Bootstrapper and software download manager

The present invention provides a bootstrapper and download manager for handling the download and installation of one or more software products to a computer. The invention determines system requirements and whether any prerequisite software is required by a software product to be downloaded. Any necessary prerequisite software is installed on the computer and if more than one software product has a shared prerequisite, then the invention recognizes that and prevents downloading multiple ones of the shared prerequisites. Also, in the event of an interruption or error during download, the invention can resume downloading or installation based on the download successfully stored on the local machine without requiring the download all over again. This saves considerable time during the download and install process and enhances user productivity and experience. A download manager provides a user interface to efficiently select from multiple software products for download and negotiate issues such as multiple and different product licenses.