How to Add Mods (Modifications) to Minecraft

First you will need to obtain some type of archiving software. I suggest 7-Zip. After downloading and installing the program to your computer go to your computers start menu and type in "%appdata%". This will bring up a folder called Roaming. Click on the roaming folder and inside should be another folder called .minecraft. Open the .minecraft folder and inside should be yet another folder called bin. Open the bin and you will see jar files. Right click on the Minecraft JAR and choose to open with your archived software. Make sure when you open this file to look for a folder called META-INF. There will be two Mojang files inside of this folder. Be sure to delete them or your Minecraft will not work. You delete the files by right clicking inside of the folder which will open a menu for your archiving software. Choose to delete the file. Make sure not to double click the file you are trying to delete or your computer will try and find a software to open up the.class files you are deleting.

You now have access to modifying Minecraft. Almost all modifications will take place in this file. You simply download a mod for Minecraft, (make sure it is the same version as your Minecraft as not all mods are updated) right click on the zip file and choose extract. The extracted files will then be moved to a folder that is no longer zipped. Open this folder, highlight all the files inside and either copy and paste them or drop and drag them into the Minecraft JAR file. This is effectively the same thing as an "installation". Your computer will not ask you for permission however as you are merely changing the files of the program, not the computer.

Some mods, such as Forge Mod Loader will be the only thing you need to put into the JAR file. This will then allow you to place your other zip mod files into a directory or folder known as Mods. The Mod Loader will do all the work for you and you simply have to enjoy. Some mods require special installation. The author will almost always include a text file inside the zip file with instructions or put up instructions on their website. Some mods are not compatible with each other. However, the author should make not of that as well. Some Beta mods may not as they have not been as thoroughly tested as publicly released mods. That's pretty much it. You're now ready to mod Minecraft!

By Samuel E Barnett 

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Samuel_E_Barnett