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| Go to NCBI (NCBI) site | The National Center for Biotechnology Information is the home of Blast and much else. Why not bookmark this one? |
| Scroll to bottom, and click on FTP Site (left hand bar) | Gets you to page where you can download programs NCBI makes available |
| Click on first item in list: BLAST | (avoid the BLAST button at the top of the page). You should get to an index. |
| Double click on Executables folder | This opens an index of programs to choose from |
| Double click on blast-2.2.9-ia32-win32.exe |
To see the full name of the file, you may need to click on Views and then Small Icons, List, or Details. This file contains all the programs and data files necessary for Blast to run under DOS (or DOS within Windows). (If you want Blast on something besides a PC, you're on your own.) |
| Click on Save in box. Navigate to an appropriate directory. Click on new directory icon | You're free to download Blast anywhere you like, but be warned: LOTS of files will be created. I suggest a new directory (its icon is a folder with a sun peeking through). |
| Give the directory a name and click on it | I suggest the name "Blast". Common error: Making a directory doesn't put you in the directory. |
| Click the Save button | Saves the program to the directory you just created. This should take a few seconds, or much longer, depending on your connection. |
| Run the program you just saved | You may be given the option to open the folder. If so, do it and double click on the program you just saved. Otherwise, Click on Start, then locate the program, and run it. Running this self extracting program decompresses all of the files within it. You should see lots of messages like inflating: readme.bls |
| Congratulate self | You're done! |