A simple installation of RetailDeck
Installing RetailDeck should be pretty simple and be possible without having any "in depth" knowledge. This tutorial assumes that all you know how to do is point and click.
For the impatient
Installing RetailDeck is about as simple as it gets. All you have to do to install (or update) RetailDeck is to:
- Open Internet Explorer
- Go to www.retaildeck.com
- Click on the "Download, Install, or Update RetailDeck " link
- Choose your buying group from the list
- Read the license agreement, and click the "I agree to the terms of this agreement and want to download RetailDeck" link.
- If you see a dialog box asking you if you want to open or save the file (or something to that effect), choose open
- Follow the on screen installation instructions
If that is enough information for you, great. Go to it. Don't worry if those instructions are not enough. The rest of this articles explains the whole process in great detail.
A quick note about computers
Computers, as you have no doubt noticed, are horrendously complicated things. One of the primary reasons for this is that a computer is customizable to an extreme degree. People often talk about having a "computer" or a "PC" or a "windows machine", but this is not really very specific. Even given that you have a computer running windows, which version is it? Are you running:
- Windows 95
- Windows 98
- Windows Millennium Edition (ME)
- Windows NT 4.0
- Windows 2000
- Windows XP Home
- Windows XP Professional
- etc.
Each of these different versions of windows are very similar. However, they all have subtle differences and quirks that can trip us up from time to time.
In writing this tutorial, I will do my best to steer around the differences between the different versions of windows and the way in which they have been setup on your computer.
The Good News: once you have RetailDeck up and running, it runs exactly the same, regardless of which operating system you are using. This is no accident. We spend quite a bit of time to make sure that everything in RetailDeck runs the same way on Windows 95 that it does on Windows XP.
Remember: As you follow this tutorial, if you find something not working the way you expect it to, have a question, or start to feel frustrated, contact us. We are here to help.
Installing RetailDeck , step by step
First, close all programs that you have open. After closing everything you have open, you should be looking at your computer's desktop. Your desktop should look something like this:
Remember, your computer will probably have more icons and may have a different background image. We begin by starting Internet Explorer. To do this, we double click on the Internet Explorer icon on our desktop.
Internet Explorer will open up. Depending upon what web page you have selected as your "home page" (the page that opens whenever you load Internet Explorer), you will see a window that looks something like this:
Now, we need to go to www.retaildeck.com. To do this we type www.retaildeck.com in the address bar and then press then enter key (sometimes known as return, you know, the key you use to go to the next line)
After a brief pause (longer if you are using dial up), your screen should look something like this:
We want to click the link to "Download, Install or Update RetailDeck ". On some computers, you may need to scroll down a bit to see this link (drag the scroll bar on the right downward) until the "Download, Install or Update RetailDeck " link is visible on the screen.
Your screen should look something like this:
Click (once) on the "Download, Install or Update RetailDeck " link.
After a brief delay, the page will load and your screen should look something like this:
Click on the link that applies to you. For example, if you are a member of the Boston Group, you should click on the link "I am a member of the Boston Group". If you click on the wrong link, you will download the wrong version of RetailDeck , which will not accept your username and password. Not a big deal, but you will have to repeat this whole process to get the right version. After you click the appropriate link, you will see a licence agreement that will look something like this:
Read through the licensee agreement carefully. Scroll down as needed. At the bottom of the license agreement, there are three links. The first two links acknowledge that you agree to the terms of the license agreement and want to download RetailDeck . Click on either link. If, for some reason, one of the link is not working (you get an error message when you click on it) or is slow (because too many people are installing RetailDeck at the same time) use the other link.
Now comes something that varies a bit from computer to computer. A dialog box of some sort will appear. There will be a button, usually the leftmost button, that allows you to (either) "Open" the file or "Run" it. This is the option you want. On most computers (running windows XP) the dialog will look something like this:
Don't over think this: just click the button that says either "Run" or, if there is no button called "Run" (or, perhaps "Run from this location") then choose the button that says "Open" (or the closest thing to that effect). In any case, after you do so, a dialog box will appear showing the progress of the download. It should look something like this:
After the download finishes, you may (or may not) see a screen warning you about the potential dangers of running software from an unknown source. Depending upon how your security settings are setup, you may not see this screen (its not important for our purposes anyway). Just click on the "Run" button if you get this screen.
The RetailDeck installer will now start. Click next.
Guess what? Yep, you get to read and agree to the license agreement again. What would we do without lawyers. I swear, the wheels would come off the wagon. Anyway, after carefully reading the agreement, click the "I accept the agreement" radio button, as shown below
Then click the "Next" button
You will now see a screen that allows you to change the directory to which RetailDeck will be installed. You should probably leave well enough alone and just use the default.
Now the installer will begin copying files. A screen will come up that looks something like this:
Eventually, the green bar will move all the way across, and the installation will finish. A screen will come up that looks something like this. Click the finish button.
Congratulations, RetailDeck is now installed on your computer. Close Internet Explorer:
You should now see your desktop. Notice that you have a new icon on it, RetailDeck . You can start RetailDeck by double clicking on this icon.
