manual wordpress installation?

I second that.

That said, it's relatively simple, even for a non techie like me. People make it seem harder than it is, and it is definitely preferable to Fantastico, which leaves you open to a lot of loopholes hackers can get in through.

Download and unzip the latest version of WordPress from wordpress.org.

Rename the folder as your planned blog folder if you're not installing in the root folder and upload the whole folder via FTP to public_html or whatever subfolder if you want it say two levels down, otherwise just upload the entire contents of the folder to the root folder (or the blog folder if you've already created it). I think you can also upload .zip files from within cPanel and unzip them there, I haven't done that but you could.

Type the full http etc. path of your new blog into the browser and it will show you a page saying wp-config needs setting up, and click to do it

Assuming you have already set up the database name, user and password in cPanel and linked them with all privileges, enter this information in the relevant boxes/fields (if you haven't, you'll need to do that first).

Also, to make it more secure, change the table prefix from the standard "wp_" to something more secure, like a bunch of letters, numerals and symbols, not forgetting the underscore at the end.

When that's as you want it, click to take the next step.

If all has been set up properly, you'll need to enter your WP admin user name (NOT "admin" please!! Make it unguessable, the same way as for the table prefix preferably) and password (same applies here), title and description/subtitle of your blog (can also be done/amended later under Settings), and whether you want it to show up in the search engines (ticked by default), which you might want to untick until you have it as you wish - just remember to change it when you're done!

Click the final button and your blog should be ready, with a link for you to go to the login.

Then just delete install.php and install-helper.php in the wp-admin folder to prevent anyone making changes later, as the minimum security measures (there are a whole lot more to be recommended but that is the bare minimum, along with moving or deleting the readme and license files, which you can do now or before you even upload, and changing the table prefix as decribed).

I'm pretty sure I haven't left anything out, but if I have, I'm sure someone with greater technical expertise will point it out.

Hope this helps!

Paul