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Ermie · 23-01-2008, 07:27 PM

Suggestions For Safe Downloading
These are just a few of my personal tips i've picked up from various places and people from downloading and creating for The Sims and Sims 2. It covers basic downloading safety and ideas to help back-up and protect your Downloads.

1. When downloading anything from the internet it is always best to use anti-virus software to scan the file before you download, this stops you getting virus's and installing harmful files. You should see your anti-viruses instructions for how to do this, a lot of software does it as you download.

2. In case of problems with downloads or game crashes it's important that you keep a back-up or documentation of what you've downloaded and where. This is especially important if for whatever reason you ever have to reinstall your game, it can save a lot of hours of headaches if you've got all your Downloads safely tucked away to reinstall again!

When downloading files for your Sims game keep the files in a specific folder. This is handy as it keeps track of all the files you have recently downloaded. I've got a Sims 2 Downloads folder within my Received Files folder on my PC for example. This allows you to check new objects work in game and if they don’t or stop game-play (cause the game to crash back to desktop when trying to view an object/skin/etc) you can easily look up the filename in the zip against one's in your downloads folder. When you have several hundred objects in your game it is easy to get confused which is which (believe me!) and doing this saves you accidentally deleting your favourite downloads. Having this folder also means that if you ever lose your Downloads folder in the game you've got everything safely to put back in!

3. If you don’t want to mess around with your Downloads folder then you can also use the Sims 2 Content Manager to disable or delete bad downloads, or one’s you don’t want anymore. This tool lists all the custom content in your game and highlights possible problem ones in red. The tool comes with instructions on how to fully use it.

4. Regularly back-up your Sims 2 folder! Just by copying (right click, copy) your Sims 2 folder to your desktop (go to desktop, right click, paste) you can keep your game safe. If it ever happens that something drastically goes wrong with your game and you have to do the dreaded re-install you'll still have all your downloaded content, neighbourhoods and sims safely backed-up on your computer. ). Once you've reinstalled all you have to do is copy and replace the Sims 2 folder and all your content is restored! If you have a CD-R drive you can even create a hard copy on to CD which is always highly recommended. For more information see Hermit's How to Back-Up Your Game Files.

Although this guide is lengthy don’t let it put you off downloading custom content for your game, there are some fantastic artist's out there and extra objects can really enhance your game-play (it's what Maxis has been living off all the years Sims has been out). I warn you though; once you start you'll find it hard to stop!

23-01-2008, 07:27 PM	#9 (permalink)
Ermie Rookie Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Manchester Age: 23 Gender: Female Posts: 153	Suggestions For Safe Downloading These are just a few of my personal tips i've picked up from various places and people from downloading and creating for The Sims and Sims 2. It covers basic downloading safety and ideas to help back-up and protect your Downloads. 1. When downloading anything from the internet it is always best to use anti-virus software to scan the file before you download, this stops you getting virus's and installing harmful files. You should see your anti-viruses instructions for how to do this, a lot of software does it as you download. 2. In case of problems with downloads or game crashes it's important that you keep a back-up or documentation of what you've downloaded and where. This is especially important if for whatever reason you ever have to reinstall your game, it can save a lot of hours of headaches if you've got all your Downloads safely tucked away to reinstall again! When downloading files for your Sims game keep the files in a specific folder. This is handy as it keeps track of all the files you have recently downloaded. I've got a Sims 2 Downloads folder within my Received Files folder on my PC for example. This allows you to check new objects work in game and if they don’t or stop game-play (cause the game to crash back to desktop when trying to view an object/skin/etc) you can easily look up the filename in the zip against one's in your downloads folder. When you have several hundred objects in your game it is easy to get confused which is which (believe me!) and doing this saves you accidentally deleting your favourite downloads. Having this folder also means that if you ever lose your Downloads folder in the game you've got everything safely to put back in! 3. If you don’t want to mess around with your Downloads folder then you can also use the Sims 2 Content Manager to disable or delete bad downloads, or one’s you don’t want anymore. This tool lists all the custom content in your game and highlights possible problem ones in red. The tool comes with instructions on how to fully use it. 4. Regularly back-up your Sims 2 folder! Just by copying (right click, copy) your Sims 2 folder to your desktop (go to desktop, right click, paste) you can keep your game safe. If it ever happens that something drastically goes wrong with your game and you have to do the dreaded re-install you'll still have all your downloaded content, neighbourhoods and sims safely backed-up on your computer. ). Once you've reinstalled all you have to do is copy and replace the Sims 2 folder and all your content is restored! If you have a CD-R drive you can even create a hard copy on to CD which is always highly recommended. For more information see Hermit's How to Back-Up Your Game Files. Although this guide is lengthy don’t let it put you off downloading custom content for your game, there are some fantastic artist's out there and extra objects can really enhance your game-play (it's what Maxis has been living off all the years Sims has been out). I warn you though; once you start you'll find it hard to stop!