ms said:
Yes, but not too much luck in changing an author's mind.
Very disappointing. I am also surprised. It's extremely rare that I
have corresponded with freeware authors - but nevertheless I had the
notion that most were generally more accomodating and helpful. Well,
at least you have achieved making your vote known to them directly.
And too, there are those times where you got good results. Such as
with that author who makes those clean and high-quality photo-editing
programs.
http://meesoft.logicnet.dk
I have built up a big folder of interesting installs,
If you feel like it, maybe post some of those program names here. If I
already have them installed, and if I see that they are small, I could
upload a few of them in extracted form. I'd also be able to tell you
which of them are Green when the installer is bypassed, and which instead
do registry etc.
As to which are small, you won't be able to know that just by looking at
the size of the setup files. Remember that a lot of installer programs
include the tonnage of VB runtime files and similar. (There is a cruel
master plan in effect that all freeware users must be forced to download
the same VB runtimes again and again, 900 times a year, to reach gigs of
data downloaded and deleted, in a never-ending cycle.)
and will later try your earlier tips to extract
the files without installing.
Do you refer to the posts I made about a year ago, talking about how
to work with Winpack, for bypassing Installshield's compacted files?
I am fairly unsatisfied with those posts. They were sloppy, and there
were some things I should have written differently. Ideal would be
that I give a better list of filenames involved. To write a decent
howto, I'd first have to pay attention to filenames during some of
the next times I come across the various Installshield situations,
and take notes. I know the names when I see them, but cannot ennumerate
from memory, not in a complete way.
What also comes up is recognizing, once you have done the extraction,
which files you can delete, because they are system libraries that you
already have, and which you retain, because they belong to the program.
There is an outstanding program I use at this stage, FileVer, but then this
goes into another subject... which I'm aborting for the moment.
I have a new suggestion. Where you will get more mileage for less effort.
Last year, I was lamenting the situation that most installers were Inno,
for which there was no unpacker (compared to the bulk of Installshield
types). I posted my sad wishlist cry into the void.
Then, yip yip !, some good souls, they have now taken this on. There is
a new project over at Sourceforge. Unpack Inno setup files. Fact was
that I got this happy news, not on my own, but from someone who posted
about it in ACF early last summer (thanks to who, can't remember, pls
forgive). Any case: Innounp is the program name.
It does not work for the ver2 Inno setup files, and I do deal with those
regularly. But - it does work for ver3 and ver4 Inno. So this program
will provide bypass of some of your setup files. Let you extract
instead of having to run an install. Overall, of all the setups you
download, maybe 15%, as an optimistic estimate. There is no "universal
relief" from installers, but at least this provides it for you in some
of the cases.
http://innounp.sourceforge.net/
http://umn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/innounp/innounp013.rar
It is commandline. I run it from my explorer context-menu.* When I see
a setup, I click the command on my context-menu. If that setup is not
an Inno type, or is a different version of Inno, then nothing happens.
Nothing happens, just a flash of the console box that vanishes, and
no harm done.
Now, when that file that I've targeted is a supported Inno type, then
my click results in the automatic creation of a subfoler, named "{app}",
and that contains the program files, just how I want, all ready to go.
Mike, do you want to download Innounp, and put it on your context-menu?
I'll post the reg file I use, with instructions. Probably I'll just go
ahead and do so, without waiting to see if you're up to yet proceeding
with adopting use of Innounp. But not in this post. Instead I'm thinking
to stick it in a followup, later. My limited attention span has right now
reached its max for a single post, and I have to take a recess.
_______
* (I'd have set it up to run from a sendto bat, but I hadn't pursued
figuring out a fundamental thing, about how to get it to extract in
the active directory.)
