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How to install ICQ

 

This article will show you how to install ICQ on a PC running Windows. It will also show you how to avoid installing the ICQ toolbar or making additional changes to your browser that could make ICQ Search your default search engine or your default homepage. Before starting with the installation you should know that ICQ was first developed in 1996 by the Israeli company Mirabilis which was acquired by America Online ( AOL ) in 1998. Right now, ICQ has over 50 million of registered accounts. Let's get started, first you will need to obtain a copy of this program. You can always download ICQ from our page and save it on your computer. The setup file should look like in this picture :

 

Setup file for ICQ

 

Open this setup file and ICQ installation should start and you will see a window that says "Welcome to ICQ !" and it will ask you to select your language ( the default language is English (US) ). It also shows you the default path to where it will be installed ( the default location is in "C:\Program Files\ICQ6.5" - depending on what version you will use, 6.5 is the latest version at the time that I was writing this article, you can see another version ) and you can change this location, to do so click on the "Change" link. You will also need to accept the licence agreement, make sure that "I accept the terms of the agreement" box is being checked and you may want to check the second box called "Install Adobe Flash Player if it's not already installed, to let me fully experience all ICQ features". To continue press the "Next" button.

 

Welcome to ICQ window

 

 

Here we are, at the second step of our installation, this is very important and you have to be careful. This window is called "Installation Options" and give us two types of installation. The default one that you will see it's called "Full Installation" and as you can see it's recommended and says that it will install ICQ and ICQ Search Suite. The second one which is optional it's called "Custom Installation". I would recommend you to choose the second option called "Custom Installation" and from there, make sure to uncheck all the three boxes called :

 

- Make ICQ Search my default search engine
- Make ICQ Search my homepage
- Install ICQ Toolbar

 

If you want to keep one or all of these features you can choose the first step or you can check all of them. I don't want these features to be installed on my PC since I don't need them and I will choose to continue without them. Click on the "Next" button.

 

This window has two options: Full Installation and Custom Installation - We will use the second one called "Custom Installation"

 

You will now see the third window of our installation, a big green message that says "Installing..." and depending on your computer performance it will take a couple of seconds or minutes to install the application.

 

Installation in progress - this depends on your PC performance

 

ICQ has been successfully installed on your computer if you see this window that says "Done! ICQ 6.5 is installed". As you can see I choosed the first option called "Launch ICQ 6.5 now" and the third one called "Place ICQ icon on my desktop". I didn't want to place ICQ icon in quick launch since I really don't want it on my quick launch. That's it click on the "Finish" button.

 

ICQ installation completed

 

Now you should see the ICQ interface for the first time. As you can see the interface it's pretty simple and intuitive and has one thing in common with Yahoo Messenger and other popular chat clients. It asks you for a username and a password and also allows you to save your password. Keep in mind that if you use ICQ for the first time this program will allow you to log in on this program using an UIN ( Universal Internet Number or Unified Identification Number ) and your password. Starting with version 6.x you are allowed to use your e-mail address and your password.

 

ICQ program interface

 

If you want to obtain an ICQ account, this will be really simple, all you have to do is to open ICQ interface and from there click on the "Get a new account" link right under "Account:" and a new window will open for you. Make sure to complete all the required fields and you will be able to create a new ICQ account for the first time. You will also receive an e-mail from them that will tell you that your account is active but make sure to save your account information in case that you will forgot your password and you need to recover it. If you want to know how to install ICQ, this is probably the best way to do it. I don't like to install a lot of stuffs like the ones from the "Custom Installation" window since there are a lot of other programs that asks the same thing. If you choose to install all of them then your browser would have hundreds of toolbars installed and finally it would probably crash. As you can see, this is one of the shortest articles writen by me but the installation steps are really simple. I didn't covered the process of creating a new ICQ account or how to use ICQ but I assume that everyone should be able to figure out these things.

 

This page was last modified on 05 September 2009