How to actually install the mods

[Th3RadMan]

Sorry if this has been asked a million times and it's something stupidly easy :pinch: I looked in my skyrim folder, but I can't figure out what to do with the .zip files

 

Thanks!

[chanchan05]

How did you download the mods in the first place? Manually? Do you want to install manually? Well, you unzip the files and then you paste the contents into the skyrim data folder. However there are problems when installing manually. Thing is, you have to keep a backup of the "virgin" data folder, because mods tend to overwrite some stuff. That makes you unable to uninstall mods that you find don't work or other troubleshooting stuff.

 

I would actually suggest using a mod manager instead. It makes trouble shooting easier and installation as a one-click process. They remember and backup what is overwritten, so that clicking uninstall not only removes the mod files, but returns whatever is overwritten.

[notmyhome]

There's a neat guide called Skyrim Total Enhancement Project. It'll tell you what mods you need for a beautiful, almost bugfree game and how to install them.

[bben46]

Zip files are compressed to save space - You MUST have a program to unzip them first - Before trying to put them into the data folder

Now - you probably need to clean the raw zip files out of your Skyrim folder to keep them from cluttering things up

 

Create a NEW folder outside of the Steam folder call it anything - such as downloads for Skyrim and MOVE those zip files there just to get them out of the way. (Imagine several hundred zip files along with the hundreds of unzipped files all jammed into one folder) :wallbash:

 

If you really don't know about zip files, And just want to play instead of spending a lot of time managing mods manually I recommend sticking with using Nexus Mod Manager - it handles the unzipping and installing and activating mods for you. It can even use those zip files you downloaded and install from them instead of directly from the site ( But you will have to actually read the directions first)

 

Here is a link to some tutorials on NMM. http://wiki.nexusmods.com/index.php/NMM_Video_Tutorials

[fraquar]

Step #1, get a real mod manager - something like Mod Organizer. Makes installing and managing mods childs play - and doesn't touch the Skyrim/Data directory, so your Skyrim stays pristine.

Step #2, like notmyhome said, visit STEP. They even have a tutorial for using Mod Organizer (not that it really needs it but it's available and does a good job explaining things).

Step #3, Take a look at Neovalem's Skyrim Revisited - Legendary Edition in STEP. Not so much for installing all the mods there (and there is a lot) but because it does a good job explaining how certain mods conflict with each other and how they can be resolved.

[Riprock]

:) unzipping files and jamming then in a folder isn't child's play already? ;)