How to download a mod

[bluesflyer]

I haven't played this game in almost 5 years. When I started to play the special edition now had mods I could get during start up and creation club. I was told by a friend to check out nexus, and I like it, I just don't know how to manual download a mod. Some are folders that goes to my downloads, some are just an rar file. I read an article on downloading mods here: https://www.standingcloud.com/nord-mod-life-download-skyrim-mods-manually-and-install-them/

It's a good article however where do I put these new mod folders? Does it matter. What do I do when it is an rar file? Do I just open the folder start the mod? This is a very way of getting mods than I am use too. If anyone could help me out, I'd appreciate it.

[Shabdez]

First you should be using a mod manager like Vortex or Mod Manager 2. You can install mods manually, but do yourself a favor and stay away from that.
Mods contain different files depending on the mod purpose. If you download a mod from Nexus, those files are packed in an archive. If you use a mod manager, it will un-pack that for you when you install the mod.

[anjenthedog]

As @Shabdez suggested, use a mod manager for mod installations to your game. There are rare times when I install "directly" for some trivialities like Racemenu presets or individual Bodyslide files, but imo, it's a waste of time to manually distribute the files contained in a mod archive, and it's fraught with the likelihood of screwing something up during that manual process.

 

idk about MO2, but nexus/vortex is a convenient pairing, since with Vortex, you can ~directly install from the website, (or at least initiate installation), as well as installing from a local archive file (ie downloaded by normal means), but I also know there are those who are dead set against using vortex, so if you're one of those folks, MO2 might be for you.

[Roccondil]

I think MO2 is also able to download directly from Nexus, using the mod manager button if you set things up correctly.

 

For OP, if you dont want to use a mod manager (not suggested if you are new to modding) you have to go to the files tab of the mod in question and click on the appropriate button (manual download). Once the archive is on your computer, you then extract the files: many are .zip files, some are .7z archives which require 7Zip (open source, free zip file tool) to extract.

[wfandrews]

I believe you can download from Nexus using either Vortex, MO2 or NMM Community Edition.

 

As Shabdez said you should certainly be using a mod manager, the two most popular are Vortex and MO2. There are pros and cons to using either so I would do a little research before picking the one you will use.. Like most things in life which one of the three people use basically comes down to individual preference; but I would definitely use a mod manager unless you are very experienced in modding.