Howdy --

I have a question for y'all ...

How do I make use of various videogame patches?

I'm not only new to Vista, but I'm fairly new to computers ... period.

I receive software updates all the time, like everyone else online. Yet these updates always know what to do by themselves. For example ... just last night, I got an update for my Hewlett-Packard printer software. All I had to do was click a link, then give my permission for the modification to occur. The update did everything by itself -- finding the software for which it was intended ... extracting those portions selected for replacement ... inserting the new stuff where it properly belonged -- all that jazz. Exceedingly simple.

Videogame developers regularly release a whole slew of software patches ... designed to fix bugs, improve graphics, add new features ... etc. Yet unlike the updates I receive from places such as Hewlett-Packard, or even Microsoft, game patches always seem to require a manual insertion. To exemplify -- first, you'll upload a zip file, that needs to be saved on the hard drive ... then it must be un-zipped ... after which, you must follow whatever instructions are found {usually provided by the un-zip process}.

So my question is two-fold:

1) Why don't developers offer the same kind of updates such as those I get from my software applications ... where all I need do is click a single link, then the update itself does everything automatically?

2) How do I save a zip file to my hard drive ... and then unzip the blasted thing? After that, what kind of actions are typically required for putting said software into use for the game?

I'm constantly missing out on all sorts of game patches, because I don't know what needs to be done.