how they work and takes reports.

Nothing on this page suggests your computer is at risk, and this course has no way of knowing anything about your computer. The point of this section is narrower: knowing in advance what a normal install asks for means an abnormal one is obvious when you meet it.

4.5 Creating and activating the account

Account creation usually wants an email address, a password you choose, a display name, and confirmation of your country and age. Give accurate information, particularly the country, because it affects which terms, prices and payment methods apply to you and may affect support.

Activation is the second half: the company sends a message to the address you gave, and you confirm it by following the link inside. Until that happens the account may be limited or may not work at all. If no message arrives within a few minutes, look in the junk or spam folder before asking for another, and check that you typed the address correctly — a mistyped address is the common cause and there is nothing to fix on the company's end.

One habit is worth forming here. Go to the activation message in your own mailbox rather than through any other route, and if a message about your account arrives that you were not expecting, open the account by typing the vendor's address into the browser yourself instead of following the link.

4.6 The password, and the second factor

Use a password that is not used anywhere else, and particularly not the one on the email account the game account is attached to. That second point is the one people miss: whoever can read your email can usually reset every password that email controls, so the mailbox is the more valuable target of the two.

Length does more work than complexity. A passphrase of several unrelated words is long, memorable and easy to type on a keyboard; general guidance from the Australian Cyber Security Centre at cyber.gov.au covers passphrases and password managers for individuals, and is worth reading once.

If the vendor offers two-factor authentication — a second code from an app or a message, required when signing in on a new device — turn it on at the moment the account is created rather than later. Later usually means after something has gone wrong. Write down the recovery codes it gives you and keep them away from the computer.

4.7 Settings worth setting before you play

The first time a game runs it will often ask, or assume, several things that are easier to set now than to discover later.

• Picture quality. If Step 2 put you between the two requirements lists, start on a lower setting deliberately rather than letting the game choose and then wondering why it stutters.
• Automatic updates. Decide whether the launcher may download updates on its own. On a connection with a data allowance, the answer may reasonably be no.
• Communication with other players. Find the controls for chat and voice, and set them before you are in a game rather than during one. This matters most if the account is a child's.
• Payment details. If the game offers to store a card now, decline for the moment. Step 5 is about that decision and it is better made deliberately.

4.8 If it will not start

Three ordinary causes account for most failures, and none requires expertise. The install may not have finished — launchers can take a long time and look idle while working. Your graphics driver may be older than the game expects, which the manufacturer's own support pages explain how to update. Or security software may be holding the launcher back, which its own notification will usually say.

Beyond that, the vendor's support channel is the correct destination, and it is the one you noted in Step 3. When you write to them, include the five numbers from Step 2 and say exactly what happens and at which point. A support request containing that is answered far faster than one that says it does not work.

4.9 The household in the example

4.10 Before you move on

At this point you have software installed from a source you can name, an account you control, a second factor on it, and a note of where it all came from. Nothing has been bought.

Step 5 is about what happens next, which is that at some point you will be invited to spend money. Reading it before that invitation arrives is the entire point of its position in the course.

4.11 Step 4 checklist

Work down this one as you go, not afterwards.