Install on, install in, install to

When I say "programs to install on a new PC" it sounds alright to me, but I'm not sure if it's the correct usage. Which one of the following should I use?

Programs to install on a new PC
Programs to install in a new PC
Programs to install to a new PC

Solution 1:

Programs get “installed on” a computer, not in one or to one.

However, you might also “install programs in” a particular directory.

You never install anything “to” anything else, though.

At greater length

Although text and data alike go ɪɴ files and files go ɪɴ directories, directories go ᴏɴ filesystems just as filesystems go ᴏɴ disk partitions.

When you consider other storage media like memory cards or magtapes or floppies, you find again that files and directories go ᴏɴ those things, but that cards go ɪɴ their slots just like floppies go ɪɴ their drives.

Yet tapes usually do not go ɪɴ their drives (unless they get stuck and tangled there), but rather are mounted ᴏɴ them the same way that one mounts partitions (well, filesystems) ᴏɴ directories.

Solution 2:

I walked up to the computer, and installed the latest version of WinZip on it, in the UTILS folder.
I walked up to the computer, and installed the latest version of WinZip in it, on the UTILS folder.
I walked up to the computer, and installed the latest version of WinZip on it, on the UTILS folder.
I walked up to the computer, and installed the latest version of WinZip in it, in the UTILS folder.

Of the above, only the first one sounds right. All the others sound off.

Look at it this way, when you put something on something else, it is visible. When you put something in something else, you cannot see it. When you install software, you will be able to see it, via an icon or whatever (yes I know there are exceptions). You will not necessarily know which folder you have put it in though.

Solution 3:

The most usual preposition would be on for the sentences above.

Both in and to are used for particular locations in a file-system. I'd favour to, and a simple google comparison seems to suggest that to is the most common, but in is also found.

You might also install a program to a computer, if you were doing it over a network, with the to reflecting the transfer from one computer to another one (or more than one).

Solution 4:

I would personally use:

'install on' when talking about a machine or device as a whole
'install to' when talking about the storage medium, eg, install to the C drive, or installing 'to' the cloud.
'install in' when talking about the folder or virtual directory.

On the opposite side of the coin, when you uninstall, people generally use 'uninstall from' rather than 'uninstall off' - as in "I uninstalled it from my machine".