Software · guides

Software download, Windows, macOS and Linux

By Alberto Gulotta · Updated · 20 min read

This is the entrance to the software tower. A software download that turns out to carry something else, a computer that has become slow, a file deleted an hour ago, an operating system that has changed where everything lives.

This tower is deliberately not a Windows tower. Every question here is answered for each system a normal person actually uses, because the questions cross between them.

Three levels, and you are on the first. This atrium lists the floors; a floor covers one subject completely and holds the shorter guides underneath it. Nothing here is more than three clicks from the front door.

Where to start

Seven ways in. If something has just been deleted, take the third one immediately.

“Where do I safely download this program?”
Start at installing things
“My computer has become slow.”
Go to why it is slow
“I have deleted something important.”
Stop and read getting files back
“I want to move from Windows to something else.”
That is the systems
“How do I take a screenshot on this thing?”
Each system has a floor in the systems
“Should I pay for a cleaner or an optimiser?”
The blunt answer is in why it is slow
“I need to run one program from another system.”
Virtual machines are in installing things

The systems

One floor per operating system. Not a comparison and not an argument: what each one does differently, where it puts things, and what changes when you move between them.

The task managerOne shortcut faster than the famous one — and on a Mac the same job is split between two tools.Open this guide → The default browserThree systems, three panes — and none of them inside the browser you are switching to.Open this guide → Copy and paste on a MacThe two keys are the easy half — Apple says files and folders have no cut option at all.Open this guide → The right click on a MacApple does not use the words — which is why the setting cannot be found by searching for them.Open this guide → Upgrading to Windows 11Two requirements stop most PCs — and there is a documented date two years out if yours is one.Open this guide → Application tray AndroidWhat Google calls it instead.Open this guide → How to copy and pasteThe memory you can turn on.Open this guide → Windows 11 media creation toolThe key you may have.Open this guide → How to turn off phone when the button seems brokenHow to turn off phone when holding the power button no longer does it: the combination for each model, and the menu routes that never change.Open this guide → Windows 10 end of lifeThe three doors out of it.Open this guide → Can my PC run Windows 11What can still be switched on.Open this guide →

Installing things

How software gets onto a machine, and how it gets onto one uninvited. The most consequential wing in the tower and the shortest to read.

Updating SafariThere is no Safari updater: Apple ships the browser with the system, so the browser is as new as the system.Open this guide → Zip filesA zipped folder opens like a folder and is not one — plus the archiver you no longer need to download.Open this guide → Updating apps on iPhoneIt is already automatic, so the question is usually one of four others — including the apps that have no update button at all.Open this guide → Deleting apps on iPhoneThe menu item that only hides them, and Apple’s warning that deleting does not stop the bill.Open this guide → Uninstalling properlyWhat stays behind after removal, and how much of it actually matters.Open this guide →

Getting files back

The emergency wing. The floors about a drive all begin with the same instruction — stop using it — because recovery odds fall with every write, and installing a tool is itself a write. The others are about the copy made earlier, or the list a program kept without saying so.

Backing up an iPhoneTwo kinds of backup with different contents, and the checkbox that decides whether your passwords are in one.Open this guide →
Data recovery softwareWhat these tools can and cannot recover, and the free ones that work.Being built
Backups, properlyFour things that can go wrong with a computer, and what Windows and a Mac already ship for each.Open this guide → Recovering deleted filesFive routes in order — including a built-in one that is easy to walk past, where you look for the folder rather than the file.Open this guide → Deleted messages on iPhoneThe button moved in iOS 18, which is why the guides say it is not there. And the three limits Apple states.Open this guide → Deleted emailsOne service has a second bin behind the bin, the other does not — and a deleted draft is in neither.Open this guide → A tab you just closedOne shortcut works in all four browsers — and Google and Microsoft do not promise the same thing by it.Open this guide → How to back up MacBookWhat a backup gets back.Open this guide → How to backup photos on AndroidThe 15 GB behind it.Open this guide → How to check hard drive healthMicrosoft has removed WMIC from supported versions of Windows 11; Get-PhysicalDisk, a PowerShell cmdlet, has a HealthStatus column.Open this guide → Google Photos backup on desktopWhat Google closed.Open this guide → How to restore iPhone from backupWhen you can.Open this guide →

Why it is slow

The commonest complaint about any machine, and the one with the most bad advice attached. These floors take the real causes in order of how often they are the cause.

Why it is slowThe real causes in order of frequency, and how to tell which one you have — before spending anything.Open this guide → Drivers and updatesWhat genuinely needs updating, and why driver updater programs are a bad idea.Open this guide → Browser extensionsThe permissions they hold, and auditing the ones you forgot you installed.Open this guide → How to update graphics driversThe generic one to look for.Open this guide → How to fix slow boot Mac with one held Shift keyHow to fix slow boot Mac by measuring instead of guessing: Apple documents a Shift-key start that suppresses login items, and never blames them itself.Open this guide → How to speed up MacBookThe advice Apple leaves out.Open this guide →

Running out of space

A different problem from a slow machine, though the two get treated as one. Each floor starts by finding out where the space actually went, rather than guessing.

Deleting apps on a MacThe space does not come back until you empty the Trash — and the subscription does not stop at all.Open this guide → Freeing up disk spaceThe nine methods Microsoft publishes in its own order, and the biggest single item with its ten-day clock.Open this guide → iPhone storageOffloading an app keeps what is inside it, and the popular photo fix is a trade rather than a saving.Open this guide →

When something misbehaves

Not broken, not slow — behaving oddly. Each of these is a narrow reset that fixes one specific class of fault and leaves everything else alone.

NotificationsThree lighter settings before the switch — and a Focus delays them rather than dropping them.Open this guide → AutocorrectThree settings on one screen — and since iOS 17 the phone underlines what it changed.Open this guide → Force quitting on a MacThree keys — and the sentence Apple puts in front of them, which is about your unsaved work.Open this guide → Do Not Disturb that comes backIt has been one of six Focus options since iOS 15, and a wallpaper can switch it on.Open this guide → A mail password that stoppedChange it in place — Apple warns that deleting the account can take the downloaded mail with it.Open this guide → Force restarting an iPhoneThree sequences by generation, the hold that lasts longer than feels right, and why it is not a reset.Open this guide → Safe modeSafe mode windows 11 is a diagnostic, not a repair. What it proves, and which of the three you want.Open this guide → Clearing the cacheApple documents one cache and two ways to clear it. The six-ways lists are counting the same screen twice.Open this guide → Network settings on iPhoneEvery saved Wi-Fi password goes — and so does the phone’s own name, which the menu does not warn you about.Open this guide → Apps are crashing on AndroidWhere the numbers live.Open this guide → Why is my battery draining so fastIn published numbers.Open this guide → Blue screen errorWhy it is not blue any more.Open this guide → How to clear cache on MacWhat goes with it.Open this guide → Computer freezing randomlyHow to make it leave proof.Open this guide → Computer won't turn onHow long to hold the button.Open this guide → Critical process diedThe program is usually the messenger.Open this guide → Desktop won’t bootThe machine is telling you where it stopped.Open this guide → How to fix phone speakerTwo published tests — and the settings that silence a working speaker.Open this guide → Inaccessible boot deviceThe question is what changed.Open this guide → Why is my iPhone hotWhen Apple says it is normal.Open this guide → Not getting emails on iPhoneOr not being told about them.Open this guide → How to know if my Mac is charging with no light onHow to know if my Mac is charging: the MagSafe light means two opposite things, USB-C has no light, and the battery menu has four published messages.Open this guide → Laptop overheatingWhy the slowdown is the fix.Open this guide → Why won't my Lenovo laptop turn onWhich hole is which.Open this guide → No bootable devices foundWhat it does not mean.Open this guide → Why am I not receiving emailsWhat the quick fix destroys.Open this guide → Why does my phone keep restartingWhat turns it off.Open this guide → How to fix phone not chargingOn an iPhone, the 80 per cent case is not a fault, and Apple files it away from the repairs.Open this guide → Preparing Automatic Repair: the screenWhat not to do first.Open this guide → How to remove malware from computer when a scan says cleanHow to remove malware from computer with what is already installed, and the four published reasons a scan reports nothing on an infected machine.Open this guide → How to restart MacBook without holding anything downHow to restart MacBook is one menu item and one checkbox.Open this guide → Why is my sound not workingWhose order to follow.Open this guide → How do I stop pop up ads when the blocker is already onHow do I stop pop up ads when the blocker is already on: three different things get called pop-ups, and only one of them the blocker was built for.Open this guide → Turning the pop-up blocker offThe switch covers every site you will ever visit; the exception beside it covers one — and on an iPhone Apple documents no exception at all.Open this guide → How to fix windows update errorThe ones you cannot.Open this guide → Windows update failedHow to undo one that did not.Open this guide → Windows Resource Protection could not start the repair serviceThe one line that is not in Microsoft’s table of four, and what the documentation does tell you to run.Open this guide → sfc /scannowMicrosoft publishes eight parameters and four possible endings, and two of the parameters are for repairing a Windows that is not running.Open this guide →

When a device changes hands

Selling it, giving it away, or handing it back. Both floors here are about the step that decides whether the next person gets a working machine or a locked one — and what is still on it either way.

Resetting an iPhoneEight steps in an order that matters — and the tidying up Apple says not to do first.Open this guide → Resetting WindowsFour options that combine — and Microsoft’s own note that the wipe does not meet erasure standards.Open this guide → Find MyTurning it off turns off Activation Lock, and Apple says so. One good reason to do it, several bad ones.Open this guide → How to factory reset MacBookWhat survives it.Open this guide →

Between two devices

Getting something from one machine to another when you have both of them in front of you. A few files, or an entire phone — different jobs with different tools, and using the wrong one is most of the frustration.

Photos off a phoneTo a Mac and to a PC — plus the iCloud setting that means the pictures on the phone may not be originals.Open this guide → Turning on AirDropThe four conditions around the switch, and the setting that is designed to close itself after ten minutes.Open this guide → Moving to a new iPhoneQuick Start, the question it asks halfway through, and the cable that depends on which two phones you have.Open this guide →

Unwanted contact

Calls and messages you did not ask for. Three separate mechanisms live in three different places in Settings, and the best known of the three is the one that helps least against strangers.

Blocking a numberThe four routes, and the two things blocking does not stop — including the voicemail that still arrives.Open this guide → Unknown callersScreening every number that is not in your contacts, and who you stop hearing from.Open this guide → Unwanted text messagesBlocking, filtering and reporting are three different actions in Messages.Open this guide → Blocking on AndroidThe same job on the other system, handled by a different app.Open this guide → Scam callsWhen the call is not merely unwanted but after something — the whole tower on it.Open this guide → Microsoft security alert scamThe test that settles it.Open this guide →

Who can see where you are

Location on this phone is several separate settings that people treat as one. This wing separates deliberate sharing from the permissions underneath it, and covers turning each off.

Sharing your locationThree kinds of sharing, not one — and a duration question that is the real decision.Open this guide → Location ServicesThe switch behind the switch, and the reason sharing can be on while nobody sees you.Open this guide → Turning off Find MyWhat it also turns off, and why that matters before a phone changes hands.Open this guide → How to find lost iPhoneThe three warnings.Open this guide →

Keeping what is on it private

The disk rather than the map. What encryption Windows and macOS actually document, what is already switched on, and the key without which none of it is survivable.

Protecting a folderThe documented protections work at drive level — and on many machines one is already on.Open this guide → BitLocker recovery key: where it isWho else might have it.Open this guide →

Limits somebody set

Controls put on a phone — by you, by a parent, or by an employer. Each has its own code and its own way out, and the commonest problem is not knowing which of the three you are looking at.

Screen TimeA separate four-digit code from the one that unlocks the phone — which is why the number you know does not work.Open this guide → Content and privacy restrictionsInstalling, deleting and purchasing: three permissions set from one screen.Open this guide → Work and school phonesWhen the restriction is not Screen Time and is not yours to change.Open this guide →

Things you connect

Headphones, printers, screens — the devices that arrive in a box and then have to be introduced. Each floor here turns on one step that is not visible from looking at the thing.

Adding a printerBoth Microsoft and Apple say the software in the box is the fallback, not the first step.Open this guide → Screen mirroring to a TVTwo different things share the word — and only one of them leaves the phone usable.Open this guide → AirPods and a laptopTwo answers depending on the account — and a case gesture that changed with the newest models.Open this guide → Bluetooth not connecting to carApple’s and Google’s steps, and two switches that can leave the car silent.Open this guide → Why is my bluetooth not workingOr just switched off.Open this guide → How to fix keyboard not typing when nothing is brokenHow to fix keyboard not typing when the hardware is fine: Windows has a setting whose job is to ignore keystrokes, and a test that gives a verdict.Open this guide → Laptop camera not workingWhat the light actually means.Open this guide → One AirPod not workingWhich of two problems it is.Open this guide → How to pair Bluetooth headphones on Windows or iPhoneBoth vendors document one half of this and, for other makers’ headphones, hand the other to the headphones’ own instructions.Open this guide → Why is my printer not printing when the queue accepts itWhy is my printer not printing: four makers publish four different limits on repeating a head clean, and two of them warn against unplugging the machine.Open this guide → How to fix printer offlineIn the published order.Open this guide → How to fix printer streaksWhich half to look in.Open this guide → A printer test page proves one thing at a timeA printer test page is not one thing: there are two, they leave from different places, and Microsoft gives each a different job to do.Open this guide → Surface keyboard not workingThe step most models lack.Open this guide → USB device not recognizedWhat to check before clicking.Open this guide →

Getting on the network

Wi-Fi as a thing you hold a key to. Every floor here starts from a device that has already joined, because that is the only place any of these passwords exist.

When it has stopped workingThree different faults behind one sentence, and two of them announce themselves before you touch anything.Open this guide → Changing the passwordThe FTC says there are two passwords on a router, and only one is the one you came for.Open this guide → Finding the passwordOn the phone and on the PC — and the Edit button that reveals every network you have ever left.Open this guide → How to connect to wifiThe steps on each system — and why a café network can connect and still not load a page.Open this guide → How to fix slow internetStarting with what is enough.Open this guide → Why does my wifi keep disconnectingWhich switch did it.Open this guide → Connected without internetThe words are the result of a test: Windows asks one address a question and reads the answer.Open this guide →

Taking a picture of the screen

Everything that treats the screen as a surface you take something off: a picture of it, a film of it, or a code printed on it. A screen that is itself damaged is a building of its own, listed at the end of this wing.

A screenshot on iPhoneThree button pairs for three shapes of phone — and the corner thumbnail that stopped appearing.Open this guide → Scanning a QR codeWindows has it built in and Microsoft documents it, so you do not need to upload the code to a stranger.Open this guide → Screen recording on iPhoneThe missing button, the sound hidden behind a long press, and the recordings that come out black.Open this guide → Screenshots on MacHow to screenshot on Mac: four built-in ways, and the extra key that skips the file entirely.Open this guide → Screenshots on WindowsThree screenshot shortcuts already built in, recording on Windows 11 — and where each capture goes.Open this guide → How do you screen capture on an Android — three rungsHow do you screen capture on an Android when Google itself will not promise one answer: the published ladder, the scrolling capture, and the recorder.Open this guide → How to screenshot on tablet with keyboardBy system.Open this guide → Computer screen problemsWhen the screen is the broken thing — a line, a patch, a flicker — that has an entrance of its own.See all the guides →

Not covered here. It will not recommend a system cleaner or a driver updater. Where a floor covers one of those, it says what the software claims, what the operating system already does for free, and what the maker’s own documentation commits to — and lets those three sit next to each other.

It will not become a Windows site by default. Every question here is answered for each system that a normal person actually uses, because a page that assumes one platform is useless to half the people who find it.

It will not send you to a download aggregator. Those sites wrap real installers in their own, they rank extremely well, and the correct answer is always the developer’s own page.

And it will not carry affiliate links, including for the recovery software, which pays well precisely because people buying it are desperate.

One habit is worth taking upstairs with you, because it prevents more trouble than anything else in this tower. When you want a program, do not search for its name — go to the developer’s own address, or find the program in the store built into your system. The paid results sitting above the real page are bought by people who benefit from you clicking them, and in this particular category that is not a nuisance but the whole attack. It costs ten seconds and it removes one of the ways an ordinary machine ends up with something it did not ask for. What holds instead is simple: the developer’s own download page is always the answer here, and no floor carries an affiliate link.

Written by Alberto Gulotta

Founder and editor of AI Tools Primer, writing from Palermo, Italy. Thirty-five years of taking computers apart, starting with a Commodore 64 — the long version is on the about page.

Something wrong on this page? Write to aitoolsprimer@gmail.com and it gets fixed.

Written on 20 August 2026 · last checked 30 September 2026.

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