To be clear I have a wallet.dat file with a password, that I do in fact remember, on a flash drive. Do I just download a program and copy and paste it?
Yes, if your wallet.dat is from an outdated version then you might need to run core with -upgradewallet option. Keep in mind that you need to sync to see your balance. If you've already downloaded it and have synced then you'll have to run core with -rescan option too.
This page have instructions on how to run bitcoin core with a command line option.