Easily send, receive and share large files and folders across the internet with Dropbox. Tutorial 1 - Installing Dropbox

Dropbox is a fantastic service that lets you store, share and manage large files on the internet. The service works either through the web or on your desktop. Using the desktop version, you can use your Dropbox account just like a regular folder on your desktop. This method is faster and more convenient than using the web interface and we recommend you install it if possible.

Windows Vista / Windows 7 users - Important

We've noticed some problems when installing Dropbox on limited user accounts in Windows Vista/Windows 7. If you run a limited user account, exit Dropbox after the installation (by right clicking on its icon in the system tray) then run the program again. You may need to manually create the program short-cuts too. If you don't see a Dropbox icon in your system tray, restart your computer.

Hint - if you don't need to enter a password each time you get a Windows User Account Control prompt, then you are not running a limited user account.

To install the desktop version of Dropbox, first download the latest version of the software here. Save the file to your desktop or somewhere that you can access it easily. When the download is complete, double click on the file or choose "Open" from your browsers download manager.

Windows Vista and Windows 7 users may need to enter their administrator passwords and/or click on continue if prompted to do so by Windows User Account Control.

The following window will then appear:-

click on "Install". The following window will then appear:-

Wait a moment while files are copied to your PC. When the process is complete, the following window will appear:-

If you already have an account, choose "I already have a Dropbox account". You'll then be able to log in directly to your Dropbox. If you don't have an account, we'll take you through creating one now. Click "Next" when you are ready to proceed.

To create a Dropbox account you just need to provide your first name (and optionally your second name), a valid e-mail address and a password. You can set the display name to anything you like. Usually you would use a name that describes the PC you are currently using.

When you are done setting your account options, click on "Next". The following window will then appear:-

Here we can choose a size for our Dropbox. 2 Gigabyte accounts are free, or if you need more space, you can move up to a paid account and get 50 or 100 Gigabytes. For this example we'll just stick to the free account. Click "Next" to move to the window shown below:-

Here you can take a brief tour of Dropbox and see how it works. For this tutorial we clicked on "Skip tour and finish" but feel free to take the tour when installing Dropbox on your machine. When you have finished (or skipped) the tour, the following window will appear:-

The installation is now complete. Click on "Finish". You'll then see a Windows Explorer window open, this is your Dropbox. You can now proceed to the next tutorial.

Back from Dropbox Installation To Cloud Computing Tutorials
Click here to read or leave comments on this tutorial

Next Tutorial >>

Back to Home Page