Click here for a link to download the Yahoo Messenger software. Once on the Yahoo site, click on the link to download the Yahoo Messenger software. The dialog box shown below will appear. Click on the Run button.

When the next dialog box appears, click on the Run button.

Click the Next button on the Welcome screen.

On the next screen, only click on Yahoo Messenger, you don't want to install any of the other stuff. Then click Next.

Accept the agreement and click Next.

Click Next to install the software.

After the installation is done, click the Finish button and Yahoo Messenger will start.  You will need to get a Yahoo ID, you are just signing up for a free email account so you have a username on the Yahoo service.  Once you've got yourself setup with a username and password, you can set the program preferences however you want.

Now, you need to look at the back of the computer and plug a microphone into the sound card jack, usually a pink colored jack (area 3 on the picture below).  On some of the newer computers, if the sound is integrated on the computer motherboard, the jack may be somewhere else, but still on the back, and probably still pink (consult your computer documentation).

Once you have the Messenger program running and the microphone installed, go to the Help menu, and click on the Audio tuning Wizard to get the sound setup properly.  When the other people you want to correspond with have the software installed on their computer, you can go to Contacts, Add a contact, put the information in, then an icon will show up for them.  When they are online, their icon will darken and you just double click on it to notify them that you want to talk.  You then click on the Voice icon in that screen, and after they accept, you can start your conversation.

If you are confused about any of the features, the help system they have is very easy to use and also has a lot of videos to make using the program easy.

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