I don't understand...NO CD Required???

[old man]

I am new at this and I purchased a few PC games for my kids for Christmas. I want them to be able to just click on an Icon. I tried replacing the exe for the Hoyle Card Game 2004 with the RAR file (I do not know what I am doing just following the instructions) and it did not work. I am concerned about one other game which I paid $60cdn and I am afraid of it getting ruined. My son likes Chess so I bought ChessMaster and I do not understand how to replace an existing exe with an RAR file. From what I read the Chessmaster exe replacement is not out yet but I still do not know how to do this... Can anyone explain or direct me to a thread. Santa is having a difficult time with software this year......

Thank you